Extreme Aviation: 60" MXS V2__Three Year Endurance Test

I've written a lot about the 60 MXS over the past 10 years but every time I fly it, the plane still surprises me. I have a special attachment to the MXS for both practical and personal reasons. First, it's one of the coolest and best flying planes ever, and secondly it has always suited me, especially the 60". I had so many flights on my original V1 that the checkerboard covering started to blow off the tail!

My dirty little secret is that my first 60" V2 had a short life. I forgot to rough up that battery tray and use alcohol to remove the mold release. On the second flight the Aura popped off the tray and it just went bonkers and strung itself through a chain link fence. It's mistakes like these that hurt the most because it was a stupid error you don't learn anything from. I can take biffing one on my own (which I do enough off), but to wreck a beautiful plane being so stupid was a waste at best.

Great. We got half a video of it.

The problem was that these articles are time sensitive, and I had to get another one built and videoed in just another few days. I got another kit in two days, pulled a red eye and got it ready for the third day. We shot the video wrote the text and knocked the report out four days after the original crash. The V2 goes together so quickly that it wasn't a panic job or anything. I enjoyed both builds, though admittedly I was extremely careful of every little detail when building the second.

MXS V2__Bad Attitude 03.mp4 from Doc Austin on Vimeo.

I took a lot of pictures simply because this is such a beautiful plane. I used Ben's recommendations from his build video, especially the part about the iron temperature when tightening covering. I stopped using paper towel to clean the plane and switched to micro fiber cloth. I use this for removing CA smears with debond or just cleaning the plane off with Windex. as you can see, this preserved the shine and after three years it still looks like it just came off the bench.

Here's Ben's excellent build guide.

FLYING

Nothing has changed here except the V2 is stiffer and more lively with the added benefit of being more precise. These were the first videos we could get with the second V2. I was still a little shook up from the crash and was determined to have a clean day, but once I got her in the air that disappeared and I could just get on with it. I'm very familiar with the MXS V1, so there were no surprised other than how much better locked in and lively the plane is.

The odd thing about the 60" MXS is it flies exactly like what you would expect from a scaled up 48" Extra EXP. That plane is my baseline and the one I compare all the other to, so not only was this a surprise, but it was a really good one. The plane flies exactly like what I have always been used to only bigger, better, more floaty and more precise. While the little MXS is a plane you have better know what you are doing with, the 60 V2 is more calm and composed, those it still winds itself up when you ask that from it.

In post stall it's very similar to the Extra, though a little livelier due to it's shorter moment. You also have more rudder authority, which helps in smoothing out a hover and also give you more authority in KE death slides and such,

As far as wing rock, forget about it. You have to get really sloppy to make this plane rock much. There's a very tiny rhythm in the way an MXS will rock, and it looks more like a deliberate little dance, with the plane not going off heading or dropping a wing too much.

Much like the Extra, the big MXS does such solid precision it's more like a pattern plane. Nice, long five second slow rolls are easy, with next to no coupling. It's not quite a graceful here as the Extra (but nothing is), but it's up to the pilot to bridge that gap and you can see for yourself in the videos just how well this plane tracks. Most pilots won't even notice the difference unless they work a lot of precision.

For more detail, you can check our original Extreme Flight 64" MXS V2__Flight Report Extreme Aviation: Extreme Flight 64" MXS V2__Flight Report (docaustinextreme.blogspot.com)

Durability

There's not much to talk about here because the plane has survived three years of hard use without showing a mark of any kind. Part of this is I am so careful loading and unloading the plane, avoiding hangar rash, and finally, not ramming it through a chain link fence, and part of this is the V2 material is so tough. All my V1s flew and flew and flew with no failures of any kind, so I still expect the same sort of thing from the V2 only even better. They are strong, stiffer and lighter, and so far any V2 I have had in any size has been nearly bullet proof.

Three years is a long time for any aircraft, especially when they live on the deck. The fact this one is still like new points to the engineering and quality that goes into these planes.

MXS EXP Bad Attitude 2024 from Doc Austin on Vimeo.

Finally I usually send my V1s off into the sunset for one last video. This was the best sunset video I could find, though I have to admit the sky and the music really helped this one. The was shot using 6 volt servos, the standard Torque 4016 V2/Airboss 80 ESC, and no gyro.