233 Kts, FL230, 26 Minutes From Brake Release... Wow! Part Five

While tanking up for the flight back to GIF and the run to altitude, Mark made arrangements to load up on some oxygen at a local FBO. What happened next was worrisome. Some greasy (and I do mean, greasy) kid walked a poorly restrained oxygen bottle out to the aircraft, on a rickety trolley and proceeded to wrench the connections together. Let me fill you in on something… greasy/oily conditions in the close proximity of breathing oxygen is an accident waiting to happen. I was amazed that this kid wasn’t aware of the hazards he was imposing on this operation and the way he shrugged me off when I inquired as to whether he planned to clean up before attempting a hook-up. He shot me a dirty look, made a half-hearted attempt to wipe himself off… while I stepped a ways back… a long ways back since he was bound and determined to do his impression of a grease monkey and there was nothing I could do about it (except run for cover). If you own an oxygen equipped aircraft, be sure to take the time to learn its handling requirements and supervise unknown personnel as they service your systems. One false move can cost you an airplane and hurt a few people, as well. You would not believe the destructive potential contained in just one modestly full oxy bottle… it’s a terrifying proposition. You’ve been warned.

Back In The Air

After another quick jaunt (back to GIF), our next flight gave me the chance to reacquaint myself with the “Lancair Personality.” There is precious little difference between any of the Lancair series, in terms of over all handling, and I have to tell you that this is a very good thing, indeed.

The aircraft’s side stick controllers generally require a light to moderate touch to motivate. A very handy trim button handles trim chores at a slow rate that could still use a little speed-up, since the C400 does load up a bit, pitch wise, when you slow it down or when you drop full flaps where the electric trim lags behind what you need to keep things trimmed out. The pitch profile is a pretty docile one... in cruise configuration, we tried a ten degree and a fifteen degree pitch displacement, stick free, and were rewarded with a tightly convergent dynamic response that was pretty much damped within a cycle and totally back to business within two. The dynamic response was slow and steady, the static profile boasted tight adherence, and the aircraft boasts excellent speed stability. In short period mode, we excited a tightly varying oscillation until our control inputs lagged the response by a full opposing cycle (180 degrees out of phase) and were rewarded by a near instantaneous return to the trim configuration. In other words... deadbeat (very cool). Pitch response is quite good and the force build-up follows a very sensible force/response curve, loading up only at the low end when you're cranking in as much aft pitch as possible to keep the nose up, near stall.

The rudder is powerful and is a little lighter in overall force than I expected. There is minimal breakaway and a nice damping ratio in regards to airspeed. Rudder picks up a wing pretty well, even from banks exceeding 35 degrees. A proper coordinated turn produces an agile but hardly sensitive roll rate that benefits from a bit of rudder inducement upon initiating the roll input, but the need to lead with the rudder is pretty modest. Laterally, the aircraft wanders a touch in roll, but not enough to be really annoying. Thankfully there is little Dutch roll evident while riding out turbulence. Roll forces are light, stiffen up properly at cruise (about double the climb/approach forces) and the roll rate is obedient but will not give a Sukhoi any competition (nor should it...).

In cruise, the visibility is excellent, both forward and to the immediate side, as the wing leading edge appears quite aft of where I was sitting, offering great peripheral lower visibility (just the thing for cranking a tight turning descent)—while the upper edge of our peripheral is somewhat clouded by aircraft structure. Cockpit ergonomics are comfy and when sitting back to dig life and monitor a cruise flight, the effect is pretty friendly. Internal noise issues are modest… though there’s still a lot of ponies up front growling away and the wind noise at nearly 200 knots is not something that can easily be countered. Still, the cabin is quieter than I imagined, and a pair of good headsets won’t have to work miracles to handle proper comm chores.

In the “regular” altitudes, the C400 is still one smokin’ mutha. In the 5000-6000 foot range (down with the “normal folk”), I had no problem truing out at nearly 180 knots while carrying a little over 25 “square.” That will cost you at least 16-18 GPH, and if you really want to hammer the TCM, a little over 30 inches will get you close to (or even more than) 190 knots… but do so at 22-24 GPH. But damn… it sure is fun having center ask you what you’re flying that’s showing them well over a 200 knot groundspeed. Lancair flyers are just going to have to get used to that chore (bummer, eh?).

To Be Continued...

FMI: www.lancair.com/certified