Badland Part 103 Pilots and Builders Forum

5.7 flight hours in the logbook as of today. I figure it is time for a general write up and review of the aircraft.

Specs:
Badland F2 kit with Polini 303
Eprops 2 blade 160cm ground adjustable prop
Stewart Systems with Superflight 104 fabric
254# empty weight

General Flight Characteristics:
The aircraft is very predictable in flight. Maintaining straight and level flight is a non-event. Two fingers on the stick and and course correction or altitude control is maintained. Rudder use is very similar to other fabric airplanes that I have flown (Think Piper Pacer/Super Cub/Super Cruiser/J4). An hour long flight is very enjoyable with no fatigue from aircraft control workload.

Ultralights in general:
Coming from general aviation aircraft that cruise between 2-6 times faster a big difference noticed here is the small speed envelope that the aircraft operates in. It’s a new concept for me to be cruising about 25 knots above stall speed. The aircraft flys well, but a small speed change is quite noticeable in how the airplane feels and responds. Most of my flight time is spent between 40 & 50 knots. I admit, seeing 39 knots on the airspeed while climbing away from the runway was startling for my brain. However, the wing was quite happy with positive control and good response. It should, as this is the Vy speed for this wing. Keep in mind as well, Vne is 70 knots. I have seen 60 knots in a power descent, but have not exceeded 60 knots yet.

Back to F2 specific.
Slow Flight:
All of it is slow flight . No seriously. From 35 knots down the airplane starts to feel slow, albeit it is only settle here. 35 knots is Vx. Note, only 4 knots from Vx to Vy. At 30 knots the angle of attack is quite large and the wing is throwing clues your way that critical angle of attack is knocking on your door. At 27 knots the wing is now screaming at you for a lower angle of attack. Stalls so far have recovered very quickly as soon as the angle of attack is reduced. I however still struggle with pushing left rudder input due to the counter clockwise rotation of the engine. So many hours of clockwise ga engines have cemented right rudder into my muscle memory.

Performance:
I am very please with takeoff and climb performance. I am going to work on building performance charts as I continue to fly. Rough numbers….. 200-250 feet on the takeoff roll with a normal takeoff and little to no wind. I am not forcing the airplane off as early as possible. If pushed harder this distance could be shorter by maybe 10% or a little better. At this time I can say that the demonstrated unstuck speed is 28 knots. What is very noticeable is headwind component. A 10 knot headwind is dramatic. It is about 33% of the airplanes needed flying speed and you aren't even moving yet.

Climb rate is around 500 foot per minute from 1500msl to 3000msl. This is with the throttle retarded about 400-500rpm. I do not run WOT (Wide Open Throttle) any longer that necessary after departure. This is simply me looking for engine longevity. I have not had the airplane over 4000 feet msl yet.

Cruise around 48-50 knots. Engine seems to like 7100-7300 rpm or so. Remember, 4000 rpm and below is basically idle for my Polini 303. Red line rpm is 8400. I have a 3.2 gear reduction so 7200 engine rpm is 2250 prop rpm. 8400 engine rpm would result in 2625 prop rpm.

Glide. I did one glide. I need to do more. Especially practice with power off 180 landings. That being said 40 knots with the power at idle produced a glide that felt close to a cessna 172 or a piper warrior (warrior with a taper wing that is. IMO the Hershey bar wing is a poor glide wing). When slowed to around 35-37 knots the windmilling of the propeller slowed enough to disengage the clutch to the engine. This results in the engine speed dropping from 4000 rpm (windmilling prop driving the engine) to a normal 1500-1600 rpm idle and a decrease in drag from the prop windmilling. I need to experiment here more and start recording some numbers.

Landing. It’s very enjoyable for me to point at the 500 foot markers, land a wheel landing, and still need to taxi forward to get to the 1000 foot marks. It’s ridiculous, ridiculously fun that is. With minimal braking a wheel landing is roughly 300 feet. I feel that 200 is within the aircraft's abilities, I simply have not pushed it that hard. 3 point landings will result in shorter ground runs of course. I have performed 1 three point landing in the grass. Without paint markings I can’t provide a ground roll distance accurately. I can offer this….. the particular grass runway I used is a private strip that is 1600 feet long with obstacles at both ends. I have gone into this runway with my RV4 in the past. Using my F2 with an approach speed roughly 25 knots slower than the RV4 I felt like I could touch down in the F2, take a nap, and wake up before we got the the end of the runway. Super comfortable due to the lower speeds involved. I am on 13 inch tires and they did much better in the grass than I had anticipated. Maybe the spring suspension is secretly taking credit here. Either way, I am pleased.

Thoughts on wind limits. I am not to the point that I can say the limit is x amount. I landed in wind that was 40 degrees off runway with 14 gust 19. I did not intend to have that much wind when I went out, but the wind went from near calm to 14G19. This results in a cross wind component of 9G12. Landing was very doable. Understand that I have removed the rudder to tailwheel steering linkages during the build phase. I wanted to be able to turn tight on the ramp and or near hangars/parking spots. This means there is a little more work to be done to keep the airplane straight on the landing roll out and taxi. At this time that is enough cross wind until more hours are in the logbooks. When taxiing directly across that wind on the ramp it takes judicial amount of brake use to keep directional control due to the free caster on my tailwheel. Current personal limits 15 knots total and 10 knots x-wind.

At the end of the day it takes me about $12 of avgas and maybe a $1 of two stroke oil to fill the fuel tank back up. I see a fuel burn of about 2.2-2.5 gph. Then I put it in my trailer and have no monthly hangar bill. This airplane has given me a very enjoyable path back to the skies without a medical while being very economical to operate.

