Bear Handdling & Future Mods

[Peashooter]

We fans are curious to know how the Bear handles with the 4-bladed prop. Is it any easier, or is compressibility still the biggest issue?

Will there be a new, low-drag leading edge on the Bear in '05, as has been discussed previously? Seems that that might necessitate a boil-off oil cooler and an induction intake on the cowl, all of which would contribute to lower drag and higher power.

Just how fast can the Bear go?

[Eric]

Re: Bear Handdling & Future Mods

In previous posts John Penney said that the 4 blade was alot more smooth. I guess the 3 blade causes the aircraft to want to pull up and away when more power is added. Don't know nothing about the leading edge mod.

[Gary Osif]

Re: Bear Handdling & Future Mods

It was reported the 3 blade made the plane pull up and right(P factor?)and during the interview after the Gold Race, the drag reduction program was mentioned.

Gary

[Unregistered]

Re: Bear Handdling & Future Mods

Bill Hickle said that, besides causing a lot of airframe vibration, the 3 blade was heavier and had lots more gyroscopic forces than the four blade. Those you you who have flown taildraggers know that if you quickly raise the tail on takeoff, in addition to the torque and P-factor pulling the nose left, you get a momentary extra pull from the gyro effects from the downward vector on the prop, which always manifests itself 90 degrees past where the force is applied (I think Bill Kerschner talks about this in his how to fly books). In the Bear, pulling gs is exactly the reverse. The prop see a vector applied from the aircraft bottom to top, and the force manifests itself 90 degrees further in rotation, which is a strong yaw to the right. This causes drag as the airplane is not in coordinated flight, adds to pilot workload in trying to correct this with rudder, etc.

He said that they never have had a real accurate side by side comparison of props and that the 3 blade may indeed be a little better in a straight line, but the four blade (which is the one they set the records with) is definetly better on the course and easier on the engine, airframe, and pilot.

And the blower was changed without removing the engine.

Ron Henning

[radialnut]

Re: Bear Handdling & Future Mods

The 4 bladed prop is a lot smoother and more pilot friendly, however we still have not answered the question as to which one is faster, hopefully we will be able to answer that this year. There are many mods being looked into and we will see what happens there. I personally would like to see a spare race motor before we get to involved in moding the airframe, but we will see what happens.

Elliott