Beegles 185 performance on 29 Bushwheels

[GeorgeMandes]

We put the Beegles 185 on 29 inch Bushwheels. Empty weight is now 1,703. We were curious what the performance penalty would be on those tires.

My wife did some test flying today. She departed Homer (20F temp) with 65 gallons fuel and 100 pounds of baggage survival gear. Sustained climb at 80 KIAS, full throttle and prop, flaps 0 was 2,600 fpm. At 4,500 feet level, 25/25 power setting, true air speed on the Aspen air data computer was 150 knots. At 23/23, true air speed was 143 knots.

 

[mghallen]

That's better than a working Caravan, and damn near some Navajos. Not as fast as Alaska Air though.

 

[aktango58]

I don't know her, but she is probably a good full human lighter than me, it was like an empty plane!

Thanks for the report. What kind of prop on that?

 

[GeorgeMandes]

MT three blade. Pulls hard, saves weight, and helps with the CG (which is near the forward limit empty).

 

[High Country]

Thanks for the update George. I love reading about your hot rod airplanes.

Guys like you who are constantly looking to try and improve airplanes by trying different things are great. It makes for some excellent reading when you post your findings. Thanks and keep them coming.

Shane

 

[fly_cubs]

George,

have any pictures of it? That'll make some for some great airplane porn for my cub to look at. Sounds like a great bird.

-Tim

 

[GeorgeMandes]

 

[Patrol Guy]

George, that is one fine looking 185! Maybe the nicest I've ever seen. John

 

[cubscout]

George: OH MY! It looked good at Beegle's all stripped out so I could see what was going on, and the excellent craftsmanship.

It's over the top in that image! steve, I know it ain't a Supercub, but maybe an image on the front page of the website?

Thanks, eh? cubscout

 

[Torch]

Those Bush Wheels look good on that 185. Those guys make some good tires and God help you if you party too hard with one of them. :lol:

 

[jk]

Man that is a fine looking 185.

jk

 

[GeorgeMandes]

I was flying "Fireball" again tonight. It is the flat out, the best performing piston plane I have ever flown. I chickened out tonight, just me and 30 gallons of fuel, doing a max performance climb with 2,700 fpm sustained climb, where I couldn't bear to keep pitching up in the dark, as I felt like I was pointed at Mars. It felt like it had 3,000 fpm climb in it. With the manifold pressure back to 20 inches, it still climbs 1,500 fpm. You need to lead your level off to pattern altitude by several hundred feet like a jet. Yesterday, departing Kenai, I was at 2,500 agl on my right downwind departure, climbing more than 2,000 fpm in a thirty degree climbing turn.

At the same time, approaching at 50 knots on the Aspen ADC on short final, you can pull the power to idle, and easily flare way higher than you would want to be. At 45 knots indicated (confirmed by the ADC), it still flares nicely with the power pulled to idle. With wind under five knots, we have been typically seeing, here at sea level, GPS groundspeeds of 41-43 knots the last time we look on short final.

The 29 inch Bushwheels combined with the slow approach speeds completely change the character of the plane. Landing, it feels like a Cub/Husky. The flip side is, with the slow stall speeds, you work harder in bad air. Then, we use flaps 10-20, and fly about 65 knots.

Here is a closer shot when it was still on 26 inch Bushwheels:

 

[M1]

Nicest looking 185 I have ever seen.

Mike

 

[duckhunter]

185 performance

do you have a stall kit or vg's? my 185 with flints stalls at a higher speed but i haven't tried to come in that slow with a light load

 

[n3410c]

Here is the aircraft configuration as George wrote up under the "Light 185 Project" thread.

The last few weeks have been tough, as wrapping up a project like this takes so much more time that anticipated. Finally, first flight is scheduled for Monday. Dave Younkin, former CO DOW pilot with over 15,000 hours of 185 time is doing the test flying over the next 10 days, after which my wife will fly it home to AK.

A disappointment has been the plane didn't make our target weight. Not sure if Beegles messed up the incoming weight, (as some on the list initially suggested) as we have definitely saved weight thru the process. While we can quote a lighter weight on small tires, etc., we weighed it in fighting trim -- IO 550, three blade prop, Sea Planes HD engine mount, big fuel, float kit, 26 inch Bushwheels, ABW baby tailwheel, HID lights, RMD wing tips, Sportsman cuff, full IFR panel with a Garmin 430, JPI, vacuum system, standby electric attitude indicator, etc. and it weighed 1,689 pounds.

The Beegles guys have done a fantastic job, essentially making a brand new 185, and we can't wait to see how it performs, as even 1,689 pounds with the 550 should be a hoot.

George