Extra 300L – Dream Machine With No Conscience
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Luckily I have had the opportunity to fly an Extra a few times – from the passenger seat [PREVIOUS POST HERE]. I felt compelled to offer my thoughts on what might be one of the coolest machines I have ever handled.
Extras are built at the Dinslaken Airfield in Germany. It is a certified, factory-built, thoroughbred aerobatic machine that combines strength and agility in a way that leaves a lasting impression on anyone that has flown one.
Your first impression on the ground is how smooth the thunderous 300hp Lycoming is in spite of its staccato growl. This is collectively due to the 6 cylinders, the long nose that puts some distance between you and the engine, and the low mass 3 (or 4) bladed composite prop.
The next positive impression is on takeoff. It is effortless even in strong winds due to the caricature-sized control surfaces that force the air into submission coupled with a 300hp blast of air from the MT propellor.
Of course the takeoff is just a hint that the fun is just beginning. On climb you can tell this is not your average airplane with the VSI and altimeters winding up rapidly and the control response telepathic. Think it and the Extra delivers.
Once you are in the practice area and you speed up you might expect the controls to load up and get stiffer and maybe less responsive to the touch – not so. This demoness of the air doesn’t care about airspeed. She can provide whatever you want in virtually any speed regime. You would think an airplane like this would be easy to over control and be too touchy for mere mortals to fly, but somehow Walter Extra also designed it to be great at just milling around the sky – uncanny!
The really fun part is how neutral the stability is, you point it somewhere it stays put. And when it’s time to move, well it moves as fast as you want – roll rates are in the 400 degrees per second range and vertical penetration is exceptional for an airplane with no afterburner. It’s like being inside of one of those crazy 3D model airplanes that the RC guys fly around and like her model airplane little cousins the 10G load limit insures she’s up for the punishment.
On approach, the airplane slows down like nothing I have ever seen. One minute you are doing 170kts, the next you are at 80kts coming down like a brick. The braking affect of that big prop and the drag of the bulbous wing make flaps and/or speed breaks unnecessary.
If you ever have a chance to get a ride in one of these beauties or if there’s school that uses them, jump at the chance. Everyone should experience such a marvelous airplane at least once.
By Brent Owens <click on my name to email me>
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A lovely tribute to the unique qualities of the Extra line! I’ve got several hundred hours in mid- and low-wing variants of the Extra 300 series, and they’re always a treat to fly. There’s something wonderful about knowing the airplane was designed and built to handle so much acceleration. I don’t know if you got to fly from the rear seat, but it’s a much better experience than sitting in the front. In the front, you’re more or less on top of the CG, which means you don’t feel the yaw nearly as well as you do from the rear, not to mention the fact that all the instruments and many of the controls exist only in the back cockpit, the sight gauge is oriented for that seat, etc.
Having said all that, an Extra is incredibly expensive to operate. For example, the canopy is like $18,000. That’s not the entire canopy, it’s just for the plexiglas, which then has to be fitted to the skirt, etc. A friend who operated one in the Advanced category replaced all the engine mounts every 50 hours. There’s nothing defective about the airplane, it’s just a result of the hard lives they lead.
I think you get much of the control feel and fun factor in your RV8 for a tiny fraction of the cost.
Ron,
I have only been in the front (passenger) seat, but would love the chance to be PIC in the back. They are expensive creatures to be sure, which does make me appreciate my little RV a bit more.
Brent
I love this! Thank you for sharing your experience. Every time I read about your flying escapades I want to get into the sky!
Thanks Karlene! Hopefully there’s prop airplane in your future.
Brent
I always enjoy reading the iFLYblog, so I was doubly thrilled to see that the title was about one of my favorite aircraft: the Extra 300L. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the piece was illustrated with a picture of…a plane I was flying!
The picture is from a three-ship of Extra 300Ls (the camera-ship being another Extra 300L as well) with my airplane in the foreground and the President of Aviation Performance Solutions (APS), BJ Ransbury, flying off my wing. The Extra 300L is truly an exceptional aerobatic airplane, but its capabilities make it wonderful in another mission as well.
We use the Extra 300L to provide Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT). In that role we use it to exemplify certain aerodynamic characteristics, all-attitude orientation, and recovery concepts that could be useful in our client’s airplanes whether they are a light jet, transport category airliner, or a single engine airplane like the Extra. The key is in how the tool is used. The Extra is a very “Vanilla” airplane; other than its exceptional responsiveness it doesn’t have unusual or odd handling characteristics which makes it great for emulating a wide variety of upset situations applicable to a wide variety of fixed-wing aircraft.
It is not unusual for us to come back from a training sortie with no more than 2.5 g’s on the meter after a half dozen or more recoveries from various practiced upset scenarios. If that is the limit load of their aircraft and they do everything correctly, that is what we are looking for. We are not teaching them to fly an Extra 300L, we are trying to teach them to fly safely and effectively back to the center of their airplane’s normal flight envelope.
So why do we need a plane with all the capability of an Extra 300L? It provides us with a tremendous margin of safety to know that we can recover from any spin modes possible and have much greater structural strength than will ever be called upon. Its speed is great for transitioning quickly to safe maneuvering airspace. Its unrestricted visibility is perfect for developing the all-attitude awareness that is essential for eliminating the cognitive impairment and disorientation that pilots experience when they have not seen the world from all possible perspectives before.
While it is a wonderful tool for teaching UPRT, the Extra 300L is also a marvelous airplane and a joy to fly!
Randall Brooks, VP Training, Aviation Performance Solutions
apstraining.com
Randall,
Thanks! What a coincidence! That is very cool. You guys have an amazing program out there and I would recommend it to anyone who has a chance to do it. Right now with all the accidents centering around raw flying skills, these kinds of courses are invaluable – especially for the pro pilot.
Regards,
Brent
PLEASE stop writing these articles! I want so badly to own an Extra 300L, and it’s too soon after you got me wanting an RV-8! My wife just shakes her head and says “you’ve been reading Brent’s blog again haven’t you”. They don’t appear too crazy expensive…maybe if I empty my kids’ college funds…
Rob,
Sorry I can’t help it. What’s a few hundred thousand among friends. Besides, it can carry a passenger and actually get someplace (not comfortably, but who cares?)
Brent