Thorp Air Command - T18.net

Well guys we finally got N327SB flying. Maiden flight was today at Corona Airport (KAJO) at around 9:30 AM, or so. Winds were calm. She just jumped up in the air and flew great, other than slight heavyness in the left wing we had no major issues. I flew chase in our other small engine Thorp N6CM. Had a tough time climbing up to catch the new Thorp with its constant speed prop. I was elated to be side by side seeing her go after three years of toil and dollars. My Brother, Chris, did the flying duties and he says she really pulls well and got her up to 180mph with lots of throttle left. We want to thank you guys for all the support on our journey and hope to see you soon flying around rather than building.

Happy landings!!

Brent & Chris Schultz

Great job! Many hours of fun ahead!

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL

Big Congratulations Brent and Chris!!

For those that don't know this is Ken Brocks airplane that they've put the finishing touches on. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one up close! There was a time when this project was expected to be the best Thorp out there!

Enjoy guys! You have a special airplane there!

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Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

Congrats Guys!!!!, perhaps we will see you at KVIS in Sept at the gathering, we are just north of you bout an hour, we would all love to see your new wings!!!!! Dan

Yep...would love to see it at KVIS this year .

RB

Awesome and big congrats! That is one hell of an accomplishment!
Cubes

Thanks for all the well wishes and congrats. We've flown about 4 hours. Here's a picture with wheel pants on.

Great looking bird!! KB would be proud! Thanks for putting that one in the fleet!

_________________
Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

Lee,

You are right. Big engine Thorps are not like the mouse motor ones. Don't get me wrong. I love N6CM. But N327SB is just another bird altogether. Below is an update I sent out today to a bunch of folks who love our new Thorp and have been tracking our progress. Its written from my perspective as opposed to my co-owner Brother Chris.



Chris Schultz did the maiden test flight on our new Thorp T-18 below last Friday, August 8th at around 9:30am at Corona Airport. We flew it most of last weekend and now have 4 to 5 hours on her. Chris was all smiles and pretty happy when he brought her back to the airport. It did have a little left rolling tendency at high speeds, so we put a temporary trim tab on the right aileron that solved that issue. We need to replace the top skin on the right aileron to take out the upward sweep in the trailing edge which was caused by the close-out riveting of the aileron at the trailing edge. Thats causing the rolling issue. But we can fly it for a while with the trim tab until we can do a permanent fix to the aileron.

I got to fly along next to Chris in our other small engine Thorp T-18 Saturday and the new bird just flat gets with the program. I could not keep up with that sucker. Chris took the airplane up to over 200mph with a RV-4 in chase and says its nice and smooth, but stick get stiff at high speeds.

I got to fly it Sunday and has a totally different feel than our other Thorp. Just another airplane altogether. You notice at taxi that this airplane is much heavier with fuel and two souls board. It really accelerates on take off and climb though. Very impressive. I think I said WOW three times on climb out. You just use little control inputs on this bird compared to our lighter Thorp. Much heavier stick and rudder feel. We need to install the trim system on the ailerons and rudder. That would make it a nice for trips I think. I brought it in a little faster than our other Thorp, but it sat right down and rolled out like the other Thorp.

Well, she is a paperweight and "Kiwi" no more. I am happy about that....and relieved after three years of effort and lots of checks.

If any of you guys want to see the airplane it will be flying most days out at Corona Airport. Call Brother Chris and make arrangements at (949) 322-5665 as I am still a working stiff. Chris is now retired and enjoying the new bird.

Thanks for all your help Lee!!

Brent Schultz
N6CM & N327SB
KAJO (Corona Airport, CA)

Hey Brent, rather than a trim tab or re-skinning the aileron use the "massage the trailing edge" technique ... a little goes a long way!

Congrats once again!

_________________
Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

Hey Guys!

Hope all is well in Thorpdom. We are flying off our 40 hours. My Brother Chris is doing most of the flying work. He said the 180HP, injected Thorp with constant speed is a goin machine. He has had it up to 2,600 rpm and in smooth cool morning area is doing 220 mph or so. He has been running mostly around 24 to 25 squared. Cylinder temps are in the 380's with about 1 degree of difference in some of the cylinders. Much better than what our 0-290 carburated Thorp does. We are changing out the mineral oil tomorrow. What do you guys think if the Phillips 20/50XC all the RV guys are running. They seem to sware by it. Well, talk to you soon and check out our picture of last Saturday. Me, Brent, doing ground control and my Brother Chris in the cockpit at Corona, CA.

Talk to you soon,
Brent

Umm red line is 210mph guys!

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Lee Walton
Houston, TX
N51863,N118LW
KEFD

DOH ! I use Phillips 20-50XC , but not over 210 mph !

RB

Ummm...I mean she easily hits 210 redline. Slip of finger at the keyboard. Hey Lee! Have you ever done the service on a Hartzell hub. Just visited the Hartzell site and it says Aeroshell #5 grease is the required oil for the hub. And they say no more than five pumps of grease into the hub. We have 10 hours running mineral oil and we feel we should drop the mineral oil and just put in Philips 20/50 XC oil. We had a brand new RV-7 on the field and he ran the mineral oil to long and cooked bearings and such and had to send his engine back for some work. He says he has run the XC oil since the work was done and no problems.

I use Exxon Elite. Had to set the idle back after I changed from Aeroshell 100. My engine guy uses Phillips 20-50 as break-in oil since its properties are the same as straight mineral. I believe J. T. tested the plane to 250 mph and backed the redline off 15% which yields about 213-214. Empirically, I have seen much higher due to an inadvertent nose low excursion earlier in my Thorp flying experience. Other than heavy controls, I experienced no other issues. I don't exceed 215, since that day. All to say, "You've been there, now whoa it up!"

_________________
Bob Highley
N711SH
SN 835
KLAL