Todd, I definitely repect the decision not to fly off of grass. Your nose wheel strength looks superior to the IV and thats what I conside the weakness in my bird on grass. I doubt I ever land on grass unless its an emergency.

Regarding ram air, I suspect the difference may be the intake design. The Glassair III I saw had the air intake on the side of the cowl via a naca duct then into a filter and then the flow had to turn 180 and enter what was either the induction system or carborator. The amount of ram air you get is complicated. I have a top induction in my continental. My intake air comes through my cooling inlets. I get about 60-70% of theoretical available ram at my best wide open airspeed which is 248KTAS at 8500 feet. But to get that, I installed dual intake filters, a plenum, a seal around the spiner shaft and I restricted the cowl outlet area. I also stopped every possible leak of air from the top of the engine to the bottom so that all my air went to cooling or went to induction. The size of the inlets also matters as does the shape of the inlets. I stopped at 60-70% because putting in a true ram air filter bypass would have limited returns. And frankly I ran up against building so much pressure in the cowl that it was trying to push the nose gear doors open slightly. I bought electromagnets to fix it but decided to just cry uncle because I would have to add one pound of steel to each nose gear to get the force I wanted from the magnet. I wanted 250knots and its achievable but its like squeezing a balloon. You might be able to design a ram air bypass for your bird but I hate to see you mess up the pretty paint. its beautiful. I like my paint too and thats slowed my efforts. You might try gap seals. I got 4-6 knots installing gap seals.

Good information, thank you! The nose gear is very stout in the Glasair. It also has dual actuators with independent lines and hydraulic reservoirs. You can lose the main hydraulic system completely and still get the nose gear down.

I believe my plane is about 5-8 knots slow due to a few reasons:

1. The plane is nose heavy due to the heavy prop and battery under the cowl. I can have 100 lbs in the baggage and still be well into CG. I think moving the battery in the back would help 2-3 knots.

2. The engine runs very cool and my airplane has a NACA scoop on the right side just for the oil cooler. While I have consistent oil temps of 192F degrees I do believe I am seeing a lot of drag here.

3. I think the airflow through the cowl could be optimized. I would love for an aerodynamics expert to help me here, but I don't want to mess with the paint.

4. I have stock 8.7:1 pistons. All of the other Glasairs I see have 10.5:1 or higher compression pistons. I think there is 5-8 knots available there.

5. I would have to see the gap seals. There is literally no gap whatsoever between my flaps/ailerons and the wing. Tail is the same way.

I can't argue with your performance - just too cool!! How does it handle at 280-290 knots indicated? That is what I love about the Glasair. When I really want to come down fast I pull the power back to 12 IN MP, bank to 80 degrees or so and then lower the nose. It will rack up 100 knots of additional airspeed within 6-8 seconds and will come down at 8k FPM or so. My old fighter jet would come down at 25k FPM. This plane reminds me of that one except it is 13 GPH instead of 130 GPH

Todd, tell me more about this fly-in on the 30th. My calendar is currently open. I am only a 45 minute flight from Knoxville. Is there a web site or something that would tell me more details. I will try Googling it and see what I find.

Dennis, Dennis, Dennis.... It is the premier BT fly-in hosted by the premier BT member Max Grogan!! It is at Knoxville Downtown airport on the 29th and 30th. I plan on coming in on the 29th and having dinner with 50 BTer's or so and then an awesome lunch on the 30th and all sorts of lying games with the BT family. Of course, dinner and drinks that night also. Go home Sunday. You will not have a better time anywhere and will have guys lined up to ride in the rocket, including me! (But you have to let me fly it after I read the POH)

Todd, I am a sissy on descents. During flight testing as I was testing VNE, I did see those kinds of indicated airspeeds but that was flight testing and I have never been there since. I needed to know VNE was safe but I normally give it a good margin of safety. Normally I just keep it at the top of the green which is 220KIAS unless the air is smooth and the controller asks for more. I got asked for best rate of descent and gave a controller 250KIAS and was truing 335KTAS passing through 18000. Fun. But it is easy to bust 250 under 10K descending and especially easy to bust the speed limits in class D and under class B. I choose to not have speed brakes so I have to watch my descents around busy airspace. So I am pretty conservative relative to the planes capability.

My wife just told me that I might have a conflict on the 30th. She may need me to fly her to Arkansas to attend the high school graduation of a young man we baby sat years ago. But I am sure if I miss the event in knoxville, I will catch up with you some time later. Where is home for you?

Dennis,
Look here: calendar.php?view=event&calEid=356

NE Indiana (KGWB)

Well, it is done. Mike Kiamy did an excellent job on the interior. The seats are heavy Porsche Leather over memory foam. The Carpet and headliner material are Mercedes. It smells like a new Bentley inside. I am really happy with the results!

Wow! Beautiful!!

Turned out very nice. I like the colors and I'm sure it smells as good as it looks.

Classy!

Todd, you have put your heart and soul into that plane. Really the finest quality. Top notch. Great job.

Todd, she looks awesome!
Did the inferior make it quieter as well?

Guys, thanks for the comments. It is slightly quieter and a little less vibration as well. It is still a loud plane, but with ANR headsets it is fine.

I did a 240 knot low speed pass leaving Hartzell Field and the interior guy said it was just awesome. He said the plane was ahead of it's sound like a jet.

Flying the plane home at 207 knots on 14 GPH @ 4500 ft with the autopilot on and sitting in my Porsche Styled interior was pretty neat. Looking forward to Max's. Will be happy to let anyone fly the plane Friday before drinking or Saturday 8 hours after drinking