Extreme Aviation: Skywing 48" Extra NG_

Day One
All we wanted to do was check the trims and get a good general feel for the plane. That lasted about 30 seconds and I simply forgot the game plan and just started flying it hard. It is so similar to the Slick I knew what I had pretty quickly.

This is a very stable plane, but it's also pretty lively. It snaps and tumbles really well, slows down into a beautiful harrier, and does beautiful slow and point rolls. There's nothing it doesn't do well.

So far, I'm really liking the plane. The plane was dead neutral on the check flight, and I like them a little ahead of that. I moved the pack 1/2" forward and now it's exactly the way I like it. It's kind of amazing the plane comes out of the box nearly tweaked out like that. 30 minutes to assemble, one simple adjustment and it's perfection. Absolutely remarkable.

I was comfortable with the NG very quickly, and at the end of the second flight I was fearless with it.

Click to enlarge, then right click and "save as."

Day Two

After two quick flights on day one I was already comfortable with the plane. I just couldn't lean on it too much until we got some decent weather and video in the can. Once that was accomplished, it was just a matter of flying the plane and testing the limits.

We only had enough time to shoot one video, but hopefully you can see how much potential the plane has. This was only the third flight and I was still tweaking the CG and still not sure how much I could push the plane. Right now my flying is looking a little ragged because I am pushing the plane so hard, and this was also the first time I've flown her in decent conditions. The first day was so rough that this was more like the plane's real maiden, but it is so smooth, stable and confidence inspiring that I just gave it the hammer.

Right away the plane was so much fun I kind of forgot about video and started to look for the limits. You can see a couple of pretty good saves in the video, but it was more like I bailed before I got in too deep. Here I noted that the plane has so much power and so much control that I wasn't afraid to get into trouble. The plane has the tools you need to fight your way out.

Toward the end it became easier and easier to fly the plane more smoothly, which was due to burning off the excitement as much as anything else.

Mostly it's just easy to fly and pinpoint precise, which is what you expect and demand from an Extra. Now we see the differences to the Slick a little better. The Slick has slightly better harrier manners, though the Extra is still really strong here. The flip side is the Extra has a more predictable and repeatable snap timing. The Slick scared me a little at first in snap rolls because I had to learn how to make it come out where I wanted it, but with the Extra my snaps were dead on right out of the box. That's really about all the differences I have found so far. They have the same wing and tail, and roughly the same moment, so they were always going to be similar. I think most guys won't care about the differences, or maybe not even notice at all because they are so subtle, and they never come into play unless you are really pushing the plane hard.

No report on an Extra is complete without talking about the plane's precision manners. Big sky stuff is easy for a few reasons. First this plane really hauls the mail, and speed is stability. For example, my 48" EXP was always superb here, but when I switched to TMotor and about 20mph more top speed, the difference in how the plane locked int was mind-blowing. The NG already has a nuclear reactor in the nose, so it hauls too, and this shows up in the field length slow rolls and huge cuban 8s. The plane simply tracks to the point looking good in precision is simply easy. I said I would not compare this with the 48" EXP, but here I just have to note both of those planes are the benchmarks in precision in this size, with the Slick not far behind.

One thing that caught me by surprise is this plane has insane pitch authority. You can see in a lot of hard pull outs the tail actually drops below the plane. Other planes will sink, but the Extra pops a little past flat and stops losing any altitude because stall recovery is so instant. Maybe this is due to the design, or maybe it's all the grunt behind a 13" propeller blowing air over the plane, but once you get used to it this is a pretty handy tool to have for on-the-deck shenanigans. I have not figured that out yet because this plane is so much fun that I paid more attention to that than analytics.

A quick word about the power system: it's super bad ass. More power than a reasonable person would need and runs as smooth as a stick of butter. I rate it an equal in every metric with the TMotor. They have the same power, same smoothness and same perfectly linear throttle response. All that's different is the sound.

Overall, and I know I also said this about the Slick, it's hard to be more pleased with a project. The assembly was next to nothing, I only had to make one set up change to suit my preference and she flew of the bench very close to perfectly dialed in. A couple of clicks of up trim and so far that's been all she took.

Before my camera guy got there I did a warm up flight on low rates, which simulates a sport set up, and she's as easy and capable as any sport plane I've ever flown, This makes such a perfect sport plane I think the new guys will eat it up. Perfect size, cheap batteries, tough and docile makes this plane almost mandatory for all of us.

Here's something few consider: The best kept secret in the sport community is that any good 3D plane on low rates makes an excellent sport plane, and any many, many cases it makes a better sport plane than the best sport planes.

On low rates the Extra is much like the EXP lineup in that it's delightful in conventional aerobatics. I try to bring a lot of guys into 3D, and I usually take them from something like a T28, and put them straight into a 48" 3D plane and make them keep it on low rates. First they tell me it flies better than their T28 because they are not always fighting it, and once I can show them a few tricks they can't believe how easy it is. Generally 3D manufacturers don't cater to the sport crowd and pitch their stuff to us hammerheads, but the best way for a sport pilot to get good enough to transition into 3D, now all it takes is a flip of that rate switch. This Extra is light, straight, tough and super stable, which are all the things you want in a sport plane anyway.

Conclusions, sort of

Some may notice this report is a little disjointed. I sat down right after I got home and started writing, and the more I wrote and the more I edited the video the more I realize just how much was there and how much I like it. I've had to edit about 10 times because the more I wrote the more I realized just how nice this thing is.

Four flights isn't enough time to hardly know a plane, much less pass judgement on it, but it was enough time to really fall in love with it. It generally takes about 25 flights to really know a plane, but since today was the start of flying season here, that's not going to take long.

We'll shoot some more this week and tag it onto this article, as well as some more commentary, so stay tuned.