Slowing down matters as much as accelerating in most auto racing, and the same is true of STOL Drag racing. Unlike traditional Reno-style pylon racing, which involves no slowing down whatsoever, STOL Drag requires starting and stopping twice while flying less than a mile.

I have never been to a STOL Drag race, and so I will probably be pummeled for whatever I say, but here goes anyway.

Two pylons and corresponding start/stop lines are set 2,000 feet apart. A third pylon is placed at the 1,000-foot mark, just for reference. The idea is to take off from the first line, fly to the far line, land, come to a full stop, turn around, and repeat the process without touching the ground between the lines. Two airplanes compete side by side, and the winner is the one that first comes to a full stop at the end of the race. Best times are just over 50 seconds, so, for a pleasurable activity, it’s brief.

In principle anyone can participate, but the really serious competitors use highly modified airplanes that can accelerate like mad and stop very short after touching down. However, competitors are paired off according to aircraft performance, so it wouldn’t be unusual to see a Skylane compete against a Beech Bonanza.

• READ MORE: Valdez Fly-In STOL Competition Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Since it’s a time trial, the race rewards acceleration, speed on the airborne segment, and deceleration after each landing. But the equation is complicated by the need to begin to slow down long before reaching the far pylon. Pilots accomplish this by chopping power, kicking in full rudder, and slipping toward the line. But even this phase isn’t as simple as it sounds. Airplanes decelerate quicker with wheel braking than aerodynamic braking, so while it may seem as if it’s best to touch down at minimum speed to reduce the rollout distance, it may actually be better to get the wheels on the ground as quickly as possible, even a few knots above the stall speed.

Initial acceleration is a function of the airplane’s mass and the engine-propeller combination’s thrust. Big thrust requires lots of power and a big prop. Two of the dominant competitors in the sport, Toby Ashley and Steve Henry, fly a Carbon Cub and Just Aircraft Highlander, respectively.

(Henry’s Nampa, Idaho, company, Wild West Aircraft, sells the Highlander as a light sport kit.) Neither racing airplane has much in common with its ordinary Lycoming- or Rotax-powered brethren. Both use liquid-cooled, geared, turbocharged, intercooled engines with very big props. They say the engines put out around 400 hp. The airplanes are stripped down, competing at weights less than 1,000 pounds. Since they are generating more than 2,000 pounds of static thrust, and therefore achieve an initial acceleration of 2Gs or more, it’s not surprising that both get airborne in a couple of seconds and a few dozen feet.

• READ MORE: The Ryan YO-51 Wowed with STOL Performance

The powerful initial acceleration does not last long, however, because thrust diminishes as speed increases, and drag grows in proportion to the square of speed. At 90 knots, which an airplane accelerating at an average 1G would reach in five seconds and 400 feet, drag has increased to more than 200 pounds and thrust is cut in half. Since the drag can be subtracted from the thrust to get the net force accelerating the mass of the airplane, it follows that the forward acceleration may already be well under 1G.

The actual segment times, based on videos of Henry racing at Reno last year, are, as you would guess, asymmetrical, reflecting the fact that it is easier to speed up than slow down. From brake release to throttle down at midcourse, about 10 seconds elapse. From there to wheels on, another 10, but at that point the airplane is still moving at around its stall speed of 35 knots. The rollout takes four seconds and another four to get turned around. The times going back are similar for a total of 52 seconds.

If the average acceleration up to the middle of the course were two-thirds of a G, the maximum speed attained would be about 125 knots. If the touchdown speed at the far end were 35 knots, the average deceleration in the slip would be a bit under under one-half G—more at the start and less at the end. By the time the wheels touch the ground, the rate of deceleration is pretty low. Wheel braking brings it back up to the half-G level.

• READ MORE: Valdez STOL Competition & Fly-In Air Show Marks 20 Years of Excellence

The Carbon Cub and Highlander regularly finish within a fraction of a second of each other, and successive heats also differ by small amounts. That consistency is a testament to the pilots’ skills, since, as you find when you watch any of Henry’s cockpit videos, quite a lot goes on during the brief race. Everything hinges on the deceleration timing, staying as low as possible, and amount of wheel braking that can be applied without nosing over.

