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keystone(at)gci.net
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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:20 am Post subject: flying the 801 |
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Kathy and Jeff
Here is a letter I wrote a couple of years ago. It is as true now as it was them. If you would like a couple of hours in a 801 come on up and I would be happy to give you a ride.
Pay special attention to the no flaps in a cross wind!!!! This will get you in trouble fast!
Bill
I'm really enjoying the 801. I'm have been thinking of writing a lessons learned article this winter. The 801 jumps into the air! I'm very pleased with that. Even at gross it doesn't seem like you are driving a truck trying to take off. Most of my experience is in a PA22 and PA20. When they get heavy they take forever to get into the air!
I have not nicked my prop. The ground clearance is incredible!
In Alaska you are required by law and good sense to carry survival gear. My sleeping bags and dried food are behind the back seat on the sides of the control tunnel. It is a perfect extended baggage for light stuff. It is accessible from the access panel in the bottom.
I did the no slot modification that Jim Frisby and Ben Hass put together. Ben sent me the parts; it was simple and better than the factory instructions. I really like the thought of not having a slot to accumulate snow and slush in the controls.
Things I wish were different:
All the air goes over the wing. It is a rough ride in turbulence! Realize I live in a mountainous area. The "bowl" is 4 miles by 10 miles with 6000' mountains on all sides. And the wind blows.
The only other thing I have is, I like going to the beaches. You cannot raise the nose with power. You need to be going 35-40 mph before the nose comes up. When it does come up you are flying. I'm planning on building and installing the wider tail this winter. I made and installed VGs last weekend and perhaps they were not big enough or aggressive enough but they did not help enough to justify flying the 5 hours off. The VG are now on and will remain on the horizontal tail. I highly recommend you install VGs on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer. The VGs made a lot more difference than the larger horizontal stabilizer kit from ZAC.
When you land on a beach that is too soft, conventional wisdom says, fire wall it and suck the stick back. You will either end up in the air or stopped on the very soft beach right side up at full power. I don't know if the 801's elevator is effective enough at slow speeds to keep the nose up until you get stopped. Thank goodness I have not gone on that soft of a beach this summer... hopefully I never will again. I bent the main gear last year after hitting a rock taking off a soft beach last year.
Lessons learned:
It is a rudder airplane! You cannot have lazy feet! Step on the ball!
I almost got caught a couple of times before I quit using flaps in a cross wind. At slow speeds with full flaps the adverse yaw is significant and the effectiveness of the flaperons diminishes! I almost had a whole bunch of AL parts littering the beach figuring this out. It was one of those, "there I was" 10' in the air with full elevator, full rudder and full flaperon deflection and...!... I came around the next time without flaps and landed with no problem. A 10 mph cross wind is not a big deal at 60 knots or 70 mph but at 40 mph it is a big deal!
I had problems with the tires. I up sized to 8.50x6.00 tire and I finally drilled a new hole in the rim and put in standard tubes. No problem since then.
The airframe is bullet proof. I have done 4 condition inspections. No significant problems. Although cylinder number 2 uses a little oil ;+}. Well I changed out cylinder 2 and 3 about 100 hrs ago, because of oil usage. I have had problem with the flaperon rods rubbing under the back seat and one fuel tank leak... other than that, any problems I have had have been attributable to operator error.
The airframe oil cans when you go slow. It is kind of a stall warning. I installed weather stripping Xs to reduce the oil canning. I may replace them with standard Ls this winter. Since I rarely do stalls, I still have the weather stripping in place.
My empty weight came in at 1175 re-weighted to 1200 lbs. I have a minimal VFR panel. I am very happy with the weight. You can get out of CG rearward. When you get heavy put the big guys in the front. Don't expect big climb rates when you get heavy. When light the CG is too far forward so put the guns and survival gear in the baggage area.
The right hand stick and left hand throttle takes a little getting use to.
The 801 meets and exceed the 3 requirements I had for my plane; 4 seats, cruise at 100 (Now about 115) mph and get out short!
You are talking to one happy camper.
It would be interesting to hear from Ben or anyone else who has quite a few hours in the 801 about their experiences!
I assume you have read about my recent removal of the slats, the addition of VGs and subsequent increase in speed. I also installed the lift strut fairing kit this winter. I have not flown enough to come up with firm speeds yet. The plane is faster. My guess is 115 mph at 10.5 gph or 103 mph at 7.8 gph. An increase of 12 mph which is 12% at cruise is significant!
I am looking forward to the Valdez May Day Fly-in and Air Show. I plan on getting my take-off and landing distances measured with and without leading edge slats. I will see if I can beat my 114' take off distance from last year.
Bill Wilcox
Valdez, AK
N801BW
285 hours
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