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TISHX SUSPENSION SYSTEM

No springs, Nitrogen pressure and strut length adjustment controls sag. (Aircraft weight)
No dampening adjustment, dual shocks per side for redundancy if one fails
Over 800 hrs 3500+ off airport landings, some not so graceful, recharged (topped off) one shock once since installed.
Downside-non STC’d
And yes, Tony is top notch.
I have the TK1 on my experimental 18, Nitrogen set at 70 lbs, never had to adjust pressure. Works great. I would like to see a report where someone has compared TK1 to Acme. I know I cannot drop my plane in from 4 foot and it stick to the ground as shown in Acme videos. I am running 750 tires at 28 lbs pressure.
 
I know I cannot drop my plane in from 4 foot and it stick to the ground as shown in Acme videos. I am running 750 tires at 28 lbs pressure.
Damn, I bet not! Guessing you could drop it from 1’ into a foam pit with all three of the shock systems hooked up and still get a bounce with 7.50s ;)
 
Bounce is a function of spring rate, compression, and especially rebound, not tires.

Watch a trophy truck soar through the air and simply squat on landing. It would do the same with 90 PSI in the tires, it just wouldn't have much traction. Compression catches the hit, spring slows the momentum down until (hopefully) full travel, and rebound slows the..err, rebound back up. Tires and suspension work together, but tires will not slow a bounce; if anything they contribute to the bounce while helping the initial compression hit.
 
Colorado-cub Sooooooo you are saying I can keep my 31 inch bushwheels at 12 lbs and it won't effect landing bounce??? I need me some of whatever magic juice you put in the tires.;)
DENNY
 
Well, you could put your bushwheels at 100PSI and still nail the landing, but that is not due to the tires. :D

But, if you really must, go jump on a beach ball and tell me if it absorbs your weight or if you go flying back up into the air. Granted, the beach ball might pop and spoil all of our fun... Maybe a trampoline would be better suited for this experiment?
 
I like the yoga ball flip better, but this old entertaining video is probably closer to our application:


Too much spring, no damping from the shock/strut. No bushwheel on the planet will settle down this rodeo-ready Toyota. (I admit, it does look like fun!)
 
You cannot make your point unless the pressure has changed. Here is a simple test for you. Take your bushwheel and put it at max pressure. now drop it from 6 ft high. Measure the bounce height. Now lower the pressure to 3 psi and drop it. You will see a difference. Tires and pressure do make a huge difference especally with bungees. You may not see it with the newer spring/shock style because of the large amount of energy damping but it sees you.
DENNY
 
I have the TK1 on my experimental 18, Nitrogen set at 70 lbs, never had to adjust pressure. Works great. I would like to see a report where someone has compared TK1 to Acme. I know I cannot drop my plane in from 4 foot and it stick to the ground as shown in Acme videos. I am running 750 tires at 28 lbs pressure.
Do you have a link to that video?
 
All the new shocks systems help with landing and ground control. However the "bounce " that occurs from landing is not always contributed to gear. It can be caused by pilot failure to control the tail when the mains touch or excess speed. Look at the yellow cub landing 1:58 post #73. Pilot let the tail drop and the increase AOA caused the plane to start flying again, once he lifted the tail back up and stuck the mains all bouncing stoped. The big bounce landing at the end of #74 was cause by gaining too much speed after crossing the power lines and fence. If you can land close to stall speed and control the AOA most any gear will give you good performance on smooth ground. It is when the pilot screws up or rough ground that the newer gear really shines. Pilot skill is still the number one factor to making a good no bounce landing. Just some points for the new pilots that think they can just throw money at a plane to make them a better pilot.
DENNY
 
Mains hit the ground, dump the flaps, push stick forward. Kills the lift and will not bounce. Works 100% of the time regardless of what you have bolted on between tires. What am I missing that a person needs to spend $5,200 on shocks? Serious question.
 
Mains hit the ground, dump the flaps, push stick forward. Kills the lift and will not bounce. Works 100% of the time regardless of what you have bolted on between tires. What am I missing that a person needs to spend $5,200 on shocks? Serious question.
That is what I do and if I had too much down energy I bounced, less on AOSS compared to bungees and now with the Acmes I am not getting any. Is it needed, no they are not but I like them when I want to drop it in short.
 
This is Youtube video done by Cleetus McFarland after Acme crew installed the suspension on his carbon cub. Start at about 10 minutes into the video.
That doesn't look like a 4 foot drop to me. I need a camera man to follow me around and see me screw the pooch and show Cletus up on dropping it in. ;)
 
Mains hit the ground, dump the flaps, push stick forward. Kills the lift and will not bounce. Works 100% of the time regardless of what you have bolted on between tires. What am I missing that a person needs to spend $5,200 on shocks? Serious question.
It just depends on how and where you fly. You really see a difference in the rough stuff. The tire follows the ground and you have much better breaking. and control Much easier to stick the mains than with bungees if you are dumping flaps in the air. The one downside I can see it you don't get that nice bungee launch into the air on a heavy takeoff when you hit a big bump. Nobody seems to mention that one:cool:. Its like driving through Death Valley you can do it in a 65 VW bug but most like that Buick because it has AC and Everybody likes to be COOL!!
DENNY
 
Look at the landing starting at 9:00 in this video. A fast vertical speed coupled with dumping the flaps 4-6 feet above the ground, and the tires only come about an inch or two off the ground on the rebound.

 
So....to be fair all STOL events need to have a class for each type of landing gear.

Glenn
The gear is really only a small part of of performance in a STOL event. I don't think I ever competed in a event that had a cub set up exactly like mine. Cache Carr running stock bungees has beat both AOSS and ACME geared cubs at several events. Even if everybody tried to fly the same cub wind and temp change over 60 min alone could have a huge effect. At Valdez a few years the heavy class kept switching direction to get a headwind. Someone finally pointed out only one plane was going to be first and that was the Helio no matter what the wind was doing. STOL events are more like good old boy NASCAR where a little cheating among friends is fine. Ya win some loose some and talk a lot of smack whenever possible.
DENNY
 
As a follow up, I looked at my tires, and they are 700s rather 750. So need to spend some cash and get larger softer tires. Is any one using the Aero Classic smooth tundra tire sold by Aircraft Spruce. Looks like they are 22 inch and weigh 15 lbs each. Pretty cheap in comparison. In addition to softer tires, need to stop dropping it in, practice makes perfect.
Bruce
 
None have escaped to the wild yet!! Remember ACME and TK1 had years on experimental planes to work out bugs. This was not put out to public until now. Be patient once a few get on local cubs and we get some hero wind on the Knik you should see some videos showing how they help you land in 10 ft just like the others.
DENNY
 
Alaska Gear Company released a video last week where Sean stated there were no videos because the two in the field aren't as nice looking as the production models.
 
I still find it odd they mentioned the, "other guys" (Acme) multiple times in videos leading up to these more in depth videos, but have gone quiete on them and glaringly left them out of the test videos for comparisons.
 
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