Line up and stop. Confirm full flaps are selected and elevator trim is set. Hold the stick slightly forward of neutral. Slide the throttle from quiet to loud while holding the brakes. Confirm the gauges reflect full power and feel the airplane quiver in anticipation. Can an airplane feel excitement?
Probably not, but you sure can. Now, release the brakes and feel yourself pressed into the seat as you discover less right rudder is needed than you expect. The controls are immediately responsive, and before it even seems possible, the ground disappears as you surge upward.
If you're not already a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Subscribe today to get the issue as soon as it is released in either Print or Digital formats.
Subscribe Now
Welcome to Husky flying.
FLYING Magazine flew the Aviat Husky thanks to one man’s desire to build and sell a serious utility backcountry airplane. A plan that was initially thwarted because he couldn’t buy the rights to the one he most wanted.
Adventurous aerobatic pilot Frank Christensen, owner of Christen Industries, which built the Pitts Special series and the Christen Eagle II aerobatic biplane kit, watched as biplane sales fell during the early 1980s. He wanted to expand his company’s offerings by selling a backcountry airplane. The logical way was to buy the type certificate for the Super Cub from Piper—after all, Piper wasn’t building them anymore. For those who came to revere the Husky, it was fortuitous that Piper and Christensen couldn’t agree on a price and Christensen, determined to move forward, decided to design and sell a better Super Cub.
- READ MORE: We Fly: Skyryse One
In 1985, as GA sales were in the dumps, the smart money said it would be foolish to spend the fortune required to design, certificate, and sell a brand-new small piston-engine airplane, especially one with a tailwheel that was targeted at a market that Piper had determined was dead. The smart money was wrong.
Putting together a team, Christen Industries designed, certificated, and began to produce what became the A-1 Husky in nearly record time. Looking like a modernized Super Cub but more robust and with a larger cabin, the A-1 Husky obtained FAA Part 23 certification in 1987. With 180 hp up front, the spartan monoplane demonstrated serious STOL capabilities and impressive climb performance. Its shortcoming was a meager useful load for its 1,800-pound gross weight. Word got around about the Husky’s ability to get in and out short strips and its performance on floats. Sales grew.
In 1995, businessman, backcountry, and aerobatic pilot Stu Horn bought the company and changed its name to Aviat Aircraft Inc. and focused on improving the Husky, including upping the gross weight. In 1998, results of the work became apparent as the two new models of the Husky appeared: the A-1A with 180-HP and a gross weight of 1,890 pounds, and the A-1B with a 180 or 200 hp engine and a gross weight of 2,000 pounds.
In 2005, a new wing became standard. It retained the classic, high-lift Clark Y airfoil, but the span of its four-position semi-Fowler flap span was extended. That required the creation of a redesigned, shorter span aileron that resulted in a markedly increased roll rate. The A-1C was certificated in 2007 with both 180 and 200 hp engines and a gross weight of 2,200 pounds, which later became 2,250 pounds.
- READ MORE: We Fly: Pilatus PC-24
The year 2018 saw the most recent big changes to the A-1C. Garmin glass VFR or IFR panels meant getting rid of heavy iron gyros and the vacuum pump, meaning that the weight of the VFR and IFR panels were the same, causing the percentage of IFR-equipped Huskies to skyrocket. They now account for 90 percent of all sales according to Aviat vice president Matt Hofeldt, who, along with Aviat’s central Florida sales rep, Kevin Oaks, introduced us to the A-1C-200 that we would fly for this article.
At the same time, the original bungee elevator trim system—moving the trim control moved bungees that positioned the elevator—was replaced with a dual-cable system that activates a true trim tab. While it doesn’t sound like much, our flight would reveal that it greatly improved handling and elevator “feedback” to the pilot, and it meant virtually no pitch change with flap deflection. The other big change was to extend the landing gear, moving the tires 2 inches forward and 4 inches down, which resulted in widening the gear tread a full foot. That’s a big deal because a Husky weak spot had been its landing gear geometry, which resulted in the highest rate of flipping over during runway loss of control landing accidents among its tailwheel peers according to research done by FLYING sister publication The Aviation Consumer.
