STOL Competition Procedures

Snowbirdxx

Snowbirdxx

Well-Known Member
Ok, I am not a " Race Guy " in any way and competing with planes is not my favorite. But I fly in challenging places and need to pust my plane into the corners of a max performance envelope.

Heres a list of what can be done to be better perfoming on STOL Competitions.

1. Technically

set the prop to the lowest possible flat pitch
set the governor to 2950 RPMs
set idle to 450RPM
Both can be done easy and is reversible.

2. Procedures for the PMJATO ( Poor mans Inertia assisted Takeoff )

Flaps to 10, so you can grab the handle better to deploy them later
Trim neutal for Takeoff
Keep the tail down
Full power with 2950 RPM, if you do not want to change Governor settings, do it with 2700, but you gonna loose a lot of performance.
Brake release, leave tail in 3 point
At about 28 mph Flaps 30
and immediatly pull the prop back to 2500

The pull makes you airborne immediatly

The thrust of the high spinning prop going into high pitch is incredible.

Bring prop up to desired climb RPM. This procedure gets you off the ground in a rush.do not pull the nose up. Build speed till seeing 50 mph.
It must be practiced , do not pull the prop below 2200. Bring it up slowly again to desired climb RPM, a 2 second push is fine. Lots of stuff to do in the cockpit....
But.... Wohaaaaaa!

The nice thing about having a flat pitch prop is the braking action on landing, combined with a low idle its very little residual thrust. The low idle must not be used all times, if you want it a tad higher, there is a black knob on the left side of the cockpit, just push a bit forward and you will see the numbers on the tach you want to see.


Enjoy flying the Husky and be careful.
 
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RCB

RCB

New Member
Glad to see someone else using the prop pitch for STOL take offs. Its a technique we use for the C210s here in the Delta out of the short strips. Gets the planes off quick so we can tuck away the wiggly bits and get the speeds up when full.
 
Snowbirdxx

Snowbirdxx

Well-Known Member
During cov19 lockdown new projects came up and one can be used for STOL competition and off road landings..

I am having it now in the test phase and it works very well so far.

It is a light 12g ( 0.4 oz) Automotive LiDAR Sensor that can sense distance from 0-33ft with an accuracy of 1%. It measures distance 20 times a second.

The signals of the sensor are getting processed and displayd on a OLED display just on top of the dash. Furtheron the signals are coupled to an audio module that is giving the callouts to the Audio AUX in.

When switched on and calibrated while taxiing it shows zero and says zero , but the audio outputs can be programmed. It starts counting down altitude at 33 ft and even if the tires are just 10cm (4") above the ground it says that and indicates 0.1

Of course the sensor is calibrated with an offset which compensates for the sensors height above the ground. Different tire sizes will require different offsets.

Weight of the system is estimated to be less than 1/2 lbs , price of the componets is less than 400$. I ll keep you posted how things work out and show you the system as soon as it is nicer installed than now for testing purposes. Right now just a bunch of cables and circuitboards floating around .

So far I am very happy with it, landing with eyes only is fine, but ears help a lot to be more precise.

Immagine during the flare you hear wheels hight above the runway......20" 10" 5 "
 
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Flying Dave

Flying Dave

Active Member
Thomas I sure hope you are like Benjamin Button as you age as I don't know who is going to make all the cool gizmos when you get to old to do so.... lol..
 
belloypilot

belloypilot

Active Member
On the topic of competitions, the group of wannabe bush pilot buckaroos that I hang out with came up with scoring system for what we’ve come to call ‘precision landing and take off’. We thought that STOL competitions might entice some folks to push things beyond what was prudent so we crafted a system that rewards consistency and predictability. Competitors have to declare their take off and landing roll out distances, and we measure touchdown distance relative to a pre-determined spot. The winner is the one who comes closest to hitting their declared numbers on three attempts. Gets folks paying close attention to the performance charts in their POH and evaluating their technique. We have one fellow in a 172 that hits his number so consistently he makes everyone else look like rank amateurs. So far its been fun.

Cheers.
 
Snowbirdxx

Snowbirdxx

Well-Known Member
If you couple your new procedure with a timeframe
it gets even more interesting. Pilot needs to tell the time he needs for a pattern from brake release till touchdown on a declared number. Every second less or more is a negative number.
 
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D

dogday

Active Member
"Competitors have to declare their take off and landing roll out distances, and we measure touchdown distance relative to a pre-determined spot."

If I understand this correctly, then the competitor that wins is really good with an extended slow roll that ends with a stop on a dime and an extended take off roll where he holds it on the ground and rotates just before the distance mark.
 
belloypilot

belloypilot

Active Member
dogday said:
"Competitors have to declare their take off and landing roll out distances, and we measure touchdown distance relative to a pre-determined spot."

If I understand this correctly, then the competitor that wins is really good with an extended slow roll that ends with a stop on a dime and an extended take off roll where he holds it on the ground and rotates just before the distance mark.
Click to expand...

I suppose if someone wanted to game the system, yeah. We could ask people to document how they come up with their numbers, but we all know each other in this group so its all done in good faith and good fun. The guy that keeps kicking our ass with his 172 consistently gets it down and stopped in 600 feet. Doesn’t seem like a long slow role for precision to me. Just good piloting. We did this to encourage people to know their personal capabilities and that of their aircraft before venturing off somewhere that lands them on the evening news.

Cheers.
 
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