Dietrich Extra 260 50cc

[Flakbait]

I was able to get the maiden flight knocked out early yesterday morning.
All I can say is "what an awesome plane!"

I reicived the new purple and yellow 260 about the 17th of Feb.
It was pretty straight forward on the assembly. I did glass the firewall
and changed the scheme a bit on the bottom of the wing and tail. I added
SWB arms and some other bits, just personel preference.

I think Dietrich nailed it with this one. The plane is very light on the sticks.
I did not weigh the plane.It really "feels" light in the air. I am running a new DA 50 on a slimline Pitts muffler.Five 5995's for the surfaces and a 5625 on the throttle. I use a manual choke and throttle cut from the radio. Just plain Jane NiMh batt's. 2700 6v for the Reciver/servo's and 2400 4.8v for the ignition.14mz Futaba radio. I heard "Hard Man Fly FUTABA" somewhere.......

Hope for some better weather for the coming weekend and maybe get a few in flight pics posted. I will post the pic's I have later on.....

[cjdscratch]

Pics please. I have been waiting to see real pics of the purple color scheme. If you could it would be appreciated.

[greg young]

How did you get the firewall DA50 templet to fit, mine will not fit flush with the firewall. I know it can be placed on the triangle stock, but that looks like missed drilled holes to me, can you help.

Greg.

[thewrap]

Cool. Any video would be sweet. I'm thinking about one myself should be interesting.

[Flakbait]

Greg,
I removed the tri-stock and used the template. I then replaced the tri-stock and glassed the engine box. This involved removing the covering from the engine box hitting the firewall with a heat gun, softening the glue , peeling the tri-stock off, sanding off the old glue and putting it back together.

Pic's attached.

[ericb]

Nice looking plane. Sounds like a lot of work for the engine box, but probably well worth it.

[Flakbait]

Eric,

Was not really too difficult.It was just my preference to do it that way. It may be overkill , but it's piece of mind...Pics added and a landing.

[radical departure]

Kinda late to the thread but what the heck.. I didn't glass my mount, but certainly considered it. I did remove the covering and gave it a nice thinned epoxy coating, seems to be working really well, but keeping an eye on it. As for the template, thought that was a pain, could have made it longer or shorter. Eyeballed best I could, tacked it in place with tape, firmed it up and drilled. Somehow got it right.

Since this is my first gasser, not qualified to make comparisons, am guessing all planes as these have some kind of quirk or such to work through, and this one is no exception. But... they fly really nice! Mine came in around 16.5 dry, minus spinner. The club member training me has flown 3D planes for several years, and he's had nothing but good things to say about its flight performance. It feels just right on the sticks. Still breaking engine in, looking forward to spending lot more time with this plane.

[Flakbait]

RD,

I think your really going to like the ol' Extra. I have 34 flights on mine.
I guess it's true what "They" say, bigger planes sure fly better! I look forward to every flight.

This is the first aerobatic plane I have had that does not require mixing for knife edge flight, inverted flight is neutral as well.

I have been eyeballing the 36% Edge from PAU, then I saw the Slick Edge 540 on the Dietrich site..... Wow! They sure make it easy to spend money!!!

Regards,

[radical departure]

Ditto.. hopefully after this weekend I can get 'signed off', if you will, and really start doing some flying. Its been a large test of patience, because I'm only flying it right now with an instructor, so I'm on their schedule. But again, its my first gasser and first large plane, so I bridle myself because I want to learn to fly this ship right. And I consider myself thankful that we have club members willing to take from their flying time to help me with mine. Now if the weather would cooperate!

[radical departure]

Hey Guys,
Just wanted to let you know about a problem I had with my DPA 260 this weekend. If you don't use wheel pants, and used the INCLUDED axles, you will find this of interest. On Sunday, first flt. of the day, lifted off and was about 15 ft. off the deck when the left wheel fell off!

My first thought was to fly the gas out of it, but then said heck with that, wanted the extra weight on landing. Had a nice headwind of about 10 or better mph, lined it up and flew a nice approach, putting it near or at stall when it contacted. The strut dug in, the plane went tail up, touched the spinner to the ground, and sat back down. Saving grace was one; the wind, and two; it had rained heavily the day before. The prop sliced the ground so cleanly there wasn't even dirt on it. If fact there was no dirt or grass on the plane. Only damage was a hairline crack from the left side of the gearbox to the first rearward blindnut, picked up for another 1/2 " on the other side of same blindnut. Soaked some thinned epoxy into it then reinforced with some light area over the cracks. Now.. why did the wheel fall off? At the field, it looked like it had sheared somehow, but once got it home learned the truth...
At the end of the axle is a bolt head with 5/16th screw. Now.. I thought these axles were cut from one piece. Wrong! That screw is hollowed out and the axle is heat pressed or such onto it. Thats what came loose. Once the 3/16 axle separated from the bolt, there was absolutely nothing to keep the wheel on. Not sure how often something like that happens, but am replacing the included axles with DuBro. PSP might be better, but looks like those have a spacer built on, which would be great if using wheel pants, but otherwise sets the gear too far out. Anyway, defective part almost cost a nice repair job, thankfully nature intervened with wind and damp ground. The plane has never had a hard landing in 91 flights. I may slop some of my flying, but I'll ace the landing, so I don't think it was preventable. Gotta love those gremlins!

PS.. The plane is a really sweet flyer!

[GmanBill]

I forgot to tell you guys that even I swap the stock axles out for a set of PSP Titanium axles.
http://www.pspmfg.com/AircraftAxles.html
I even throw the DuBro ones away and use these Ti ones on everything.

[radical departure]

Thanks Bill, will order up a set. No reason to be fiddling much with axles, should be install, fly and forget..

[radical departure]

If anyone still following the thread.. have around 170 flights on it now. Only problem were hinges coming loose from rudder, but caught it before got airborne. Drilled out with brass tubing, replaced, been good ever since. I did manage, while drilling one out, to drop it into the rudder. So now have part of a hinge flopping around in it. Been no other problems, it continues to be a strong flyer, tho I have come close a time or two to losing it, by acting up too low for my own good. Always keep flying the plane!