Looking at STOL options

L Edge

Master member
Hi Friends,

Ive thinking about getting a STOL type aircraft to counteract that fact that I cant easily access the larger flying spaces these days.

Something like the Tundra is a nice choice, but going with the FT style I was thinking about going with the Bushwhacker... But the new FT Simple Cub looks pretty sweet, and after all Cubs are commonly used as bush plans with the larger wheels and such.

Any thoughts on adding Flaps/Barn Door Flaps and some Bushwhacker type wheels to the Cub?

Thanks!

What size model do you envision for the STOL?
How large is your area to fly?
 

Bayboos

Active member
@quorneng: I am well aware of the fact that the power to weight ratio is one of the main contributors for STOL capabilities. That's why you can have Timbers and Tundras taking of after just a couple of feet of take-off roll. But that doesn't mean much when you need tens of feet to stop the plane after landing - that's not really a true STOL. You can obviously make the plane lighter and get both short take-off and landing; but then you often (not always) are left with a plane that "does not like the wind" and thus force you to fly only in close to perfect weather. Especially when you try to fly in a small area surrounded by tall obstacles, where even the slightest wind introduces a lot of turbulence.

My Storch weights approx. 750g AUW with 1800mAh 3s battery - that's the size I use most of the time, but it was flying on anything from 1000 2s to 2200 3s. I did fly it with 80W motor initially, switching to the larger one only when I started to use floats. And it was always a very capable STOL - it could not climb vertically, but it never needed more than 3 feet to take off and half of it for landing (on wheels) - you can easily confirm that by watching all the other of my Storch videos. I didn't measure it's airspeed or the wind speed when recording the video 2; but I can geuss-timate it to be somewhere around 15 kts on average with some serious gusts. And the plane could easily fly against the wind forward (flaps retracted) and let the wind carry it backwards (flaps extended) - whatever the pilot wishes. I can easily imagine planes - both like your Cub and like "the T's" - that can pull off one of those feats; but one plane being capable of doing both at the same time (and almost effortlessly) seems to be pretty unique.

Oh, and with 2200mAh 3s, I made a record flight of 32 minutes one day. In winter.

@whackflyer: If you love Tundra and you have one - good on you! Whatever makes you smile :)