Henry claims to use his airplane as a daily driver—probably at about 20 percent of power. But I suppose that if STOL Drag racing continues to be popular, it may eventually engender purpose-built airplanes. Very likely the slip-to-slow-down approach would be supplemented or replaced by large air brakes that would add several square feet to the airplane’s equivalent flat plate area. Maybe a slight edge in acceleration could be gained by cleaning up the front end, replacing the big intercooler radiator with a small tank of ice water, and getting engine cooling air to the main radiator with a scoop and duct. But aerodynamic refinement may be pointless, since so little time is spent at high speed.

High wings and a tailwheel are taken for granted on STOL airplanes for a lot of practical reasons. But I wonder whether a low wing with some extra span—taking better advantage of ground effect—and tricycle gear with brakes on all three wheels might bring some advantages. Add lots of horsepower and an airfoil with a maximum lift coefficient of two, and then…off to the races!

This column first appeared in the April 2024/Issue 947 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Looking at the Physics of STOL Drag appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

What would have been the first day of practice morphed into a group of pilots and crew watching raindrops overflow catch barrels placed outside the open hangar door as the rain plummeted and the wind bellowed. The camaraderie among these birds of a feather was evident as their attention turned to talking about the pilots that had arrived and the complications the weather presented. By morning, the rain had let up to an occasional mist, and the wind had died down, allowing for the arrival of many more competitors from all directions. 

Some pilots had been in their airplanes for many hours and had to immediately begin practice upon arrival, not ideal for sure. But this is the STOL National Championships and comfort needed to take a back seat. As the day went on, the crowds moved in and the competition started, with officials wasting no time in case the weather didn’t hold out. Fortunately, everything went well and all of the classes were able to get their three runs in. 

Lone Star STOL hosts the finals of the Husky National STOL series, which means competitors who aren’t in the points standings can still compete and win the competition, just not the championship. 

In the Light Touring class, Micah Lindstrom was not present to continue the rivalry with the No. 00 Dirty Bird flown by Jeff Pohl, who took both first in competition and first in the national series, flying her exquisitely. Right behind him was Col. Matthew Peterson, who did not qualify for the national standings, as he spent his time helping rather than flying and was given an honorable mention due to all of his amazing support to the sport. Taking third in the competition and second in the national series was Jeff Abrams, whose aviation accomplishments deserve their own article.

In the Heavy Touring class, the bright and shiny No. 46 Cessna 180 flown by Warren Grobbelaar took both first place in the finals and the National Championship. Second place was Don Mickey, who had impressive practice runs but lost the connection to the MFD in his panel and had to play it safe by flying faster than normal for landings. Mickey also took second in the National championship. Rounding out this class for Lone Star was Brandon Corn, who flew the only Cessna 205 in the competition. 

Veteran Steve Pierce, flying in the Bush class, narrowly beat out 19-year-old Austin Clemens, who was flying a borrowed airplane. Clemens still took home the national title for the class. Kevin Johnson was third at Lone Star but did not qualify for the national standings. Second in the Bush class for the National Championship was Shawn Francis. Aviat Huskies clearly dominated the Bush class this year. Third place was left vacant, as none of the other competitors met the minimum requirements to qualify for the national points race.

Legend Cubs took the top two spots in the Experimental Bush category with Brian Steck on top and Luke Spoor second, just in front of Robbie Staton, with all three lining up in the same order for the national titles.

Kale Burks flew unchallenged in the Light Sport category at Lone Star, which is for aircraft with engines less than 95 hp and without flaps. This category is designed to give the classic J-3 style Cubs a class of their own.

In the Light Experimental class, we saw Steve Henry’s two-year winning streak come to an end when Dan Reynolds put together two perfect performances with his custom Chinook airplane. Caneva rounded out the top three at Lone Star. For the national titles in this class, Henry took his second National Championship in STOL in his Wild West Highlander, with Caneva taking second in his Carbon Cub SS. Third place was left vacant.

Henry also took the Overall National Championship award as well as the Most Consistent for the Year, stretching his lead as perhaps the most decorated competition STOL pilot in the U.S. (an unofficial title for which he is too humble to claim).

Now that the last STOL event of the year has come to an end, pilots are sure to hit the drawing boards over the winter and return with new tweaks and mods to fly even better next year. There are many projects underway for just this purpose. The future looks bright for innovation in the sport of STOL.

The post Lone Star STOL Leads to Husky National Championship for Top Pilot appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I took the microphone—a breather from my duties as crew chief for Steve Henry—with Juan Browne (from the @blancolirio channel on YouTube). The grandstand fans and live streamers received the play by play as the Straight and Level Television documentary film crew followed along to help tell the story of the fastest growing segment of general aviation. 

