Extreme Flight 52" Extra EXP Is The Truth: UPDATE

First, a hearty thank you to our readers in Russia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Spain and Italy! Thank you so much for your support, and please tell your friends about my blog.

This is a video update of the adventures of my 52" Extra EXPs. I'm having so much fun flying these planes that I'm going to save myself a lot of work by updating this blog article daily instead of writing new articles every day.  I'm saving up my writing savvy for the upcoming 48" Demonstrator.


UPDATE: November 14, 2016
We had a rough spell with the weather, but now it's calmed down real nice. I had a chance to try a Xoar 15/6 propeller on my red 52" Extra and the difference in 3D ability and control was evident right away. I gave up a little top end speed, but the bigger prop blows more air over the controls when the plane is stalled. This provides more control surface response, so you can really drag this plane around very slowly. It 3Ds much better with the 15" prop.

52 Extra EXP__.Like A Glove from Doc Austin on Vimeo..

UPDATE: November 9, 2016
A great day for America, and a great day to be flying such great American products.

52 Extra EXP__Another Great Day In America from Doc Austin on Vimeo. 

 

52 Extra EXP__Aother Great Day In America II from Doc Austin on Vimeo.

 

November 8, 2016:  The truth is out there and it's the 52" Extra EXP
People have a lot of differing opinions on 3D Xtreme Aerobatics (3DXA)  flying, and especially 3DXA planes, which designs and which manufacturers are best. The truth, though is always in the flying, and the Extra EXP in all it's sizes is the truth.

All Pictures Click To Enlarge

 

I have to plead guilty to being an Extra man, but only because of the way they look and they way they fly. Everything an Extra does, that's the way an airplane should do it. The Extra EXP is the gold standard. Rather reprint what I have written over and over about the virtues of Extras, I have consolidated my observations about these planes on Wierd For Extras__Passion Meets Pragmatism

The 52" Extra is much the same as the 48" and 60" Extra EXPs, though I think the 52" flies even lighter than the 60, which is hard to believe. Traditionally Extras give up a little bit of 3D ability in exchange for better precision manners, but the 52" doesn't give up anything to any other plane that I can see. The 52" seems to fly so light that it does 3D as well as any of my other EXPs.

52 Extra EXP__Truth In Flying 001 from Doc Austin on Vimeo.

 

We finally got a decent day to fly the Extra! My first flight was by far the best of the day, but I was just warming up and we didn't shoot video. However, in the calm air everything clicked superbly, and now I realize I've never flown this plane in even marginally acceptable conditions. It's so good in bad conditions I wasn't really even aware how bad the winds have been was until I got to fly it in calm air!

I had not taken time to get the CG, low rate, or trim perfect because it's been just too gusty,  but today I added one click of up and it's perfect. CG remains where I started, which is on the front of the wing tube. That's where I like both my 48" and 60" Extra EXPs, and my Extra SHP too, so it seemed like a good place to start and ended up being a good place to settle in. With better conditions I will be able to dial it in better, but it's really close now.

I ended up missing my low aileron a bit and had too much, but it was only off 4% off. For a brand new design I had never flown, that a pretty good guess!

Flying Thunder Power's badass 4s 3300 Rampage 70C pack, here is where my battery ended up......

 

Running a Xoar 14/7 propeller, I've got my timer set for 4.5 minutes, and like this I am coming down with an average of 15.25 volts, which still leaves a decent margin in the pack. I can either add 30 seconds to the timer or go up to either a 14/8 or 15.7 prop, but for now I've got plenty of power and no reason to make it any harder on the power system and battery.  I have a 15/6 I am planning to try, and it will be interesting to see how much that Extra inch of prop helps with 3D. The Extra is already pretty righteous in post stall.

 

From the beginning the 3910 has delivered monster amounts of power while running smooth and cool. I've actually had more power and speed than I needed, so propping down allows me to still have big power but takes considerable stress of the whole power system.

 

I need one more flight off camera to piddle with my KE mixes because I missed by a percentage point or so, but that was a pretty good guess. It was just hard to tell in bad conditions.

Unfortunately the winds rolled back in for the flights we got on  video, but it was nowhere near as bad as previous days. It was actually quite acceptable, though we still had 10 mph wind to 15mph gusts. Still, the plane surprised me with how good it is in precision point and slow rolls when you aren't flying in a 20 mph crosswind! I've also recently rediscovered the Double Immelman maneuver, which this plane tracks through superbly. You need to have perfect loop tracking to make that maneuver look good, and once again the Extra's  smooth precision manners carry the day. There is one Double Immelman on each video I believe. It's a very impressive move when you hit it right.

52 Extra EXP__Truth In Flying 002 from Doc Austin on Vimeo.

Novemeber 7, 2016:
Still horrible conditions. It's still a little warm, but the big issue is high wind gusts. It's border line go-home kind of weather, but since I've got one of my camera guys on hand, we're shooting. The Extra flies really well even in the high gusts, but I have to leave myself a big margin. I like this plane too much to tear it up when it's too rough to be out there anyway.

These have been previously published on RCG and Facebook.

Extra 52 EXP__Love And Tragedy from Doc Austin on Vimeo. 

 

Extra 52 EXP__Love And Tragedy II from Doc Austin on Vimeo.