I've now put about 40 flights on the Contra Allure. We've had some pretty good thunderstorms blowing through in Texas and they all seem to pop up right after work on the way to the field. It seems like the good Lord wants me to work on flying in some pretty strong winds. The winds have been 25-30 kts and 90 degrees cross blowing in. The plane seems to handle it well. It immediately crabs into the wind making wind correction and keeping your distance a lot easier. Of course, with that much wind, I was flying each maneuver somewhat smaller but the sequence was taking the same amount of time to complete (about 7:30). The plane did not get bucked around much at all and, due to the light wing loading, recovered very quickly. I've begun to understand the Contra a little better as well. Throttle management and understanding that I'm not necessarily controlling the speed but, instead, the power, has become much better. Through the AMA Masters sequence, I'm averaging about 3500-3600 mah without the wind. Ironically, I was averaging about 3200 mah flying slightly smaller in the wind. This is with the same gears and props that are described in the earlier post. I haven't switched to Tony's recommendation yet as I have a contest this weekend. With this little time to prepare, I figured I better learn what I have instead of experimenting but that will begin after this contest.

I took the Contra unit apart last night as the plane now has 44 flights with it in the nose. The unit was spotless and in great shape. After the contest, I should have right at 50 flights and will grease the unit then. I'm excited to get back and try Tony's gear and prop suggestion to see what differences are in the braking and speed with the Allure. I don't believe in the saying of "this is the best thing since sliced bread" but I do believe in this airplane. Although I don't have that many flights yet, I do feel that this airplane has improved the quality of my flying. Bryan told me that when Brett flew the glow version for the first few times, he said that the Allure is the Alferma in a monoplane. If this is what the Alferma flies like, sign me up for another one of the Allures and 2 Alfermas.