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Greetings from Whiteman Airport KWHP in scenic Pacoima, CA :) I've just made arrangements to go get a Cougar / Tailwind hybrid in Las Vegas within a couple of weeks. A couple of guys in the Las Vegas area built two Nesmith Cougars. One tri-gear and one tailwheel. The tailwheel airplane was originally built by someone named Frank, and he called it "Frankenstein". I have done as much reading on this group and others as I could about the Cougar and Tailwind differences - thanks to the experienced people on this forum for those previous comments. Here is what I know about my new purchase from the Craigslist photos and third-hand comments: It has the "flat bottom" airfoil and the Nesmith / W8 square wingtips It has the Piper style jackscrew pitch trim system, not a trim tab It has a Wittman engine mount with the proper Tailwind landing gear, not the questionable Nesmith gear It had a C-85 Continental, which had been removed It had only flown about 10-12 hours, and the people who flew it thought it was a little "too hot" for them Someone put vortex generators on the wings, presumably to slow it down on landing What I would like to ask on this forum is whether anyone has useful information about adding the triangular/trapezoid W10 style tips onto an existing short (Cougar/W8 style) wing. I saw one comment that the original triangular tips were bolted on steel tube tips and fabric covered, and only the later "real" W10's were wood. I have also seen one or two references to Cougars built or upgraded with the triangular tips added. I would be grateful to hear from anyone with knowledge of this upgrade, and whether it helps a flat-bottom wing as much as it helps a round-bottom wing. My reasoning for all of this is that the long wings are shown to cost little or no speed on the top end, but allow better and safer performance at the low speed end. That's a good bargain for me. I know full well that no flat bottomed Cougar is going to keep up with Jim Rust or any of the Clement airplanes in the speed department :) Another question I have for those with more knowledge is - Is there anything about the Cougar structure that would prevent me from using the same engines you can put on a Tailwind? I know a lot of 'proper' 10's are flying with O-320 Lycomings, but I have rarely heard of a W8 or Cougar using one. Is there a reason for this? Thanks in advance for helping me get 'calibrated' and up to speed with this as fast as possible!

Gene passed away at age 95. Most probably don't know that Gene built airplanes with his son at Santa Paula Airport in CA. Glasair, I think a 3, and a Pitts or maybe a Christen Eagle. I think Gene had heart problems and stopped flying. A photo of him with Top P. in the EAA museum in late 80's can be found. Do a search "Movie Actors who were pilots." Gene is not on that list and the list is very incomplete. The list was much longer just after the end of WWII. Steve McQueen was at Santa Paula in his final years. Tyrone Power was a Marine Pilot in the war and owned a DC3 after the war. A friend taught Johnny Carson to fly at Teterboro in the early 60,s. My friend was on the Carson show in that era as was Art Scholl. A few years ago Johnny's log book was on display at EAA Museum. The book was open with a signature Earl J. Sollien. Earl was from Hamilton NY and was a couple or years ahead of me in high school. His father in law was a local pilot and taught Earl to fly. Earl was a EAA Member when he passed away at his retirement home in FL. Ed McMahon and Skitch Henderson from the early Carson shows were both pilots. Ed was career Marine Reserve fighter pilot.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2025/april/pilot/savvy-maintenance-security-violation -- Bob Wray N115WT KABI

Rob crashed fatally at Langley AFB following a cross country from Nashville. No details on what happened. Rob was a long time Oshkosh performer and the most accomplished pilot in the history of competition aerobatics. 13 time US National Aerobatics Champion. Reports state "on landing" and alternatively "on approach". Rob was scheduled for the weekend airshow at Langley. Age 50. 15,000 hours. The only thing more dangerous than airshows i air racing.

