Making my series 5 into my dream plane

[GuppyWN]

A plane that nice with all those upgrades needs................ bigger feet!

[trentp]

I know... I know... I'm saving my pennies! That's the next thing for sure

[trentp]

Got my bushwheels in! I decided that the 26" airstreaks were the perfect match. So far I am super happy with them, about 7.5lbs heavier per side than the aero classic 21" tires that I had on.

Right away I can tell you that these tires are amazing! First two landings were on pavement just to get a baseline last night after I installed them. I could tell they were softer and I could definitely tell that the handling was a little different due to the extra clearance and the softer tires. Then this morning my wife and I flew up to a nearby reservoir and did the first off field landing with them followed by a nice little hike to enjoy our day off on the 4th of July. All I can say is wow... I see why there is so much hype bout the alaskan bushwheels, they soak up the bumps so nicely and roll over anything in their way. I can only imagine how smooth this thing would be on 29s! (I didn't want to carry the extra weight or lose the cruise speed otherwise I would be on 29s right now).

The plane is pretty much just what I would ask for, I am battling some high oil temps right now during climb out so my next step is moving the oil cooler or possibly going with a larger one. Then it time to go see where this plane can take me!

Quite a bit of difference in size, the "21s" were actually about 19" when I measured, compared to the true 26" bushwheel




Much better proportions


First time landing off field, WOW they are worlds smoother, just suck up all the bumps


My wife enjoying the cool weather after our 4th of July hike

[Slyfox]

nice looking airplane. did you loose any top end speed with the bigger tires?

[trentp]

I did, not as much as I would have expected though, it looks like I lost about 5-7mph.

[GuppyWN]

Perfect!!!

[3 tracks]

Good job Trent
Did you have high oil temps before you installed the 26 Bushwheels? The reason I asked is because I had the same problem. My plane had the 26s installed new just before I bought it. I flew it for a couple of weeks before the weather started getting hot and there was no problem. As the weather warmed up so did the oil temp. I bought the bigger oil cooler and relocated it in front of the coolant radiator. Dropped the oil temp at least 30 deg. The CHT came up a little but there is a 1 in. gap between the bottom of the coolant radiator and the cowl. I stuck weather stripping to the bottom of the coolant radiator to fill the gap. Haven't tried it out yet.
John