For an airplane developed during the sad, slow GA days of the mid 1980s that many predicted to have no market, the company has delivered around 6,000 Huskies since—making a lot of people at the home of Aviat in Afton, Wyoming, quite pleased.
The Basics
The Husky we flew is an A-1C-200, powered by a 200 hp, fuel-injected Lycoming IO-360-A1D6 engine swinging a two-bladed Hartzell Trailblazer scimitar prop. It is approved for day and night, VFR and IFR flight. It was painted in a striking, specially designed scheme for the Recreational Aviation Foundation—more about the RAF in the sidebar—which Aviat is using for a year to promote the RAF.
- READ MORE: We Fly: Vashon Ranger R7
We’ve long respected the Husky series for attention that was paid to crashworthiness, something that has improved as the line has evolved. Currently, the seats meet FAR Part 23 16-G load requirements, both seats have a five-point restraint system, and seat belt airbags are an option. Having dealt with the limited useful load of the earliest Huskies, the A-1C that we flew was a revelation. The empty weight of the airplane was 1,490 pounds, a bit heavier than the 1,320 pounds in Aviat advertising. Nevertheless, with a gross weight of 2,250 pounds with full fuel—50 gallons usable—460 pounds may be carried in the cabin. That’s two 200-pounders and 60 pounds of baggage.
There are two baggage areas, both unobstructed, aft of the rear seat. The forward one has a max capacity of 50 pounds and can be accessed from the cabin or a dedicated door on the right side of the fuselage. It is closed with four Dzus fasteners and opens downward. It has a safety catch that holds the door closed should someone close it but forget to use the fasteners. The rear baggage compartment is only accessible through a right-hand fuselage door and is closed with Dzus fasteners—there are no hinges.
As Aviat worked to increase the useful load of the Husky, it also extended the center of gravity (CG) range. We ran a series of weight and balance calculations and found that no matter how we loaded the airplane, we didn’t have to worry about running out of the forward or aft CG limits—something almost unheard of with GA aircraft.
Avionics
It still seems a little strange to be talking about advanced avionics in a bushplane even though Aviat has been selling IFR-equipped Huskies for decades. The RAF Husky we flew had an all-Garmin touchscreen G500 TXI suite with GTN 750 nav/com/GPS and GFC 500 autopilot. Autopilot? In an airplane with a great deal of adverse aileron yaw that challenges a pilot each time the airplane makes a turn? Yep. Hofeldt told us that Garmin had licked the yaw issue—and we found out that he was right.
The Garmin glass lived up to its reputation for being easy to program, and the autopilot did as it was programmed, even in turbulence, with appropriate rudder input. The system includes Garmin’s envelope protection that applies gentle then increasing pressure to return the airplane toward straight and level flight should bank or pitch parameters be exceeded. We think that it’s a great system and glad to see it in the Husky as it may save some lives when pilots get distracted. It can be disabled for maneuvering.
Walking Around It
When first seeing the RAF Husky, our reaction was that it just plain looked cool in the paint scheme and its stance sitting on 31-inch bushwheels. While doing the walkaround before flight, the solid nature of the structure becomes apparent. There are handles on the lower aft fuselage for maneuvering the airplane on the ground, but more importantly, there are also handles where they are really needed, on the front of the horizontal stabilizer. Grabbing one of them and moving the airplane reveals how robustly the horizontal stabilizer is built—unlike many other tailwheel airplanes we’ve flown over the years where the horizontal stabilizers are not always a good place to latch onto for ground handling.
For years, Aviat had used a bungee shock absorption system for the main landing gear. In service, the bungees tended to stretch which meant that a firm touchdown could result in an impressive bounce. It now uses what it calls a rebound damped system that, in our opinion, goes a long way toward reducing any bouncing after touchdown.
