Well... there's one less Extreme Flight owner in the world this week... but I'm sure dozens will fall in behind to replace me.
I had my original 91" Extra since the first batch shipped in...loved it. I got my thumbs turned around in a rolling circle about a month ago, and paid the ultimate price. No problem.. I bought another one, send the motor back for DA to check it out, and started putting the new bird together.. Last week, I had it at the field with no intention other than to get the rudder/aileron and rudder/elevator mixes set. They were already pretto close from the last plane, but everything always requires a little tweeking just based on CG, etc..
It was a little windy, which is generally not a problem.. but the wind last Sunday kept getting inside my sunglasses and tearing up my eyes. I wear contacts, so that just made it a little worse. I was flying down the runway, maybe 20 feet in the air, nothing special, and went to make a turn to come back across the runway and either the wind, my tears or a combination of both made my contact lens slide out of position on my eye. I couldn't tell which direction the plane was headed, what side was up, etc.. all I could see was a fuzzy thing out in the distance. I knew I needed to get high until the contact re-centered itself, so I added throttle and elevator... right into the dirt.
My contact had shifted once on an earlier flight, and i was high enough that I was able to circle around for 10 seconds or so until things re-centered, then I landed.
I usually wear just one contact, or monovision... that gives me good "distance" vision from one eye, and good reading vision from the other. Sometimes when I go to the field, I'll put a contact in the other eye just to have better depth perception, but not always. The only problem I ever have is when I make one of those long gliding approaches to the runway, about half the time I'm probably 20 feet further out than I think I am. If I make a short, rounded turn into the runway, it works perfect every time. Very strange.
Anyway, that's 2 EF Extras balled up in a month or so. I wasn't so disappointed about the first one, things happen, and that had been a good plane. The second one was a stupid mistake for flying in the wind and knowing that if the contact shifted at the wrong time, it could get ugly.
So, from now on, definately 2 contacts at the field.
And I bought a CARF MX-2 to replace the Extra. I had one a few years ago, it was a great flying plane also. It will have a 3W 157 CS Twin Spark in it. Oddly enough, this will be the first time in many years that I've been without SOMETHING from EF, and something from DA. My other plane has a Moki radial.
Anyway.. you guys that can get them up and down in one piece... keep up the good work, I'll be admiring from the sidelines!
