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Mike Campbell from Arizona did cut his short tail off of his flying Dreamcatcher 360 back in the day.
He did retro to the bigger tail. I remember a picture of him cutting off the tail with a large saw which made me cringe. In the end, I believe he said it was a ton of work and was not worth it and had to do again, he would not have done it.
Mike was an incredible builder and was featured on the cover of many magazines and even had his Dreamcatcher displayed at the New York Museum of Modern Art as a really neat hanging display. He had his own clothing and even a great video of his building process and some awesome aerobatic flying in the 360. Later he built a Giles aerobatic plane and it had an incredible paint scheme of an alien breaking out of the inside of the plane.
Remember too you will have
to repaint and getting the paint to match up is hard.
My vote is don't do it. I have flown in both small and large MKII tail 320's and vote not a significant difference. I fly with power right down to the runway which provides just enough air over the tail to give me plenty of control with no pitch problems.
That Dreamcatcher was an amazing plane if any of you remember it. It had the picture of the Aztec Goddess underneath it and was just an incredible airplane. I am sure Mike is sad he sold it and it was later destroyed in an accident that was not the fault of the airplane.
I think that was late 80's early 90's that all happened. MIke was a great, energetic builder and Lancair promoter. I heard he wanted to design his own airplane but is so busy now running his own company.
Matt
--- On Wed, 5/26/10, Larry Henney <LHenney@charter.net> wrote:
From: Larry Henney <LHenney@charter.net>
Subject: [LML] 320/360 tail mod
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Date: Wednesday, May 26, 2010, 11:41 AM
Danny,
I've flown a lot in both
big and small tails and hardly notice a difference anymore, but I do prefer
the large tail. One practical consideration I've seen with students in the
small tail is the need for a little more precise airspeed control on
final. If one is 10 kts fast in the large tail it seems less sensitive in
the flare than the same error in the small tail. This should not matter
however, I'm only suggesting flying a precise 1.3 Vso on final. When
airspeed is properly scanned the small tail flares and lands nicely. I've
seen a lot of PIO while waiting for the airspeed to arrive at 1.3Vso or less in
the flare. It's highly self critiquing and highly entertaining for the
instructor.
Retrofit?
Hmmm. I've not known of a single small tail driver who actually did it
after flying. I'd guess it would not be too much pain to do for an
experienced builder. Does Lancair still stock/ sell retrofit tails?
If they sell the carbon MK II tail in a fast build version I expect it could be
done in less than a month but it would be a huge undertaking for a novice
builder (imho).
Good Luck with your
decision.
Larry Henney
N360LH (big
tail)
930 hrs
Danny,
There are many small tail 320/360s out there flying, including mine with
over 700 hours, and they are not squirrely at all. Mine is extremely stable in
slow flight and there is no PIO during landing. Have you flown the plane you're
considering? That would be my first suggestion so you can see for
yourself.
Len Spina
N15EG
In a message dated 5/25/2010 9:28:07 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time,
dannymiller@wowway.com writes:
Hi folks, I'm new here and I
have no doubts this has been discussed at
length in the past. I'm
considering the purchase of a 320 with the original
tail and from
everything I've read it seems to be a squirrely a/c subject to
PIO in the
landing configuration. Can you direct me to additional resources
that
describe the time/effort/expense, etc. involved in retrofitting the
tail
section?
Thanks,
Danny
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