When I was preparing to stretch my Pacer in the 90s, I measured the distance between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the stabilizer on a Canadian Bushmaster stretch and on a Producer. The average was a stretch of 22 inches on those planes.
PA 22/20 The folks at Dakota Cub have modified a Pacer quite a bit, looks pretty nice. Somewhere I think I saw mention of top hinged doors on both sides of a modified Pacer, any thoughts?
We have tried 56-60" over the years on 150-160 HP Pacer. I now use a 57" on a newly OH 160 with cruise at 112 at 2450, pilot and 24 gals of fuel and OAT 45F, okay on short fields and nice cruise for travel.
My experimental stretched Pacer has wings built on cub spars so the strut attachment fittings on the wing are in the same location as a PA-18. This requires changing the angle of the fuselage fitting from the PA-20/22 angle (31 degrees) to 21 degrees. This somewhat scary operation is done by just carefully heating it up and bending it.
The pacer / tripacer is one of the most under rated planes on the market! The control harmony is very nice in the pacer! If he had you at 80 on final it was way over kill.. even loaded, and I mean loaded down I never flew more than 60 on approach with touch down around 45. With VG's it was rock solid at 45 and touch down (with power) was around ...
The designers of the Super Pacer went a completely different root than the Producer and designed a new wing useing 19 ribs, spliced spars and all PA 22 parts except for the wing strut attachement and jury strut attachments which are PA 18. They also redesigned a new wing strut system that uses a 4 in. front and rear strut blank.
The Pacer is a 120-125 MPH airplane at cruise power of 2450 RPM. Top speed with the throttle to the wall can hit the 140 mark. My 180 fixed 56 pitch runs 125 at 2450, but can hit 155 full power @ 2750 RPM. Our customer with our 180 constant speed STC cruises 140-145 @ 2400 squared. I do not know what it would do full out.
I am looking seriously at purchasing a tri pacer with the intent of converting it into a producer. My concern is weight and balance. It seems to me that lengthening the fuselage almost 24" creates an amazing lever arm. Even with an O-360 up front it seems that weight and balance might be...
Pacer gear looks a lot like 12 and 14 gear. 18 gear is pretty much accepted as the gold standard for landing in less than ideal spots. So how does pacer beefed up/ heavy duty gear with 31 radials measure up. Also what about on ski's.
The pacer has a single door and a pain for the pilot, the pacer takes some extra skill on the ground, the pacer is butt ugly :lol: On the other hand the spring gear on the citabria is not as nice as bungee gear. Citabria is not a SC but is faster and more comfortable and a good choice for a first plane on your way to a SC.
