Tom Marson's Improvements on the Dakota Hawk
Hi Laird.
My last submission to you covered changes to
my Dakota Hawk, the two piece removable instrument panel, and the widened
lowered Landing gear. At the time of submission I had not flight tested the
gear. Since then I have nearly two years experience on the gear and performs
as expected:
1. Makes the plane easier to get into and out
of
2. Ground visibility in taxi lots better
3. Manners on takeoff and landing are much
improved
Bob Claybaugh has lowered/spread his Dakota
Hawk gear like mine and reports similar nice results.
During summer 2003 I went on a campaign to
reduce drag and improve speed of the plane. The wheels have been changed from
wide turf type to Standard Aircraft 600X6 and smaller tighter fitting wheel
pants were made and installed.
Lots of speed fairings have been made for
lift struts and jury struts and tailbraces and landing gear. Net effect is an
increase in full throttle speed of about 10 percent, and cruise speed at 2450
rpm of 14%.
Finally I removed wings last winter and
shortend them by one foot each side. They are now standard for a Dakota Hawk
(my originals were longer than standard). The purpose of shortening was for
a better ride in turbulent air and a possible speed increase.
While rebuilding them I decided to remove
the flaps while building wing stucture to replace them. Removing them reduced
weight by 11.5 lbs. The weight reduction was offset as I added a second wing
tank. My plane now is a better XC cruiser with 24 gals of fuel and higher
cruise speed. With the Continental C 85 it has a range of 4.5 hours plus a 45
minute reserve.
Removing the flaps to my surprise did not
increase speed at all. Reducing wing span by two feet to standard did not
change cruise enough to notice. But the plane does ride easier and has
a faster roll rate. Covering is 2.7 Oz Polyfiber fabric and Polytone products
for finish. Hidden ribstitching was time consuming but worthwhile. The
attached picture shows the plane as it now looks with the speed fairings,
smaller wheel pants and spread/lowered gear and wing with no flaps.
Based on my experience I would recommend new
Dakota Hawk builders build the wings exactly to the plans. 28.5 foot span and
do build the flaps. The flaps are primarily needed to allow folding of the
wings. In flight the plane slips beautifully so Flaps are not a critcal part
of the flying process.
BUILDERS TIPS that I still offer has been
completly rewritten and updated. It is now 67 pages, with lots of imbedded
pictures and sketches. The price is 17.00 US.
Laird thanks for your great service providing
and maintaing the Fishnet Hangar.