A short trip over to the dark side. Yesterday I did the initial test flight on a new RV6(taildragger) with 0 320 and Hartzell Constant speed prop. I really like the airplane. Six flights in two days. Engine is one of the best Lycoming's I have ever experienced. Absolutely no temperature issues. CHT's are almost perfectly balanced and nothing over 375 taking off with a hot engine. Fuel injected, starts easy hot or cold. Very smooth. The power with the constant speed is amazing. I am not ready to give up the Tailwind but I sure would like a Constant Speed prop for the Tailwind.

Greetings group, I am looking for any scholarly papers, books, or articles, containing information about Steve Wittman, and the Tailwind. I need this for a paper I am writing for Liberty School of Aeronautics, pertaining to "Eras in Aviation". I was amazed to see that there doesn't seem to be much out there on these subjects. Please drop me a message about anything you know of that may help in this research. Thanks Brad List

The last time I took my wife on a trip in our Cessna 150, she looked out the window and noticed that the trucks on the interstate were outrunning us. She told me, we need a faster airplane. When your wife says something like that you don't want to miss out on that opportunity! So we purchased a W-10 from the estate of the late Robert Schultz in Houston. After a few days of poking and prodding, etc, we got the engine up and running and taxied the airplane to make sure that the brakes and steering were good. I didn't want to fly it for the first time in a 15 kt crosswind. Yesterday, the wind was more down the runway, so I took it out for its first flight in 5 years. After about a half hour of checking the flight characteristics, I made three touch and go's. Other than my first bouncy landing, everything worked perfectly. After checking things over carefully, I loaded up and took her to its new home in Kansas. Taking off out of west Houston, I initially climbed to 6500' and found that the groundspeed wasn't much over 100 kts. They were forecasting 35 kt headwinds, but at that altitude it was closer to 50 kts. So I dropped back down to 4500' and picked up about 20 kts of groundspeed but had a much bumpier ride. I made a fuel/potty stop in Rockwall just east of the DFW area. The second leg into Kansas went much faster with ground speeds in northern Oklahoma showing more like 150 to 160 kts. I'm going to need to do a few more T &G's to get comfortable with landing this airplane (the ground is a lot closer than the Airtractor that I'm used to flying), but it seems to run and perform well. One thing's for sure, my wife won't be complaining about being passed by a truck on the freeway! Brian Bird N957JL

I send a check and a request to Mr Staton for his manual and got no response. Since Jim Staton builder manual appears to be no longer available, does anyone have a manual their willing to part with their or at least a copy of the it? If so please contact with me. Mike

How much do the Harmon Lang gear cost? Dan Helsper

I was browsing my aviation YouTube channels and came across this website mentioned on Cleared Direct. It is https://www.flysto.net/ I've only played around with it for a couple of minutes, but it is really cool! It can take your EFIS data and analyze and replay it, and Keith, it does work with our GRT units. You can get takeoff and landing performance, it provides warnings of your flight (too close to stall, traffic, potential wake turbulence, oscillations in flare, centerline deviation...). It would be great for a CFI to review with a student, but it also would be great for phase1 flight analysis. You can replay your flight in real-time with a realistic out the window view. The website is free. You do have to set up an account and then you can just drag and drop your flight data. It will also use ADSB data if you don't have an EFIS.

The GTR200 and 200B has the ability to configure one of the 2 soft keys to work as a PTT button in case your one on the stick fails. I guess I knew this when I first got the radio but didn't configure it until I started looking at my little "micro switch" on the stick for PTT. I realized if that fails, I might have a problem transmitting. It is VERY easy to configure that soft key as a PTT function. Just go to the configure menu (access by powering up while pushing the small knob on the right side). Select "soft key configuration" and select PTT and then go "back" and then shut down the radio and power back up. Since the little PTT switch on my sticks just grounds a wire, I am guessing if it failed in the grounded mode then the soft key would not work and all we would get is a notice of a "stuck mic". But if it failed open then the soft key would work great. I hardly ever use those soft keys so this was a no brainer for me. Just thought I would let everyone know that it is a nice function should you need it. Keith