The word “solid” kept coming to mind, as we looked at the structure of the clamshell doors or grabbed and rocked a wingtip. Otherwise, the preflight is conventional. Both halves of the cowling can be easily opened to get a complete view of the engine room.
The Cabin
Boarding a Husky is a challenge, especially one sitting tall on bushwheels. It was made easier when Aviat extended the clamshell door a few years back, but it still requires a certain degree of athleticism and practice to get in or out without the risk of becoming a YouTube comedy video. And we’ll say it right now, flying a Husky with the door open on a nice day is one of the most pleasant experiences in aviation. We think that door probably sells a lot of airplanes.
The fixed front seat is, thankfully, long gone. It now adjusts fore and aft a long distance and moves down during the last few inches of aft travel to accommodate the tallest pilots. In our years of flying two-seat tandem airplanes, we’ve rarely thought of the seats as anything more than devices to hold a pilot and passenger in the airplane. They were usually spartan and marginally comfortable at best. That’s not the case with the A-1C. The seats are absolutely delightful. The energy-absorbing cushions welcome occupants into a level of comfort uncommon to bushplanes.
The back of the front seat also hinges forward to provide additional room for someone getting in and out of the back seat. A spring-loaded pin locks it into place in each of its two positions.
The prop and mixture controls are now part of the throttle quadrant and easy to manipulate with one hand, much like vintage World War II aircraft that we’ve flown. The rear stick is easily removable, a nice feature when carrying nonpilot passengers. The rear seat can also be removed quickly leaving a long flat floor for a long baggage compartment. Tie-down rings are provided for securing cargo in what is then a large space.
STOL Performance
The Department of Defense/NATO definition of a STOL aircraft is one that can take off or land over a 50-obstacle within 1,500 feet at sea level. The A-1C-200 Husky can do that without even breathing hard.
According to the POH, using full flaps at gross weight on a standard day at sea level the A-1C-200 we flew will break ground in 450 feet and use a total of 850 feet to clear a 50-foot obstacle. Flaps up at VY the book rate of climb is 1,200 fpm. Those numbers matched our observations when flying it.
For landing over a 50-foot obstacle the total distance per the POH is 1,350 feet with the landing roll portion being 634 feet. Those numbers seemed conservative per our observations, although this Husky definitely used significantly less runway on takeoff than on landing. In its advertising, Aviat gives performance numbers at 10 percent below gross weight, which is pretty much a pilot and full fuel, something we frankly don’t understand. It seems there is no need to exaggerate the already superb capabilities of the Husky.
Flying It
The Husky has always had a good reputation for ground handling—recognizing that tailwheel airplanes are not tolerant of sloppy pilot technique and have more than twice the rate of runway loss of control accidents than nosewheel machines. Visibility over the nose with standard size tires is excellent—solo is from the front seat—although with the Bushwheels we found that we needed to gently S-turn when taxiing to see directly in front.
Huskies have always had a more solid feel during taxi whether it’s on wheels or floats than their peers. The new rebound damped landing gear made things even better, especially when we taxied on a rough grass strip. With the available power, takeoffs are a ball. We made several short-field takeoffs, using 30 degrees of flap as called for in the POH for maximum performance. The tail comes off the ground to a
tail-low position and the airplane flies off at about 45 knots. The tailwheel can be kept on the ground if desired for soft or rough fields, but the extra drag prolongs the takeoff roll slightly. The best angle of climb speed (VX) is 59 knots and gets the Husky over a 50-foot obstacle in seemingly no time at all.
The POH calls for flaps up on crosswind takeoffs and notes that the max demonstrated crosswind velocity is 13 knots. We are aware of some loss of control accidents immediately after liftoff with full flaps in crosswinds. Given the low speed at which the Husky lifts off with full flaps and its pronounced adverse aileron yaw, we agree with the POH procedure and the extra speed for liftoff that comes with it for dealing with crosswinds.
Once in the air, flap retraction results in very little pitch change and settled in at VY—64 knots—we saw a rate of climb of 1,200 fpm, which matched the book. The 200-HO IO-360 engine is a “max continuous” power engine so there is no need, nor benefit to making a power reduction for climb after takeoff. Reducing power from full throttle and max rpm just means a lower rate of climb, less efficient engine cooling, and longer time to altitude.
