This is all early info approved by Horizon and only for FlyingGiants and RCGroups.com. I'm sure links will be available on Thursday.

Originally Posted by mike3976

Maybe, but a greased landing looks a lot better than the tail drop smackdown shown in the vid. Articulated landing gear or not, I see it as a pilot skilled enough to do all that hoovering around with slow roles should have had better than one out of three good landings!

He did 3 landings:

The 1st one was a purposeful "drop & plop", to demonstrate the articulated gear.

His 2nd landing was a typical full-scale STOL competition landing. That's the shortest possible landing one can safely make with a full-scale SuperSTOL plane. Also done on purpose - as SuperSTOL landings in which the tailwheel touches-down first are fairly common to see at full-scale STOL competition events, and also in the world of extreme commercial bush-flying.

His 3rd landing was a textbook-perfect greaser on the mains. A one-wheel crosswind landing, no less! Doesn't get any classier than that!

Joel

Originally Posted by mike3976

Maybe, but a greased landing looks a lot better than the tail drop smackdown shown in the vid. Articulated landing gear or not, I see it as a pilot skilled enough to do all that hoovering around with slow roles should have had better than one out of three good landings!

Like the man said, he PROBABLY dorked ONE landing on purpose to demonstrate the plane's capability and toughness.

They had one at SEFF, but I didn't see it fly. If my Sig Rascal 110 ever goes in, this will be my next buy.

Originally Posted by mike3976

The landing "Plop Down" in the vid, IMHO is Not a desirable trait!

That was not a conventional landing, but a full-stall landing with crow enabled. People who do these (for fun) find them highly desirable. Also, that shot was intended to show off the optional articulated landing gear.

With a wing cube loading of 9 and flaps, I’m sure the plane can land very softly.


Edit: I didn’t read all the other posts- I didn’t mean to “pile on” as others already made the same point I did.

Originally Posted by turboparker

He did 3 landings:

The 1st one was a purposeful "drop & plop", to demonstrate the articulated gear.

His 2nd landing was a typical full-scale STOL competition landing. That's the shortest possible landing one can safely make with a full-scale SuperSTOL plane. Also done on purpose - as SuperSTOL landings in which the tailwheel touches-down first are fairly common to see at full-scale STOL competition events, and also in the world of extreme commercial bush-flying.

His 3rd landing was a textbook-perfect greaser on the mains. A one-wheel crosswind landing, no less! Doesn't get any classier than that!

Joel

SuperStol with a tail smack down & bounce, Shirley you Jest, But to Each His Own.....".I Guess!

Originally Posted by mike3976

SuperStol with a tail smack down & bounce, Shirley you Jest, But to Each His Own.....".I Guess!

Nope. I grew up around commercial bush-pilots with 30,000+ hours doing extreme SuperSTOL bush-flying with high-performance, Robertson STOL equipped planes. Was taught how to fly full-scale by one of the best - my dad, a commercial pilot who retired with over 40,000 hours - most of which were extreme bush-flying in the wilderness of northern Minnesota. The rest were flying a seriously hopped-up P-47 in Italy & a P-38 up in Alaska during WWII. Plus, I worked for a bush-flying service from when I was ~11 yrs old until I graduated from high-school.

If you watch full-scale extreme STOL competitions, you'll see plenty of intentional tailwheel-first touchdowns.

I don't understand your logic. He clearly demonstrated the plane's ability to handle a serious plop & drop screw-up, pull-off a scale extreme STOL competition landing - and still do an absolutely perfect greaser. That covers the full range of what a SuperSTOL plane is supposed to do. What's the point of just showing a bunch of easy greasers? Any true intermediate pilot can easily do a standard greaser in calm wx with a plane that flies as well & is as lightly-loaded as the Timber.

Plus - simple aerodynamics math tells us how slow the plane can fly. With a wing-loading of under 10 oz/sq ft, a to-die-for wing-cube-loading of only 8.9-9.9, huge flaps, and LE slats - the plane will easily fly a lot slower than the speed of thought.

His competition STOL-style landing & that excellent forward-slip 1-wheel crosswind landing were unquestionably more difficult & more impressive than a common, ordinary 2-wheel greaser on the mains.

Anyway - time to move on. Waiting for more great video that demonstrates the full range of this plane's ability!

Joel

Agreed! Drink all the kook aid you wish, I'm not gonna tell you otherwise.

You're the one who drank the kook-aid & refuses to accept reality, not me.

Anyone who grew up around SuperSTOL bush-planes and/or has watched SuperSTOL competitions, and/or knows how to execute a proper forward-slip crosswind landing knows this stuff.

Just one example of many tailwheel-first SuperSTOL competition landings. In this world-record-setting flight, the tailwheel touches-down just before the starboard main wheel:

World Record STOL Competition Valdez, Alaska 2017 (0 min 37 sec)

Joel

I don't love the color scheme... but I do like the plane.

Nice video illustrating proper technique, too bad the model couldn't replicate same!
Tail drop smack down bounce it is not! Only commenting on what I saw in HH vid.

Originally Posted by mike3976

Nice video illustrating proper technique, too bad the model couldn't replicate same!
Tail drop smack down bounce it is not! Only commenting on what I saw in HH vid.

Many, many full-scale STOL competition pilots do fairly abrupt tailwheel-first, full-stall landings. FAR more abrupt than the one in the demo video, or in the full-scale clip I posted. That was just one of thousands.

Besides, a number of us already explained the logic behind the three landings, and the 3rd one was a PERFECT greaser - which proves beyond any rational doubt that the plane can be greased-in. Only takes one landing to demonstrate that to any logical, rational person. Plus, the WL & WCL numbers (actual science) back it up. Notice that you're the only one on here who's complaining about the landings in the demo clip? Gee...I wonder why...

Also - from the three landings, it's clearly obvious to any logical, rational RCer that the model can easily duplicate the style of full-scale SuperSTOL landing that I posted. It's simply a matter of pilot skill & if he/she wishes to do so.

Got anything positive to post?

Joel

More examples of tailwheel-first SuperSTOL competition landings.

Tailwheel-first landing with big mains bounce @ 0:28. Seriously tailwheel-first landing @ 1:25. Only reason it didn't bounce is due to the design of the main gear & the tire choice:

Extreme STOL, Alaska style (2 min 53 sec)

Major "drop & plop" landing @ 7:16. Another big tailwheel-first "drop & plop" with big bounce @ 9:23. EXTREME tailwheel-first "drop & plop" with HUGE bounce @ 15:31. Another tailwheel-first with a series of bounces @ 15:48. And an insanely MASSIVE "drop & plop" @ 16:32:

2015 Texas STOL Roundup (18 min 11 sec)

Anyway, I hope these clips will encourage people to practice scale SuperSTOL competition takeoffs & landings with their XLs!

Joel

Originally Posted by Jim T. Graham

This is all early info approved by Horizon and only for FlyingGiants and RCGroups.com. I'm sure links will be available on Thursday.

Thanks for the sneak peek Jim! Up on Horizon now! (Clicking on photo redirects to product page)

Bajora, you going to be reviewing this one? Hope so, love your photography and video's!

Joel, from your post's bet you know what inspired this FunCub mod?