STOL demonstration at Sun 'n Fun 2021

[Martin Pauly]

After hanging out at Lakeland's Paradise City a couple of evenings, I compiled this summary of the STOL demonstration - with explanations by Doug Jackson, the founder of National STOL.

Enjoy!

 

[NordicDave]

These STOL competitions are always fun to watch, but kind of make my heart stop when I see the props sometimes angle so close to the ground. These guys are braver and tougher than I am risking the machine.

For me the hardest to watch are the STOL competitions in Alaska which measure full stop landing point. Too many of those guys are tipping over the front wheels onto the prop. Gives me the woolies watching.

Good summary video.

 

[kyleb]

These STOL competitions are always fun to watch, but kind of make my heart stop when I see the props sometimes angle so close to the ground. These guys are braver and tougher than I am risking the machine.

For me the hardest to watch are the STOL competitions in Alaska which measure full stop landing point. Too many of those guys are tipping over the front wheels onto the prop. Gives me the woolies watching.

Good summary video.

If you look carefully, it takes a LOT of nose down pitch for the prop to hit the ground. So it almost never happens on takeoff. But you're right. Lots of those guys have prop strikes on landing. One of my friends was in that video and had his own prop strike when doing a short landing last summer. Oops.

 

[GRG55]

The first time I watched one of these live was between the race heats at Reno. That competition was a variation with timed two-way runs. Incredibly entertaining. Both the competitors and spectators were really into it - of course I hang out with the crazies in Section 3 and they're into anything with wings.

Tailwheels seem to be making a comeback. We've had a Citabria in our Club fleet for years. Many months it logged the least number of hours of all the planes. Not any more. It's booked out a month or more in advance these days. We're looking at buying another tailwheel plane, the demand has been so consistently high to fly one.

These sorts of competitions and the videos are probably helping rejuvenate flying small, simple airplanes just for fun.