• If You Are Having Trouble Logging In with Your Old Username and Password, Please use this Forgot Your Password link to get re-established.
  • Hey! Be sure to login or register!

Bushwacker 2.0 a.k.a. Cub Killer

I am still figuring out Bushwacker 2.0 but I did fly it back to back with my Super Cub today. Here is what I found, I can land as short maybe a little shorter with Bushwacker. I was testing earlier in the day with Bushwacker and later in the day with the Cub. The temperature was about the same but the wind had picked up by the time I was in the Cub. With Bushwacker I was landing at 34 one direction (into the wind) and 37 the opposite direction. With the Cub I was landing at 33 (into the wind) and 41 the opposite, this was using my GPS and landing the exact same spot with the same type of approach. I had better visibility over the nose in Bushwacker at touch down and could use more brake action without getting the tail to high and having to release brake pressure. The landing distance for the two aircraft were very close with Bushwacker getting the nod for shortest landings. The cub on the other hand go off the ground quicker but it was not probably a fair test since I had probably 4-5mph wind for take off vs 1-2 when I was testing Bushwacker. The Cub seemed to feel lighter and quicker but that is to be expected since it is 170 lbs lighter. I had about the same fuel in each and about the same amount of gear.

Bushwacker does not cruise as fast as I thought, I now have RPM and Manifold pressure. At 21 in mp and 2350 rpm I get a fuel burn at 500-600 ft. above sea level of 9.5 gph. That gives me a cruise speed of around 105 mph on the gps (calculated for winds flown 4 directions). That is better than old Bushwacker but not as good as I was thinking of 115 mph (turns out my airspeed indicator is about 10 mph off in cruising). That speed is not a whole lot better then my Super Cub which with my 1P-235 84/44, I cruise at around 100+mph on 8 gph.

I was out and did another speed test with the airplane at 1300 ft agl I was running 2400 rpm and 26"mp buring 12 gph I was seeing 115mph GPS adjust for winds.
 
Last edited:
Is picture 3, your adjustable incidence? Please post more pictures of this mod and give us updates on your adjustments.

Thank you. Jonny

Yes it is. Since I did not know exactly where I would need to set this because of the angle of incidence change. I still really don't because I have not loaded it up. It allows me to move the horizontal up and down in 1/2" increments. I have moved it a total of 1 1/2" down from where I started hoping to get stick pressures down on landing (more nose up at the leading edge). I still have the stock Maule style trim tab and have modified it to have 48 degrees of nose up and 12 degrees of movement nose down. I am actually back up to the original position I started at, it made it harder to pick up the tail by moving the leading edge down, it would probably make me run out of nose down trim in that position fully loaded aft. At this point I am flying around with about 30 lbs in the aft baggage (that is approximately 100" from leading edge) to compensate for my lack of nose up trim on landing when light. When I say light, that is me and low on fuel (10 gallons), if I have full fuel it is almost zero stick pressure. I have decided to leave it where it is at for now. I am going to build up a set of airfoil horizontals as the feedback I have received on the issue is pointing me in that direction.

If you look at the picture I am using the top hole for my top bolt currently. I have actually tested it lower than the rail allows for both upper and lower bolts to be inserted. The bottom bolt was below my bottom hole by one hole. I did that to see how far I had to go down before the stick pressure was close to zero on landing. It is fairly easy to change other than laying on your back and reaching up inside the fuselage with all the blood running out of your arms. I can make the change in less than 10 minutes so if I find it useful to make the change for some reason such as a heavy load and not enough nose down trim it could be done with a little effort.
 
Last edited:
20180827_071144.jpg20181002_074353.jpg20181013_125424 copy.jpgI am not sure why the one picture looks so dusty because it was not, anyway it gives an idea of how my paint booth was set up. It was just 2x4's and tyvek. I think I have around 1000.00 into it with all the lighting. I built this paint booth so that I could use it again. I made the ceiling in two 12'X12' panels and hinged on the wall side so that I could hoist the un-hinged side higher and still get my airplane in the hangar when I was not using it. The ends and side walls are also in 12' X 8' sections and I move them flat against the side wall so I only lose about 10" of space in the hangar. The end with the fan had an 8' wide door that was hinged so I good get things in and out easily. I just broke it down last weekend and it took me about two hours to do. Next time I need to paint an airplane I think I could set it back up in about the same amount of time. The fuselage I painted with just the lights on the ceiling and a moveable double halogen lamp. It made it difficult so I added the lights down each side for the rest of the painting. For the most part I was happy with it, I started painting at the end of September and painted most stuff when the temperature was just about perfect (mid 70's). By the time I got to the ailerons and flaps it had turned cold out (50's) so I used some electric heaters to heat it up. I would turn them off shoot my paint, than turn them back on after it cleared and get it back up to 70. It worked but it was a lot harder to control.
 

