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In my experience, neither the extended fuel nor the speed brakes are
necessary on the ES.  Unlike the 2's and 4's, which accelerate like a
dropped hammer when you put the nose down, the ES is pretty manageable, even
in a fairly steep descent.  Sometimes coming down from 10,000-plus I would
have to slow when I started hitting the bumpy, turbulent layers (like the
heavy iron, levelling at 10K to get below 250KIAS .. well, almost), but I
just don't think the speed brakes are worth the money and trouble.

On extended fuel, I opened up an extra bay in my wings to get the fuel
capacity to 90 gals, but afterward I wondered why I bothered.  With the
"lean burn" IO550G, you can cook along at 12,000' and 12 gph, giving the
airplane an endurance far longer than my own.  Even with the standard 78
gals, you've got plenty of endurance.  IMHO, the extended fuel just takes
away payload and gives you range you won't use.

On FB kit quality, I think the critical thing is expectations.  That is, if
you expect everything is going to just bolt or glue (sorry, bond) together
and be perfect, take up another hobby.  You have to look at everything in a
very critical, even suspicious manner -- joggles won't be deep enough,
surfaces will warp, your tail will have a twist if you don't watch out, etc.
On the whole, though, I'd give the Lancair folks about an A- overall.  Since
I've just ordered another ES FB kit, I guess that indicates my level of
satisfaction.

Static wicks:  How can they do any good on a non-conductive wing surface?
Looking for info here.

Jim Cameron  (once & future ES)


[Re: the static wicks... did you ever rub a non-conductive balloon against
a sweater to build up a static charge on it, or a non-conductive comb
through a cat's hair to build up a statuic charge on it?  The same thing
that happens with these other non-conductive materials happens to our
plastic airplanes when flown through cold, dry, dust-laden air... the air
molecules and dust particles rubbing on the airplane's surface imparts
that same static charge to the plastics from which it is built, and when
the charge builds up enough it can interfere with radio communications
by actually forming a corona around the aircraft.  Antennas that stick out
into the airstream are particularly great places for this static to gather
and ultimately from which to be discharged, so to eliminate the problem
we use static wicks which are designed specifically to provide a direct
path back into the atmosphere for this excess charge.  I hope this helps.

     <Marv>               ]
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