Category: Flying

I was told recently that I should be putting covering material across any gaps in the hinge areas of my aircraft control surfaces. That seemed very superficial to me, so I put off making these changes for several weeks. However, after flying the Extra 260 today with these modifications I am a believer… at least for this type of plane and flying.

It seems that by putting covering material over all gaps between the wing and ailerons at the hinge line, and eliminating all air gaps from this area, the control inputs and flight characteristics of the Extra are much crisper and happen more quickly than before. I performed the same modifications on the elevators and horizontal stabilizers as well, and again the control inputs seem to be much more noticeable than they were previously. Only the rudder and vertical stabilizer went untouched.

The covering job for this area certainly wasn’t of the highest quality, but the end result speaks for itself. Where the Extra 260 once was docile and slow on low control rates with a gap between the surfaces, now control inputs are fast, crisp and very predictable. I wouldn’t have said that a 1/8th or 1/16th gap between surfaces would mean that much to overall flight performance but I saw and felt today that on aerobatic aircraft, every gap does indeed matter.

It has been more than a year, but the 30cc Extra 260 flew again this past weekend. I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to return, but a series of unfortunate events conspired to keep the airplane and I separated while it was repaired. Now, however, it seems to be close to full operational goodness, and I’m glad to have my hands on the controls again.

It was a fine plane and it outlasted nearly every other radio control craft I have yet owned, but today the T-34 sucumbed to less than skillful flying by yours truly and met its end upon high tension power lines.

The World Models T-34 Mentor would never win any beauty awards for scale looks or accurate renditions of the original airplane, but it was a hardy, reliable and very easy to fly craft. If not for some poor covering material that was shedding after years of faithful service it could have been one of the best planes ever built.

While it will never truly be replacable, I am sure there will be another plane to take its spot in the garage in the future.  Goodbye and farewell T-34, you will certainly be missed.

If my calculations are correct after this past weekends cross country flight I now have 133.6 flight hours, 6.5 night hours, 19.4 PIC hours and 3.2 hours of simulated instrument training with all of my required flying done ahead of the written and flight test for the Private Pilot Certificate.  This is good news, of a sort, since it means that the first major phase of flight training is nearing an end.  And with AvGas at nearly $5.90 a gallon it couldn’t happen soon enough.

I now have to do a few more brush up flights to stay frosty, start figuring out my plan of attack on the written test, take one more check-ride with another instructor then it’s off to the final flight test and oral test.  Normally this would make people happy but I am going to take it easy and make sure everything goes smoothly.  It’s been a long road to get to this point and there is no reason to blow it at this last stage.

This weekend I completed another milestone in the flight training regimen: a cross country (50+ miles from the home airport) flight with only me at the controls of the aircraft.  I chose an airport that I had visited previously, Modesto (KMOD), and it was a pretty uneventful flight.  I didn’t get lost and I didn’t use the GPS (mostly) to find my way there.  All in all it was very straightforward.

One down, two more and a bunch of little procedural stuff to go before that private ticket is mine.