Valdez report

[G44]

Anyone care to report on the weekend for those of us who couldnt attend?

Kurt

[DENNY]

I don't have the numbers but it was a Great time!!! More snow than I have ever seen before still on the airfield. They had all the runway and parking clear but the gravel area that we usually park the campers, 5th wheel and trailers was still covered with 6 ft of snow. The trailer parks downtown had been plowing out spaces and we had 7 campers in a corner, 3 of them made a nice party area for the rest of us. The weather on Sat/Sun was great with lots of sun and not overly cold. The wind was all over the place throughout the day. Heavy touring had the worst of it with the wind socks at both ends pointing to the middle. Light Touring had some good wind down the runway. experimental and bush class had OK wind. Everybody said all day it was very turbulent no matter what direction it was blowing. Lucas Stutter with his Helio took heavy touring, while trying to figure the wind issue one of the pilots competing in the heat mentioned that it really did not matter because none of them would beat the Helio anyway. Steve Spence and the Green Bean Cessna 172 was spanking light touring dramatically with a 40 ft take off. Cache Carr spanked the Nx nose wheel 215 hp cub with his 160 hp PA 18 (the NX CUB was rather underwhelming after hearing all the pre event hype). Tom Hudzinski won the experimental class with his new SQ. Light experimental was won by the Canada Challenger guy (Paul I think). We had a good crowd for the STOL comp, I think weather may have held some in Anchorage Saturday morning but overall a fair turnout of aircraft. Gabe from airframes was on the mic and did a great job of describing the planes and some of the techniques used. As always the people of Valdez went above and beyond to make it work.
DENNY

[G44]

Thanks for the report Denny!


Kurt

[hotrod180]

Are the STOL results online somewhere?

[TurboBeaver]

Sounds like another great event.

[SJ]

Thanks, Denny!

sj

[Cache]

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[Grant]

Thanks for the update!

[Steve Pierce]

Was the 3rd place Bush class winner the NX Cub?

[RaisedByWolves]

Didn’t seem like much of a turn out this year? Also seems like some long distances for the temps and lack of DA


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[Cache]

Was the 3rd place Bush class winner the NX Cub?

Yes it was


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[Steve Pierce]

Wow, that is a heavy airplane and I found out has the shorter prop and the muffler since it is the certified version.

[Steve Pierce]

the NX CUB was rather underwhelming after hearing all the pre event hype

Curious why you were underwhelmed? Looked like it did pretty well for a 1500 lb heavy Cub with a short prop.

[Cache]

Didn’t seem like much of a turn out this year? Also seems like some long distances for the temps and lack of DA


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This year the wind was all over the place, they swapped the competition direction a few times the heavy class had little to no wind in the first heat the second heat had a bad tail wind. The light touring had some decent wind and a few gusts and then it died down to almost calm for the experimental and light sport and by the time the first bush heat started it was a tail wind so after the first run they swapped the direction around and ran that heat over again. It was about 3-5 mph for the bush class so not the typical Valdez wind they are used to getting in past years but the temperature was nice for the crowd throughout the event it was the first time I was in a just a t-shirt all day at this event, in years past my wife was in a sleeping bag watching from the sideline!


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[KevinJ]

Congratulations again Cache! Did you put Pstols on your cub?

[ak49flyer]

Curious why you were underwhelmed? Looked like it did pretty well for a 1500 lb heavy Cub with a short prop.

Because we all thought that the trauma to our eyeballs would at least be compensated somewhat by some impressive landing distances...

[Steve Pierce]

Because we all thought that the trauma to our eyeballs would at least be compensated somewhat by some impressive landing distances...

Looked like it did pretty good for a 1500 lb airplane that will go 150 plus mph. They fly nice too.

[DENNY]

Curious why you were underwhelmed? Looked like it did pretty well for a 1500 lb heavy Cub with a short prop

Mostly because all the hype about how great a performer it was. The highest empty weight I see in all the adds is 1230 lbs. Pretty close to Cache's cub. WITH 55 MORE HP THAN THE 160HP Cache had.


“A nosewheel equipped XCub is a very easy airplane to fly that takes off shorter, lands shorter, and cruises faster than the tailwheel version,” https://bydanjohnson.com/what-a-cub-dragging-its-nose-rather-than-its-tail-cubcrafters-newest-entry/

Like the X-Cub, the NX is fast, better than 150 mph, and its performance isn’t nearly as good as its tailwheel hangar mate; it’s better. The NX can, according to the company, land using a third less runway than the X-Cub https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/cubcrafters-nx-cub-revolutionary-polarizing/

If the companys hype is correct the tailwheel version would be a real dog. I keep hearing the excuse the pilot only had 30 min of training. Really??? Seems he has been flying around the country showing this plane off for a few years now. If you come to play with the big dogs how about some bring some Big Dog skills. Does that nose wheel cause so much drag on the ground that you want to lift it up as high as you can right from the line, knowing the plane can't fly off in the first 90 ft?? Can't play the wind card because he and Cache ran within 1 min of each other and wind was steady. It is a OK plane, but really nothing that special.
DENNY


“A nosewheel equipped XCub is a very easy airplane to fly that takes off shorter, lands shorter, and cruises faster than the tailwheel version,”“A nosewheel equipped XCub is a very easy airplane to fly that takes off shorter, lands shorter, and cruises faster than the tailwheel version,”

[Steve Pierce]

I guess I wasn't there so I am not seeing the whole picture. I just thought a 1500 lb production airplane at 271' combined score vs a bushed out Super Cub 1st at 205' and 2nd at 268' wasn't to bad.

