Interesting anecdotes from Bucker history

About 12 years ago (I think) I was given the almost unimaginable privilege of flying a Sukhoi Su26. What an experience! Controls so light you could barely feel them, so powerful that the horizon was often just a blue-green blur. With 400+ horsepower, it would hover if the temperature was cool enough. Landing it, however, felt like driving a formula one race car mounted on a shopping cart (trolley.) A shopping cart with one wheel missing at that. Total adrenaline pump.

Since then I have flown quite a few Sukhois, and yesterday I ferried one from Long Island, New York to Virginia. Funny thing is, after flying the Jungmann every day this week, the Sukhoi felt like a truck. Its controls were heavy and poorly balanced. It landed as easily as a Cherokee, however. Everything really is relative.

It is hard to believe, but next week it will be one year since N28Bu made its first post-restoration flight. Harder still to believe that in all that time I have flown it for only 15 hours. A cold winter, a terribly wet summer, a far longer than expected propeller finishing, and a busy work schedule are to blame.

Today though, I rather made up for it.

Ferrying the Sukhoi was tiring work, but I got up early this morning, took a shower and headed for the airport. The sky was blue, the winds perfectly calm and the temperature a pleasant 70 F (20 C) or so. I pushed the Jungmann out of the hangar and gave her 15 gallons of 100LL as a treat. (She usually drinks unleaded auto fuel)

There has been remarkably little maintenance to do since that first flight. I installed an oil cooler, reworked the oil tank breather line to prevent oil loss, and replaced the left landing gear strut oil seals three times. - I pinched the O-ring the first two times. Other than that, nothing. To my constant amazement, everything has just worked. Even my fuel system, the electric supercharger actuator, and my homebrew radio have worked without a hitch.

The newly finished "Performance" propeller gives about 2500 RPM on climb out, and a pleasing rate of climb. In just a few moments I was at 1,500 feet, and turned to the Northeast, setting off across Ohio towards Ashland County airport where there was a "Pie in the Sky" fly-in today.

At 1,500 ft, with 93 kts on the GPS and that smooth LOM engine purring away up front it was magical. The trees are starting to turn colors of red, orange, and yellow, and with the harvesting machines starting their annual task of bringing in the field corn and the wheat, there were convenient little runways all over the country side. Not too much worrying about a place to land today!

After the first few flights last year I made one slight rigging change, after which the Jungmann has flown straight and level. Today, with no wind at all, I put that to the test. I took my hands off the stick and let the Jungmann fly herself while I drank in the stunning views. 56 NM later, I had not once laid a finger on the stick. Just a nudge from a toe had been enough to keep her on course.

When I landed (twice - I need another few degrees of up elevator) and shut down, people came out of the airport building to meet me. "My God" one person said. "Don't tell me. Is that what I think it is, the real thing?" Don't you love it when people recognize a Bucker, rather than saying "What's that - a homebuilt?"

Inside there was hot coffee, many types of handmade fruit pie, and vanilla ice cream to be had. What a life.

After an hour or so I took off, allowed the Jungmann a little fun over the airport to say thank you for the pie, and turned towards home. Another one hour and twenty minutes on the tach. This time we landed only once, made the first turn-off and taxied to the hangar to wipe off the bugs. - Yellow airplanes do seem to attract bugs.

As the engine ticked and cooled, I realized that this was exactly why I had built this airplane. This was the very dream that had inspired me to keep working for all that time.

I LOVE this airplane!

Steve

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