Thrustline

[3689A]

I have pretty much a stock cub, 8.50 tires, stock gear, vg's, big prop, and the thrustline. I won the short field T/O contest in North Dakota. I love the thrustline people were saying my takeoff and climb performance left people saying "Holy ^$#*. This wasn't Valdiz Alaska by no means, but it sure was fun. I also got to fly a Husky, there great airplanes, they won't get off the ground as quick as a cub, but as soon as it was in the air it was no contest, he smoked me in the husky. I love my cub it's been in the family for 35 years, and I would never sell it, but if i was looking for a good all around plane I might have to go with the Husky, just because of the speed performance. I just had to come to the realization no matter how much HP i have I'm still not going to go that fast--- But I still love my cub.

[Speedo]

[quote="3689A"] if i was looking for a good all around plane I might have to go with the Husky /quote]

If I still lived in North Carolina I would be tempted to shout "Blasphemy!!!" (a commonly used term in those parts, particularly on Sundays and Wednesday evenings). But since I now live in a predominantly Catholic region of the Midwest, I suggest you saw four Hail Mary's and three Our Fathers to atone for your sin.

However, MTV and Taledrger will be happy to see your post.

[bob turner]

Got any ground roll numbers on that prize winning takeoff? We are just about to put a thrustline on a borer/160 Cub, and have a whole set of baseline data. They say 30% ground roll reduction - so we have numbers in mind for next week's tests.

[ag-pilot]

Bryan bryan bryan...........if ya wanna go fast get a A36!
I heard you smoked them No Daks .....good job!

Dave

[tempdoug]

Where in North Dakota was it at??

[3689A]

It was at the Warren Pietsch Fly in In Sawyer south of Minot North Dakota, your right Dave A36 that would be in the perfect world, I farm and ranch, only spray Pilots and ATC controllers could affored a A36. Warren roughly said I was getting off anywere between 85 to 75 feet, good enough for me. i just purchased a new exhaust so well see what happens after that.

[bob turner]

Thanks for the numbers. Here at sea level and 70 degrees, we have no Cubs that can come anywhere even close. I will take the time to do a sort of scatter chart, but right off the bat, we are getting 200 foot plus takeoff rolls in most variants of the 160 Cub.

Let me rephrase that: We have no Cubs with this pilot that can come anywhere close. Lots of room for improvement; we have averages of about 230' with a heavy borer 160 and two pilots (one to record the data). We are expecting an average of 160' after thrustline . . . 30%.

[Dave Calkins]

Any numbers yet, Bob?

[bob turner]

Yes. But not enough to trust.

My friends (we have four Thrustline kits installed here, all on my students' Cubs) all report significant improvements in all areas. I will not enter the qualitative areas except to state that I personally do not detect any differences in controls, and to state that I may not be a good judge of qualitative handling.

It took me two years to learn how to strum a guitar and tap my foot at the same time. It took ten years in the Cub before I could fly with the ball centered without looking at it. I never will land on a big rock sandbar. So now you have me calibrated. I do have roughly 4000 hours in Cubs, and an engineering degree.

I will only have data on two aircraft, as the other two were converted without baseline data. If for some reason I do not get at least a 10% improvement, I will defer to data posted by someone who has gained such an advantage. I think a 10% improvement in takeoff distance would be way more than enough to justify the purchase of a Thrustline kit.

The kit itself is well done, and the manual that comes with it is superb! The only thing missing is the cotter keys. It may be one of the best STC packages I have seen.

I do drag Cubs down our paved runway for about a thousand feet with the tailwheel very close to the pavement (often rolling) and the main mounts as far up as I can get them. The only attempt with the Thrustline seemed to go very well, without a great deal of control input. Either I am getting better at it, or the aircraft was loaded better, or the Thrustline helped. I have no way of knowing which, and I will not guess. For me, this is a reasonably difficult maneuver solo - I had a co-pilot in the back, keeping the data.

I won't post more until next week. We need about twelve data points on each aircraft, on varying days, to match the baseline data. Takes time.