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Buzzie88@aol.com wrote:
John,
Could you be more specific about your experience on the test flight ? And, what about that experience caused you to delay or completely abandon buying a Lancair kit ?
Buz McAbery
ES-156 about 75%
N82BM
I will try to answer this and a couple of private emails all at once...
It was Wednesday morning at Sun n Fun, the day the race was supposed to be held (grrrrr). I was the first demo ride of the day, and had signed up a couple weeks previously. We started with Mel asking my experience (about 3K hours in light planes, 2K of those in C-180/185s, 300 RV8, 200 Grumman Widgeon, all the usual others including some Pitts and Skybolt time) and what I wanted to accomplish...I told him I knew the airplane was a fast one, good x-country type, but I wanted to do at least one full stall, to see if it might be too unfriendly for someone accustomed to fairly benign airplanes.
When we stalled the airplane, Mel let me do the flying, but kept about 12-1300 rpm in for power. At the stall (fully developed as I said, I see no point in approach-to-stall as a test), the aircraft, with no warning buffet, abruptly pitched 90 degrees downward, and rolled right 90 degrees. I made a normal stall recovery from here. We then tried it again, and this time I made darn sure the skid-slip ball was centered, but the same thing happened. The recovery was normal, opposite rudder to stop the roll, relaxation of back pressure, recovery from the resulting dive. The aircraft did not offer to spin, but it was a very abrupt stall, with a substantial loss of altitude.
We then made a couple of landings at Plant City (I think) just south of Lakeland. The airport has two runways at 90 degree angles, and the wind about 15 kts was splitting the two exactly. First we tried the right crosswind. We flew the pattern at 1500 ft, so we could make diving turns with no chance of loading up the aircraft while "slow" (105 KIAS), flew final at 95, with the goal of touching down at 85. It was obvious from his actions and advice to me that Mel was very worried about getting too slow, almost as if our two stalls had convinced him. I was not arguing, as you might imagine. As I flared for the first landing, I ballooned a little, then got to about 80 KIAS before touchdown. The aircraft really glommed onto the runway. Mel said, "oh, too slow, you just can't get below 85". We went around, and tried the other runway for a left crosswind. I did better this time, but still nothing to brag about. The rudders seemed extremely stiff, compensating for the crosswind, and I asked Mel if he had his feet on the pedals, but he said no.
We then returned to Sun n Fun, using the warbird arrival, which was tense because of an O-2 (mixmaster) that was sharing the pattern, whose pilot needed some dual. Mel made the landing there, and didn't do any better.
All in all, I ended up unimpressed with the airplane. I tried to imaging landing at 85 KIAS, at home at 7650 msl, in the summer (about 120 mph ground speed). Mel's nervousness in an aircraft in which he had many hours made as large an impression as did the stalls. I really did not like the rudder forces required either. I decided to wait and see what news came regarding tweeks for stall characteristics before I committed to building one. Since then, I think I have finally decided not to build a Lancair, though I reserve the right to change my mind.
I sure do value this list though. You have a few poseurs, and bs'ers, but the good info to bs ratio is very high, and you have some real experts who are willing to take the time to share their knowledge, and that is just invaluable. I have learned a lot from you all. I hope I can contribute once in a while.
It will be interesting to see the responses I get from this!
John Huft
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