LM

Excellent report!

WOW! Thank you so much for such a detailed report of your experience. Chris needs to take this and post it on his website. This is a major positive, and I'd say it was almost like I was listening to a sales pitch, except that it's from a true Badland pilot! I'm especially appreciative of the landing and take off information. I was back in Florida visiting my sister and her husband over Memorial Day week. We went out looking for property to get an idea of what's available. I'm retiring on July 3rd and my goal is to sell my house here in Dallas, move to Florida, and find a nice piece of land to put in a private grass field. With what I found in Florida and what you've posted, I feel confident that finding something I'll enjoy for the rest of my life is certainly do-able there. I'm going to have to start kicking Chris a bit to get started on my kit, so I can work on it soon after I get to Florida. I'm looking forward to posting my own report similar to yours for my F5. Really, what you've posted is inspiring and motivating. Thank you.

Todd

What a great write-up! Thanks for this. All the more motivation to get more hours under my belt in the Cessna and get my Badland trailer built!

My first Badland take off can't come soon enough, but safety first...I need to be much more comfortable with my landings currently. :/

LA F2 Flyer wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 4:05 pm What a great write-up! Thanks for this. All the more motivation to get more hours under my belt in the Cessna and get my Badland trailer built!

My first Badland take off can't come soon enough, but safety first...I need to be much more comfortable with my landings currently. :/

What? Isn't the pilot saying - any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.... and any landing where the plane is on all its wheels is a great landing

Haha, true. I have feeling that with my current skillset, I would only end up with a "good" landing! And I don't want to have to buy new wheels!

LA F2 Flyer wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 3:34 pm Haha, true. I have feeling that with my current skillset, I would only end up with a "good" landing! And I don't want to have to buy new wheels!

I'm in the same boat for sure – oh wait, I mean airplane!

Wondering what an 800 hour pilot of tri-gear aircraft (Cessna 152/172 and RV12) can expect transitioning to the tailwheel. Is the Badlands slow enough that one might comfortably learn on their own or is tailwheel training recommended? No more medical, so I don’t know what aircraft would work for dual training.

Dobie wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 2:35 pm Wondering what an 800 hour pilot of tri-gear aircraft (Cessna 152/172 and RV12) can expect transitioning to the tailwheel. Is the Badlands slow enough that one might comfortably learn on their own or is tailwheel training recommended? No more medical, so I don’t know what aircraft would work for dual training.

Hey Dobie, your question is a good one and the answer isn't easy because different people have different skill levels. I can only tell you of my expectations as a prior Cessna 152/182 student pilot. I was just about to go for my practical and written when life intervened, and I relocated, not returning to flying.

I've searched a lot for a CFI that would provide some tail wheel training. Most said their planes were too different from an ultralight for them to be willing to provide such training. The funny part is that one of the CFI's has a Kitfox, which the Badland F series ultralights are miniature versions of. Of course they fly differently, but that's about as close as one can get to a Badland. Finally, after many hours of searching the Internet I found Holladay Aviation in Florida (where I'll be moving later this year). Holladay Aviation offers ultralight training in a M-Squared Breese 2, registered as an LSA (it's a two seat UL). Interestingly enough they also offer tail wheel training in a 1946 Piper J-3 Cub. I called and spoke with them. They were more than willing to help me get into the air in the ultralight and provide tail wheel training in the Cub. With the difficult part of even finding training for UL flight and tail wheel, the question was - do I really need this training? I saw a video of a Aeronca that crashed at Flying Oaks(2TE2) that convinced me that training will be worth every penny. The flight of the Aeronca was by a seasoned airline pilot and his 18 year old son. According to witnesses, the pilot did not have training in the aircraft and had recently purchased it. I'll let you read the story here (https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/266999). A seasoned airline pilot flying a plane with little experience with the aircraft, overloaded by 225 Lbs, and a high density altitude took both their lives. I figure if a seasoned airline pilot can make several mistakes and die, the same can happen to me. I'm going to get my training to better my chances of not having an issue.

The way I look at it is, my brain remembers how much I loved flying and that I did a pretty good job learning how to do it properly. However, my brain sees it as being yesterday when in fact it's been 24 years since I've piloted a plane. Even with an Ultralight as stable and slow flying as a Badland, I'm not willing to take a chance, I will get the training. As they say, better to have and not need, than need and not have!

Todd

Tail wheel training in a Cub, Champ, etc. will help greatly. Teaching yourself to fly a tail wheel bird is asking for trouble. Even a few hours will help avoid disaster. You spent X amount of money on the plane, a few hundred bucks learning to land it is chicken feed. In the air, the bird does not care which end the third wheel is on. An hour with someone in a TW will tell you if you need help landing it.

Dobie wrote: ↑Tue Jun 13, 2023 2:35 pm Wondering what an 800 hour pilot of tri-gear aircraft (Cessna 152/172 and RV12) can expect transitioning to the tailwheel. Is the Badlands slow enough that one might comfortably learn on their own or is tailwheel training recommended? No more medical, so I don’t know what aircraft would work for dual training.

Dobie,
I know I am perhaps late on my reply. I can say that the first landings in a tail wheel airplane kicked my @ss. At that time 1200 hrs of nose wheel habits were trying to influence my muscle memory. However, a good instructor and a solid syllabus plan make all the difference. Tail wheel flying is very enjoyable for me, and for a personal aircraft it became my preference. It was a break from the aircraft I was flying for a living.

LM

So the hope is the same with me then, hoping I have no bad habits (I doubt it, it's been over 20 years since I flew Cessna's), so with some instruction on in a tail wheel I might be lucky enough to pick up the skills to control it on the ground without too much trouble.

Todd