Racers Take Your Marks

Pilots lined up on the recently graded dirt track going head-to-head down the 2,000-foot course after the famous “3-2-1, See ya!” signal given by STOL Drag organizer Kevin Quinn to launch their aircraft toward the turn-around point. Several pilots quickly learned that at Reno’s altitude of 5,050 feet msl, their aircraft were not performing as well as they would have liked and this—coupled with a density altitude) of 6,500 feet—meant that much more ground distance was used up before they typically lifted their wheels from the ground. 

In some cases, the taxiway that crossed the track had to be used for a launching ramp to get into ground effect as the heavier Cessna 182s and lower-powered light aircraft were eating up much more ground than they were used to. Many pilots were making adjustments to their aircraft to try and compensate. 

The 2021 reigning champion Toby Ashley did not show this year, robbing Steve Henry (his toughest rival last year) of the chance to demonstrate his upgrades against Sarge.

Tim Schelhorn debuted his new aircraft #73 Psycho Billy—a CubCrafters Carbon Cub which was meticulously built for this style of racing—in the gold bracket. However, being so new, bugs popped up preventing him from running it to its full potential. He still performed well enough to secure the No. 2 spot in the gold bracket over #48 Eddie Sanches in Devil Girl—who worked his way through the entire field to secure the No. 3 spot in the gold bracket. 

• READ MORE: Outlaw STOL Competition Heats Up Out West

Psycho Billy will definitely be an airplane to watch at the upcoming STOL Drag World Championships during the High Sierra Fly-in at the Dead Cow Dry Lake in October.

Another new aircraft on the scene was #85 LunaC—or Luna for short—another custom CubCrafters Carbon Cub built and flown by Cathy Page. She was still learning its intimate flight characteristics, which are vastly different from the Piper Clipper she flew last year. 

A Section 3 Spectators favorite was #66 Big Tuna, the Zenith 701 STOL flown by Jon Hakala at Reno, for various reasons. The  #221 of Brian Steck, a beautifully painted and meticulously polished Legend Cub, got a taste of the desert when a fist-sized rock was kicked up by his tires and sent through his horizontal stab, which was quickly (albeit temporarily) repaired.  

A great time was had by all as the STOL Drag racers were the first class to qualify and race in the mornings throughout the week. This was fantastic, allowing for the tailwheel aircraft not to have to fly with a tailwind in either direction for their runs. However, the sun in the morning shone directly in the eyes of the pilots on the first half of the run, making it difficult to judge the line they had to land across, causing more scratches than at any previous event. But, that’s racing! 

In the end, Steve Henry’s turbocharged Yamaha engine on the Wild West/Just Aircraft Highlander—#44, Yee-Haw—was the airplane to beat, with its screaming 10,000-plus rpm echoing throughout the stands and hangars at the far end of the field. The noise drew people to watch this most unusual-sounding aircraft. 

The slogan of “under a minute to win it” proved true, as 59 seconds was the time to beat at this altitude. Steve broke the minute time solidifying him as the 2022 National STOL Drag Gold Champion at Reno. Congratulations to all.

Results:

1. Steve Henry #44, Highlander

2. Tim Schelhorn #73, Carbon Cub

3. Eddie Sanches #48, Highlander

4. Bo Ellis #80, custom Legend Cub

5. Harry Beaupre #27, Kitfox 

6. Hal Stockman #3, Rans

7. Ty Ferkin #22, Kitfox 

8. Brian Steck #221, Legend Cub

9. Kevin Palmer #21, Kitfox

10. Cathy Page #85, Carbon Cub

11. Collin Caneva #43, Carbon Cub

12. Jon Hakala, Zenith

13. Brent Womack, Rans

14. Dave Kerley, Highlander

15. Tony Sanches, Superstol 

16. Joe Dory, Custom Pacer

The post Reno’s STOL Drag Class Offers a Great Community Feeling appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Warren Grobbelaar, No. 46, had a very large following in his home state of Florida. He had an impressive performance in his polished Cessna 180—although it was hard to hear his actual distances from the announcers over the large chanting section yelling “WAR-REN! WAR-REN! WAR-REN!” which was reminiscent of the Section 3 crowd at the Reno Air Races.

The crowds were packed with energy as familiar aircraft took the line waiting to be released for takeoff. The stands were full and most of the course’s sidelines were stacked five deep trying to catch a glimpse of the start line. 

