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Had a chance to introduce a new friend, “Denny”, to the world of Lancair
(235)
flight the other day, and for those reading this LML, with questions about
the
airplane’s flight characteristics, I’ll take this opportunity to pass on his
comments.
Oh yeah, he is a PILOT, but more about that later.
Besides the usual, “Dang! it sure is a sleek looking little airplane” and
“looks like
you put this thing on rather than get in and sit down” and the likes, what
impressed him was the flying. I briefed the panel to him (plus the fact that
he
didn’t have rudder pedals on his side) and once up and out of the pattern
and
headed back to home base about 50 miles away, I gave him the stick. After
the
obligatory couple of + / - G bumps while he proceeded to get the feel of
things and
try to find out what I had had for breakfast, he settled down just fine. It
seems to
take a pilot with any reasonable touch on the controls, no more than a
couple of
minutes to get the feel of a Lancair (at least, my Lancair).
Comments like: “I sure do like the way the controls stiffen up as a function
of
airspeed”, “excellent control harmony”, “damn! zero breakout force and no
dead-band - this is very nice”, “love the way it goes exactly where you
point it”,
“what’s the roll-rate like --- WOW!”, “trims reasonably”, “y’know, these
seats
are sure a lot more comfortable than they look” and "Geez! 195 indicated on
125 horses - incredible!", all confirm what I think about my Lancair.
At that point, we were at a good position to shoot the ILS here at Coeur D’
Alene,
so I dialed up the proper frequency and Denny proceeded to fly the approach.
He
was impressed with the low work-load required to keep the needles centered.
With
only a few minutes on the stick, he flew to the MAP without a hitch, where I
took
over due to traffic and my familiarity with the local pattern.
Denny’s enthusiasm for the Lancair’s flying qualities was very high and I’m
sure
he’ll be passengering with me a lot more in the future.
To qualify Denny’s comments as quite meaningful, let me explain that he’s a
retired Airforce General, who who spent an early part of his career flight
testing the
SR-71, among others, when it first came out of the Lockheed Skunk Works,
before it was turned over to the folks who flew them on missions. Lends a
certain
amount of credence to his evaluation, in my book!
I’m betting he’ll be building something Lancair pretty soon!
Dan Schaefer
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LML website: http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
LML Builders' Bookstore: http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair
Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.
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