12/04/2022
In lieu of having lapped and you may riveted skins, The Cougar’s are bonded with the bulkheads and ribs creating their fuselage, empennage and you will wings The result is a good slicker airframe, a much smoother looks and you will, as reported by owners, less problems with rust. Simultaneously, the low portions of cabin fuselage are made of solid but small aluminium honeycomb. But the greatest difference try, naturally, the newest Cougar’s 160-hp Lycoming 0-320 engines. New Duchess and you can Seminole features 180-horsepower O-360s. They also have counter-spinning propellers, and therefore eliminate the crucial-engine bugbear. Each of the newest Cougar’s props change clockwise; hence, good airplane pilot theoretically need a difficult big date dealing with a great inability of one’s left (critical) engine, because right prop requires a larger bite and you can produces so much more asymmetric thrust as compared to left.
The brand new Cougar, Duchess and you may Seminole are a lot exactly the same in a single area: single-motor abilities. Every around three create miserably just after shedding a motor towards the takeoff. The fresh Cougar POH suggests that, during the sea-level to your an elementary big date and also at the gross lbs away from 3,800 weight, the newest planes will go around 200 fpm on a single engine, in the event the pilot do that which you proper (cobs the good system, feathers brand new bad, comes with the apparatus and you will flaps right up, and the like).
Beneath the requirements outlined a lot more than, the newest plane tend to endeavor up a mere 140 base for each and every distance they excursion over the ground. Making use of their 180-horsepower motors, the brand new Duchess and you may Seminole don’t carry out better. Their solitary-system prices-of-go and you may go up gradients are, respectively: 235 fpm and you can 166 base per kilometer; and you can 217 fpm and you can 148 base for each mile. That meager results appear lower than simple requirements; lose an engine in virtually any of the airplanes towards takeoff out-of Denver on a sexy time, and amounts probably would have bad cues before him or her.
In contrast, the latest single-engine service ceilings of your Duchess and you can Seminole is 6,170 feet and 4,a hundred legs, respectively. A Ways However it does not succeed using one engine, the newest Cougar enjoys a control characteristics,due to a huge extent into airplane’s huge tail. Vmca, minimal control speed that have an engine aside, are 61 tangles-one or two tangles below stands rates having obtaining gear and flaps longer. Stall strips to the top edges of one’s changed laminar-move NACA 63A-415 side result in the side sources so you can stall long before the fresh new hps
We were given a presentation of the Cougar’s docile manners from the Gil Stout out-of Traveling Tigers in Marietta, Pa., an old Grumman agent whose specialization nevertheless tend to be Cougar transformation and solution. Within step 1,500 base into the a warm time, Stout power down the best system, feathered the prop and made an excellent 4
knowledge come cougar life Profiel to be the latest dry engine. No problem. Then, he drawn the fresh new nostrils way up. The latest stands buzzer shrieked due to the fact Cougar shook such. better, a wet pet. You to definitely wing dropped, then your almost every other; but Stout were able to get them for the rudder whenever. Meanwhile, we had been sinking around 500 fpm; but, on trial, the newest flat never gave any sign it absolutely was planning to take action sexy. On account of restricted elevator travel, it is sometimes complicated so you’re able to stall a good Cougar versus sudden manage deflection. Discover a trade off, not. Predicated on residents, a great pilot and work out an electricity out of getting which have complete flaps from inside the a plane loaded to your the leading seats. forward cg limitation can use up all your elevator power on the flare and you may plunk upon all the about three wheels, especially if airspeed try a touch too high on method.