When level in cruise we experimented with “squared” power settings to look at fuel burn and cruise speeds. Not surprisingly, with the built-in drag of a strut-braced wing and monster tires, carrying more than 55 percent power resulted in burning more fuel and not gaining much in the way of cruise speed. For example, going from 65 percent to 75 percent power only increased speed by 4 knots (to 91 ktas) but increased fuel burn by 2 gph to 9.5.
Steep turns required attention to keep the ball centered and apply appropriate back pressure to maintain altitude. Slow flight requires good rudder work to handle adverse aileron yaw when rolling at all aggressively. The new trim system made holding speed accurately easy. Full flap stall speed is 46 kias, flaps up is 50 kias. Loaded near gross weight we were unable to generate a stall break with full flaps. We like the handling of the Husky especially with the new trim system, however, a pilot used to Cessna, Piper, and Cirrus aircraft will need a solid checkout to learn how to use their feet to fly the airplane safely, especially at low speeds. It is not plain vanilla.
Setting up for landing, the max flap speed is 70 kias. Power off with full flaps, the drag of the paddle bladed Hartzell prop and Bushwheels cause the Husky to come out of the sky like a dropped sewer cover. Bluntly, we can’t figure out how a pilot could overshoot a landing. Coming over the fence at 55-60 knots provides enough energy for a power-off landing, although rounding out, whether for a wheel or three-pointer, the power-off drag means speed bleeds off in a big hurry requiring an aggressive flare to get the tail down or adding power.
Of course, we didn’t get it right the first time and hit firmly on the mains. The rebound damped landing gear system worked as advertised and we didn’t zing back into the air, which could have started an unpleasant pilot induced oscillation main gear to tailwheel porpoising exercise. When going into a short field, the fact that the gear is well damped can mean the difference between a slightly bouncy landing or going off the end while trying to tame PIO.
We made go-arounds from deep in the flare, and the Husky walked cleanly away from the ground without making any kind of unreasonable demands for hard right rudder or trim changes.
Conclusion
Flying a Husky is tremendously fun. Yet there is no question that as a tailwheel airplane with significant rudder coordination challenges, it requires a great deal of respect on the part of its pilot—so bring your A game. That also means a serious, thorough checkout and regular recurrent training. That being said, Hofeldt summarized it well when he told us: “A Husky is a special airplane that takes special people to special places.”
Spec Sheet: Aviat Husky A-1C-200
Price as Tested: $560,077
Engine: Lycoming IO-360-A1D6
Propeller: Two-bladed Hartzell Composite
Horsepower: 200
Length: 22 ft., 7 in.
Height: 7 ft., 5 in.
Wingspan: 35 ft., 6 in.
Wing Area: 183 sq. ft.
Wing Loading: 12 lbs./sq.ft.
Power Loading: 11 lbs./hp.
Cabin Width: 27 in.
Cabin Height: 48 in.
Max Takeoff Weight: 2,250 pounds
Max Zero Fuel Weight: Not applicable
Standard Empty Weight: 1,320 lbs.
Max Baggage: 50 lbs. behind rear seat, 35 lbs. in aft baggage area
Useful Load: 930 lbs. [depending on options]
Max Useable Fuel: 50 gallons
Service Ceiling: 17,000 feet
Max Rate of Climb, MTOW, ISA, SL: 1,200 fpm
Max Cruise Speed: 125 ktas
Max Range: 712 nm [NBAA reserves]
Fuel Consumption at Max Cruise Power: 10 gph
Stall Speed, Flaps Up: 50 kias
Stall Speed, Full Flaps: 46 kias
Takeoff Over 50 Ft. Obs: 850 ft. [ISA, sea level]
Landing Over 50 Ft. Obs: 1,350 ft. [ISA, sea level]
This column first appeared in the April Issue 957 of the FLYING print edition.