Attachments

  • 20180827_071144.jpg
    20180827_071144.jpg
    126.3 KB · Views: 294
  • 20181002_074353.jpg
    20181002_074353.jpg
    134.3 KB · Views: 519
  • 20181013_125424 copy.jpg
    20181013_125424 copy.jpg
    100.1 KB · Views: 420
20181216_110537 copy.jpgPicture of jig for building my ailerons, it worked excellent. You can buy the extruded aluminum bar that is perfectly straight through McMaster Carr with the T slot bolts and T's. I machined the hanger adapter. The other side is a piece of 1/2" X 6" aluminum flat bar I had laying around so I bolted it to my cart.
Both ailerons came out flat, I cheated and bought the leading edge skin and nose ribs from Maule. I had some old spar pieces laying around that were not long enough in one section so I spar spliced them. I only have a 4' brake and shear and these are 77" long so I paid to have the skins cut and bent. I made my own trailing edge ribs except for a few old ones that I had and reused.
 

Attachments

  • 20181216_110537 copy.jpg
    20181216_110537 copy.jpg
    182.3 KB · Views: 410
20150120_095639 copy.jpgView attachment 41408I looked for a picture on how I did the spar splice on Bushwacker and could not find a picture. This is how I did it on the Super Cub wing and I did about the same thing except the doubler over the top of the spar can't be done on a Maule spar because of the metal skin and flush ribs. I did do a doubler on the underside of both top and bottom of the spar on the side that does not get riveted if that makes any sense....
 

Attachments

  • 20150120_095639 copy.jpg
    20150120_095639 copy.jpg
    136.9 KB · Views: 264
Last edited:
IMG_0106 copy.jpgView attachment 41409Here is a picture of what caused this long rebuild process, it really was an easy fix right here. The next morning not so much, the wind had picked up the airplane and taken it a distance and slammed it down upside down. Ugh!
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0106 copy.jpg
    IMG_0106 copy.jpg
    261.9 KB · Views: 328
Last edited:
Is picture 3, your adjustable incidence? Please post more pictures of this mod and give us updates on your adjustments.

Thank you. Jonny

Yes it is. Since I did not know exactly where I would need to set this because of the angle of incidence change. I still really don't because I have not loaded it up. It allows me to move the horizontal up and down in 1/2" increments. I have moved it a total of 1 1/2" down from where I started hoping to get stick pressures down on landing (more nose up at the leading edge). I still have the stock Maule style trim tab and have modified it to have 48 degrees of nose up and 12 degrees of movement nose down. I am actually back up to the original position I started at, it made it harder to pick up the tail by moving the leading edge down, it would probably make me run out of nose down trim in that position fully loaded aft. At this point I am flying around with about 30 lbs in the aft baggage (that is approximately 100" from leading edge) to compensate for my lack of nose up trim on landing when light. When I say light, that is me and low on fuel (10 gallons), if I have full fuel it is almost zero stick pressure. I have decided to leave it where it is at for now. I am going to build up a set of airfoil horizontals as the feedback I have received on the issue is pointing me in that direction.

If you look at the picture I am using the top hole for my top bolt currently. I have actually tested it lower than the rail allows for both upper and lower bolts to be inserted. The bottom bolt was below my bottom hole by one hole. I did that to see how far I had to go down before the stick pressure was close to zero on landing. It is fairly easy to change other than laying on your back and reaching up inside the fuselage with all the blood running out of your arms. I can make the change in less than 10 minutes so if I find it useful to make the change for some reason such as a heavy load and not enough nose down trim it could be done with a little effort.

The Piper J4 has the same setup, it allows you to adjust the stab to a perfect fixed setting. I think mine has 7 staggered holes. When on floats it's 3 holes from where it is on wheels. 1930s tech


lenn
 
Last edited:
The first time I built Bushwacker I did it in about 12 months. I really did not do a lot of custom parts, I added extended gear, titanium firewall and gull wing light weight doors with the biggest wing Maule had ever built to an M5 fuselage. My goal was to build the lightest best performing off airport Maule ever built. It had 31" ABW because that was the biggest tire at the time and a 1P235-84/44 propeller and a stock 3200 tailwheel. It had a Lycoming engine that was 1600 hours since TBO that I bought through Wentworth and did nothing to it for another 500 hours. I had less than 35K dollars in the whole project and it exceeded my expectations it weighed 1257 pounds empty.

I was the first person to ever run the 35" Alaskan Bushwheel, I also added a 90" propeller pitched at 33 and a Baby Bushwheel. I upped the compression to 10.5 to 1 and did a custom exhaust, at that point it weighed around 1300 plus pounds. I never did an official weight and balance after the first weighing but Mike Olsen wanted to know what it weighed and when I had his Staggerwing for a couple weeks he took it upon himself to weigh Bushwacker. He told me she weighed 1325 so that was the weight I have used since. Most of you have seen the results in the video Big Rocks and Long Props Vol. 1, "what an airplane". I could haul a 1000 pounds, easily loaded with the big double doors and it still really perform well. I hope that with time Bushwacker 2.0 will add to those early days of awe.
 
