Xtreme Decathlon

Jim K

Jim K

360 For Spacing
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Livin' on Tulsa Time
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Richard Digits
Didn't know this was a thing. Local 141 school took delivery of this beast Friday. IO-390 210 HP. Not my first choice of color scheme, but school colors are green & gold and mascot is Cobras, so in that light it's pretty cool (the darker color is a dark green) . The cobra logo is embroidered into the seats as well. Glass panel of course. I'm guessing they'll take it to Oshkosh. It's gorgeous.

Hopefully once they get some instructors qualified in it they'll offer tailwheel training and maybe even aerobatics to the public. They currently do spins in a couple clapped out 150's, so this is a big improvement for the cfi students.

Rest of the fleet consists of Archers, Arrows and Seminoles.
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They fly nice, definitely not a beast performance wise. You could say the new ailerons feel better than they work.
 
Jim K said:
Not my first choice of color scheme, but school colors are green & gold and mascot is Cobras, so in that light it's pretty cool (the darker color is a dark green) .
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I threw up in my mouth a little...
 
I love the Extreme Decathlons. I've got a lot of time in a Decathlon, some in a Super Decathlon. The Extreme Decathlon makes it the plane it was meant to be!

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I plan to upgrade my Super D to the extreme ailerons when I upgrade the wood spar to metal.

TBH not sure the added 30 HP is really necessary. Can't see it making a big difference on anything other than vertical performance.
 
Ed Haywood said:
TBH not sure the added 30 HP is really necessary. Can't see it making a big difference on anything other than vertical performance.
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Two up it sure is nice, loosing less height during a sequence and back at altitude a bit faster. Solo you're probably good. We flew a mix of sportsman and intermediate sequences.
 
I don't see any spades on the ailerons. I thought those were standard on the SUPER D.
 
Those are flippin’ awesome! I did spin training in an ACA Super Decathlon and it was probably some of the most fun I’ve had.
 
Do they increase the gross weight to offset the increase in empty weight (assuming more horses weigh more)?
 
dtuuri said:
Do they increase the gross weight to offset the increase in empty weight (assuming more horses weigh more)?
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The 390 weighs 40 pounds more than the 360. Max gross is the same at 1950 lbs. They saved some weight elsewhere, such as eliminating spades, but useful load went down by 25 lbs.

Both the Super and Extreme Decathlon have a lower max gross in the aerobatic category: 1800 lbs. Empty weight is 1305 for the Super and 1330 for the Extreme. Dirty little secret is that both aircraft are often flown over gross. Almost impossible not to with 2 grown men.

Older Super D's also have a max gross of 1800 in the normal category. Empty weights above 1350 are not uncommon.
 
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