I have been flying a 300L for a couple of months now. I came to the Extra from a Pitts. I have been working some with a pilot who has lots of Pitts and Sukoi experience, but not a huge amount of Extra experience.

My question involves spins. It seems to me that the Extra enters a spin much more casually than the Pitts (S2A and S2C), and spins much flatter. I've tried to enter the spin with pretty agressive pull, but the Extra still seems very lazy in starting the spin. The nose is very high at one turn and it takes about one and a half turns for the spin to really develop. I find that this flatter spin is especially true in inverted spins where the nose is positioned just about like an inverted flat spin in the Pitts, although the Extra seems to wrap up in the inverted spin after about one turn. It also seems to me that the Extra will come out of a deep spin much more quickly than the Pitts. It has never required more than a couple of turns to recover from a spin in the Extra. I’ve talked with one other Extra owner who agrees, but he’s a new owner as well.

How do you find the Extra spins when compared to the Pitts? Is there anything I can do to make the Extra enter the spin more aggressively? And finally, does it matter in competition how abruptly the spin is entered?

Thanks.

• RE: Extra 300L Spin Characters,Patty_Wagstaff, 02:39z, 10-06-04
  • RE: Extra 300L Spin Characters,gibbons, 02:48z, 10-06-04
    • RE: Extra 300L Spin Characters,Patty_Wagstaff, 17:05z, 10-17-04
      • RE: Extra 300L Spin Characters,Loop4fun, 02:55z, 12-25-04
• RE: Extra 300L Spin Characters,djmolny, 06:08z, 01-05-05

>
>How do you find the Extra spins when compared to the
>Pitts? Is there anything I can do to make the Extra enter
>the spin more aggressively? And finally, does it matter
>in competition how abruptly the spin is entered?
>
>Thanks.

Hi there

Well, your observations are interesting and seem right on to me. I would agree with them, but also would say that the Extra has different spin characteristics. It's more stable than the Pitts and so doesn't tend to transition from upright-inverted or inverted-upright as easily (which can be a good thing for a neophyte akro pilot), but makes it important for the pilot in competition to use very specific techniques to make the airplane look aggressive in the competition environment.

I would suggest you play with power to hold the nose up before the spin. Get the nose up higher than you would in a Pitts and hold a bit of power in, but make sure you don't have too much power as the Extra - being a monoplane - requires more "energy management" in the competition/airshow environment.

Have you had coaching/critiquing yet? What category are you flying?

Patty

Patty,

Thanks for the reply. I've had no coaching. I have been through emergency spin recovery in the Pitts (Chandler) and in the Extra, but have only recently become interested in competing. I'd like to compete in Sportsman next year but am a long way from that right now.

Thanks again,

Chip

Chip

It would be good for you to get up with an instructor now and then, especially in a new airplane. The Extra requires certain techniques to make it look really good! Also, competing is a fantastic idea, of course. Just keep it high for now!

Patty

Chip,
I agree with Patty that you need to get the nose up much higher than a Pitts to get a crisp break. After about a half turn or slightly more feed in a little forward stick (keep full rudder) which will accelerate the spin and not allow the nose to get so high at one turn. It will take a little practice to get it right.

BD

I found that unless the nose is quite high, the stall break is not crisp. Pulling harder runs the risk of a "forced entry" call from the judges if you put in rudder too early.

So just fake it! Wait until the plane is about to stall, then add rudder, a bit of in-spin aileron, and gentle forward stick to establish the nose-down attitude you want. Looks great from the ground.

Regards,
DJ Molny
IAC Chapter 12