As a demo only, there were no class divisions and airplanes were sorted more by their cruise speeds in the pattern to limit an unnecessary amount of go-arounds. There were manufacturer’s demo aircraft mixed with regular STOL competitors, even a powered hang glider and a gyroplane entering the mix for the first time. It was a great exhibition of light sport, experimental, STOL, paramotor, and bush aircraft. 

Although this was not a competition, there were still measurements taken for both takeoff and landing. 

Results of each day were posted, but generally, the scores were consistent with the first day’s totals Tuesday, with a few exceptions.

One of those notable exceptions was Steve Henry, No. 44, who—after already being in first place—on his last landing Tuesday, broke an axle, causing him to go onto his nose, breaking his prop, and damaging a carbon fiber leading edge slat. The incident caused the famous Yee-Haw 6 to miss the following day’s activities.

Jon Humberd in his Zenith Super 701 was biting at Henry’s heels all week, and he took the top spot in Henry’s absence. Humberd always has impressive takeoffs after beeping his horn for the crowd. But this week, he shortened them even more and added impressive landings to his bag of tricks. Humberd will definitely be one to keep an eye on for the rest of the season.

Nineteen-year-old Jayden Newman graced us with her presence, returning to National STOL with a beautiful Patriot Cub that she had never flown before. She donned her flight suit, hopped in, and beat all of her previous STOL scores in STOL. Newman started STOL right after getting her pilot certificate at 17 years old, then left to complete her schooling and acquire her ratings to fly corporate jets, which she now does full time.

Seeing her return to STOL even more polished was heartwarming for all that know her. She’s expected to compete more regularly now that Patriot Cub is building a custom airplane for her.

The post Husky National STOL Returns to the Grass Strip at Paradise City appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

While severe storms ravaged the surrounding areas, Jennings was 75 degrees and CAVU this year and offered up 15-kt gusty headwinds right down the runway for the light experimental bush class later in the day. 

Dan Reynolds hanging in the air with little forward movement in his custom built “Valdez special” Chinook aircraft, which was an absolute crowd pleaser. With the slowest and steepest approach in the field, Reynolds made it look easy, working the stick and rudder to exhaustion while keeping his airplane perfectly straight. 

Steve Henry in his “Wild West” Highlander did not change his tried-and-true technique of coming in long and low at about 5 feet off the deck—a risky challenge in gusty winds. He often fought to stay afloat, assisted by his 300 hp engine, which quickly lifted him when he encountered a sinker. Hal Stockman in his Rans S-7 and Colin Caneva in his Carbon Cub rounded out the top of the class both with impressive performances of their own.

In the end, Henry pulled off the win by 7 feet over Reynolds, giving him the overall win as well.

In the light touring class Jeff Pohl was bumped from his normal first-place podium by hometown rival, newcomer, and TikTok star Micah Lindstrom—both flying Cessna 170s—an accomplishment that Pohl was very supportive of. However, he looks forward to the upcoming rematch. 

Kenneth Monger achieved his personal best in a Cessna 172, and Joanna Jestice in her Cessna 150/150, rounded out this class. 

In the heavy touring class, Warren Grobbelaar, flying his Cessna 180, led the way followed by Andrew Patry in his Cessna 182. Don Mickey in his Cessna 180 and Brandon Corn in his Cessna 205 rounded out the heavies.

The bush class also had movement, when 19-year-old Austin Clemens in his Aviat Husky A1-C was bumped by Tom Ford in his Piper PA-18 with Colin Kosubinski (PA-18-150) and Shawn Francis (Aviat Husky A1-C) finished up class.

The experimental bush class had Luke Spoor (Legend/Super Legend) taking the top spot, followed by Brian Steck (Legend MOAC), Robbie Stanton (Javron SuperCub), and Mike Case (Legend AL-18).

With an authentic local live band playing and Mayor Henry Guinn present, the city of Jennings, in partnership with the Jeff Davis Tourism Parish, had several hundred pounds of crawfish and jambalaya cooked on the spot and served to all the pilots and crews in attendance. It was a wonderful gesture sure to make competitors want to return. 

Next, the Husky National STOL Series comes to the West Coast. Any pilots who would like to try their hand at flying in a STOL competition should look into SoCal STOL. Newcomers can compete in a relaxed environment, in Tehachapi, California (KTSP) on May 27 and 28. Go to nationalstol.com for more info.

The post ‘Swamp STOL’ Doubles in Size appeared first on FLYING Magazine.