[stewartb]

I doubt the $400K+ NX Cub gets flown to its limits. The last thing a demo pilot wants to do is break the plane. And with that in mind 271' combined isn't bad. I'd expect it to close the gap as the planes get loaded, too. If contests influence the market I'd say green 172s should be in high demand.

[frequent_flyer]

The only reason an NX can land in a short distance is that you can use max braking with (almost) no risk of a prop strike. The nose wheel offers no advantage before the mains touch. Unfortunately the results only show stop distance past the line and not touchdown point.

The NX may be what keeps CubCrafters alive. Their tailwheel aircraft may soon be impossible to insure.

[Cache]

Congratulations again Cache! Did you put Pstols on your cub?

Thanks yes I did put the P-STOL flaps on back in March and I really like them they have slowed my approach down by about 5mph. The stall is the only draw back I have found
My plane used to stall on the airspeed indicator around 28-30mph now it is down around 22-23 the problem is it drops the left wing and it’s pretty violent when it does I have messed around with rigging and the only thing I have come up with at this point is the p-factor. If I give it a little right rudder just before the stall it will stall wings level forward like it used to before the flaps. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I talked to Jamie over at blue river and he said he has two cubs with P-STOL flaps one drops a wing and one does not.

As for the NX cub it appears that in his first scored landing he landed just a few feet past the line and locked the tires which I think that landing was around 120’ the only way to shorten that up is a slower approach but I’m not sure if it will slow down any more. I think if he would have kept the nose down longer for his takeoffs it would have gotten off a lot shorter, maybe it needs bigger flaps? All I can say is I still like conventional gear!


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[Steve Pierce]

It lands faster, probably because of the weight. Took me a little time to hit my spot with it, any other Cub I am pretty good hitting my spot right out of the box.

I haven't noticed any of the P-STOLs I have installed or flown dropping a wing in the stall.

[RaisedByWolves]

Thanks yes I did put the P-STOL flaps on back in March and I really like them they have slowed my approach down by about 5mph. The stall is the only draw back I have found
My plane used to stall on the airspeed indicator around 28-30mph now it is down around 22-23 the problem is it drops the left wing and it’s pretty violent when it does I have messed around with rigging and the only thing I have come up with at this point is the p-factor. If I give it a little right rudder just before the stall it will stall wings level forward like it used to before the flaps. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I talked to Jamie over at blue river and he said he has two cubs with P-STOL flaps one drops a wing and one does not.

As for the NX cub it appears that in his first scored landing he landed just a few feet past the line and locked the tires which I think that landing was around 120’ the only way to shorten that up is a slower approach but I’m not sure if it will slow down any more. I think if he would have kept the nose down longer for his takeoffs it would have gotten off a lot shorter, maybe it needs bigger flaps? All I can say is I still like conventional gear!


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I tried gap seals before and didn’t notice a change. I put them on after the pstol and noticed an improvement, after the flaps seemed like I was running out of rudder when slow. The gap seals helped that.


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[DENNY]

He actually hit his spot pretty good but he was dragging it in and look kind of fast.
DENNY

[DENNY]

Steve where are you getting the 1500lb weight?
DENNY

[Crash, Jr.]

That NX cub sure had violent nose wheel shimmy under max braking

[Farmboy]

I don’t have an opinion on this either way but Brad Damn (CubCrafters VP and guy flying) is a good pilot. I don’t expect he needs any of the 30 min practice time they spoke about.
But I also agree it seems like it would have done better.
I entered my first stol event with a 1245 lb (empty weight) 180hp Bearhawk, long landing was 160 and takeoff was 114, so 275 combined mainly due to pretty generic skills at hitting a spot. I would expect Brad to be able to beat me any day.


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[Steve Pierce]

Steve where are you getting the 1500lb weight?
DENNY

One of the experimental NX Cubs I maintain is 1378 lbs EW. The dealer I work with told me he thought the airplane Brad was flying is about 1475, it is the Part 23 certified version. Flying them you can tell they are heavier than the Cub I fly weekly or the FX3 I fly from time to time.

[frequent_flyer]

That NX cub sure had violent nose wheel shimmy under max braking

Interesting. No shimmy in this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYuw...el=CubCrafters

[Steve Pierce]

They do start to shimmy after they get broken in. Easy to adjust the tension and set to spec. I maintain 3 NX Cubs, has been fun to learn a new airplane. It is a neat design.

[stewartb]

Give credit where credit is due. Steve Spence won Valdez in an old 172. And his combined distance was less than half that of the NX Cub. Heck, he beat all the Cubs. That’s impressive!

[john schwamm]

Steve crushed all but the experimental guys. He wears that 172, amazing performance. We are doing a 175 with hopes to make it fly as good as his 172. Steve is going to give me some lessons, but doubt I can do what he does. And he does not even have a Trailblazer lightweight prop for more thrust yet! Watch out Supercubs, Green Bean is lurking for you.
John

[KevinJ]

Any body know about how much ballast Spence keeps in the tail? Denny might? It’s about the equivalent of a large child I think.

[john schwamm]

Think about 50lbs or less, but that may change if Trailblazer prop offsets some forward, if he gets one.
John

[ak49flyer]

I heard 60lbs but that could be embellished a bit...

[KevinJ]

I was thinking 60-70lbs but I’m not sure I got a straight answer out of him last yr. Lucas’s helio and Spence are a show on their own.

[Steve Pierce]

I follow Steve and the Green Bean on Facebook and he post some really neat videos.