Bushwacker Deer Island 1.jpgBushwacker Deer Island.jpgYesterday, I flew south with a buddy who has a PA11 and met Greg and Bushwacker 2.0 at Cottonwood Island.
What a cool airplane. What's not to like?
Bushwacker has a huge baggage area with a 7' flat floor, lots of fuel/ range, cruise at 115 on 35s, land at 35, great visibility, big Keller flaps...
The airplane has Greg's typical workmanship and thoughtful layout and is set up for flying like 90% of us 90% of the time--single seat with a big back seat for that 10%. Greg's a really good stick and that might account for some of it, but I was thoroughly impressed which according to a nasty rumor is not easy to do.
 

Attachments

  • Bushwacker Deer Island 1.jpg
    Bushwacker Deer Island 1.jpg
    413.5 KB · Views: 255
  • Bushwacker Deer Island.jpg
    Bushwacker Deer Island.jpg
    397.5 KB · Views: 426
Last edited:
Greg,

Are you happy with how the new plane is working? Any video yet?

Thanks,
Joe

I like it, it does perform pretty well. I still have a few issues that I will keep working on.
#1 The propeller does not feel like it is pulling as hard out of the hole as it use to with the 180hp Bushwacker. I am going to try a 90" fixed pitch just so I can compare it to what I was using before.
#2 The tail feels heavier than before (which I think is a propeller thing) NEED MORE THRUST!

I am also going to build airfoil horizontals for it. When I get really slow I run out of nose up trim and have to hold stick pressure when landing. I think that may help based on talking with Doug Keller.

As for video, I still don't have anything. I will see if I can get someone to do a little video of me this weekend if it is still nice out.
 
Sorry not much to add. I shot some video with my good camera but the cable port on the camera seems to have gone bad.

I had the propeller shop pull the 84" blades and replaced them with 80" blades and it does feel like the thrust is better. I have bought new cylinders with 10-1 pistons and think that is going to help a lot. I might wait until winter to put them on now.

I still have not completed my airfoil H.S., I have one almost finished but the other one was powder coated and it is a bitch stripping the coating off so it kind of slowed my roll.
 
What it felt like with the 84" to get the 2700 rpm on take off was I was just beating the air. The propeller pitch stop had to be set so flat that it did not feel like it pulled very hard, even with the 80" it still has to be set flatter then I would like and if you change it (the set screw on the front of the hub) just a little you can not get the full RPM on take off. You have to remember these propeller blades were used on 6 cylinder Lycomings with more HP and more Torque. These O-360 engines usually run a 74" or 76" propeller.
 
Greg, I wonder how it would do with an MT or Hartzell Trailblazer. Have you considered that?

Kurt
 
Well I finally posted some video on Youtube of Bushwacker 2.0, the video is about a year old and since I am overhauling the engine right now it might be awhile before it's back in the air. It is nothing in the extreme off airport sense but it will give at least a look.

Thanks,

Greg
 
Thanks
I am thinking about putting the slotted flaps on my smith cub.
Beautiful job on the 2.0. In addition to our cub, we have a Maule. Great plane.
Mike
 
Well I finally posted some video on Youtube of Bushwacker 2.0, the video is about a year old and since I am overhauling the engine right now it might be awhile before it's back in the air. It is nothing in the extreme off airport sense but it will give at least a look.

Thanks,

Greg

I'm glad you posted. I had forgotten about this thread. There is a lot of good stuff here.
 
To be honest I probably won't. I had a lot of fun when I did the Big Rocks Long Props DVD's and have met a lot of great pilots and people because of them. With Youtube now days all the content you would ever want is being published and making a full length video like I would want to make I don't see paying off monetarily. I am not saying that is the only reason I won't but you have others out there with a great skill set (film makers) that I am not sure I have. You might say I lack the confidence to compete with what is being done with cameras and editing today. The flying and adventuring part of it I think I have could have better content but I like what I like, that does not mean others will :roll:. I am going to play around with making short adventure, possibly how to do something and what I am up to videos and then post them to Youtube. That is the plan anyway, stay tuned to see if I can execute on that... Thanks for the interest, I wished I had a hundreds of thousands of dollars to throw at a project like I would like to do.

Greg
 
Greg, I really like your videos. Your Big Rocks vids as well as these short ones you post. What I really like is the way you narrate what you are doing and your thought process associated with the take off or landing or whatever maneuver we are watching, great stuff! Entertaining and informative. I also like the way your videos are NOT “dude awesome” type of videos, you seem to have a way of making your flying look more professional and well thought out even though its higher risk type of flying most do. I for one would love to see more videos from you be it flying, building, flying adventures or changing the oil in your car, what ever it is you have a knack of making them entertaining and informative. Thanks for your excellent work over the years.

Kurt
 
Back
Top