Skymaster Forum - Sky-Monster

My Report

There we were, in the pressurized Skymaster, on our way to 9500 feet, climbing through 7000 feet, indicating 160 MPH, and climbing at 2500 FPM. It’s one of those moments that sticks with you. Going faster in a climb than normally aspirated Skymasters do straight an level. We had experienced faster rates, earlier. Indicating 130 MPH, it was easy to get 3000 FPM. Slowing down to 105 MPH pegged the VSI at more than 3500 FPM. But the deck angle was so steep, it was uncomfortable.

Visualize this. When the space shuttle launches, and about 5 minutes after it leaves the pad, they have rolled inverted, and ground tells them “OK to throttle up”. With the exception of not being upside down, that’s the kind of climb angle you get at 105 MPH. If you had to leap tall buildings in a single bound, you might climb at 105 MPH. At 130, it was still steep, but better, and at 160, it was more “normal”, except for the VSI.

We needed a better VSI. One that reads to like, oh, I don’t know, maybe 7000 FPM. Yeah, that’s what you want. The first thing you want to do to the panel is rip out the old VSI, and put one in like they have on the space shuttle.

We leveled off at 9500, let thing settle in, and the indicated airspeed was a little, UNUSUAL. After all this was a Skymaster. However, at 9500, we were indicating 210 MPH. Read that again. Indicated air speed was 210 MPH. We were into the Yellow arc, at 9500 Feet. The engines were pulled back. Outside temp was about 45 F. We had a bit of a headwind, but still we were doing over 200 KNOTS over the ground. We needed to go higher, a lot higher, and since you really can leap tall buildings in a single bound, with this Skymaster, climbing to 12 or 15 thousand is not a big deal. At a comfortable 2500 FPM, the climb to 12K would take less than 5 minutes.

However, we were limited in time, and approach wanted to know, since we were about to leave their airspace (ater all, we were cooking right along), what we wanted to do. So we turned around and descended. Getting slowed down was a challenge. You can’t believe what it was like. We had speed brakes on, we needed to get down to 3000 feet, and we were doing 200 MPH. The speed brakes are cool. Little fences that pop straight up out of the wing. Not the big flap things that stick up from the wing, which really are spoilers. No change in attitude or control when the speed brakes were out.

Eventually, I got down and got it slowed down, and greased it in. One of my better landings. I think that that the winglets helped.

Owen Bell has created a MONSTER Skymaster. If you feel the need for speed, this is it. It is pressurized, of course, and has two TSIO-550 Continental engines. 700 HP at your disposal. Think Tom Cruise, and the F-14 sitting on a catapult. That kind of stuff, except you don’t have to join the navy.

This particular Skymaster has several other, unique modifications. One of those is to increase the amount of fuel the standard wing can hold, by using the outer bays of the wing to put an additional 40 gallons in. No Flint tanks extending the wing span, but the same amount of fuel. There were also two (2) 25 gallon tanks, hanging from the wings, and he can accommodate a total of 4 external, under the wing tanks.

Owens’ situation is a little unique. There is a place 40 miles South of him where fuel is considerably less expensive than at his airport (about $2.00 / gallon), so it makes some sense to tanker fuel in, and have it available. Saving a considerable amount of money, in the process. On this day, we had two (2) external tanks, and of course the NATO racks under the wings. Having the two external tanks really adds to the drag, so you can see you need to go higher, to stay out of the yellow arc. Take off the two tanks, and the NATO racks under the wing, and it would go faster still. Incredible speed.

I can’t thank Owen Bell enough for letting me fly his monster Skymaster. Also, my very good friend Herb Harney, who so graciously sat in the back seat, giving me a chance to fly left seat in this unique aircraft.

Herb and I had flown down in his Twin Comanche, to pick up some parts from Owen (the aforementioned winglets), and it was a pleasant ride. We were blessed with blue skies, and a tailwind on the way down. Coming back, we flew a little lower, and had a tail wind coming back. It was a great day. Oh, and at lunch, I had carrot soufflé. Food to die for. It was an incredible lunch, and an incredible day.

We took a ton of pictures, and with a little luck, if you come to Branson, you can see the MONSTER for yourself.