Before I share with you my experience flying a my second Vectorflight Extra 66” on its’ maiden allow me to digress.

What are the best airplanes that you have flown? That’s a interesting question for most of us. My list would include- my third airplane, a CG Tiger 40, CG Chipmunk, CG Extra, Sig CapEX, Greatplanes Shoestring, Cermark Javelin and a Pacific Aeromodels Edge. What are the worst planes you have ever owned? My list includes my second plane a US Aircores' Colt, Greatplanes Cap231ex, CG Sukhoi with a foam wing, Tecate Biplane, and of course the pain in the butt CG Cub (everyone should own one sometime). Is there any correlation between the great flying planes and the duds. Oh. . perhaps wing loading? Well not always but in general I think this is true.

Last Tuesday I maidened the VF Extra. This was my second attempt to maiden this plane.
My first attempt failed miserably. This flight turned out to be on the evening our Club has its meeting and we were hosting a barbecue at our airfield. Although I was nervous I was confident that my plane would fly well. I had checked and triple checked both balances. It was necessary to add 3 ounces of weight to the nose and 1 ounce of weight to the right wing tip. This surprised me because I had a OS 91 up front. It balanced at 4 1/8” exactly. My last disastrous maiden I had no weight on the nose and am now certain that the plane was tail heavy. We carefully check the control surfaces for alignment and for correct movement.

I waited for a solo flight and taxied out to the runway in front of 20 some folks ready to
laugh at any goofy problem or weird flying experience I might have. The take off was
flawless and I quickly trimmed the plane. And kept trimming. It seems like I had this problem before. After about 6 or 7 clicks of aileron adjustment and 3 click of down. The plane was flying pretty true. Instead of doing a bunch of aerobatics I decided to just “fly the plane”. After about 8 minutes of fast and slow flying I decided I had enough fun and was ready to make a basic aircraft approach. For some reason I decided to make a long final. It was too long.
The plane hit a cottonwood tree about 500 feet out from the runway. She
spun around but somehow kept running?! She wallowed like a wounded duck and went straight in next to a car that had been approaching the airfield. I and a fellow flyer went out
to survey the wreckage. It was a miracle The plane had landed nose first into a pile of blackberry vines. Other than a broken prop and a small hole in the leading edge it was fine.

I made two flights after the meeting including a knife edge pass straight down the runway.
After several minutes of aerobatics the engine died on approach and I made a perfect dead stick landing.

I now have six flights on her and am ready to share with you my likes and dislikes.
First the pluses: This is a good looking plane. She gets attention. A young boy at the airfield told his dad it was the best looking plane at the field. This plane is very aerobatic.
It will do all the basic imac maneuvers and do them well. With the OS91 up front it has unlimited vertical with a 13x8 APC. She is a fast plane and has a very decent glide ratio all right now for the down side. This is not a light plane. She’s not a pig but she’s no twiggy either at 8 lbs 6 ounces. Landing her gracefully takes some skill and for some, a little bit of luck. On my third flight she stalled 4 feet in the air and did the lame duck imitation. I was able to power up and get the heck (can we say hell) off the runway but it wasn’t pretty. She has a definite stall and drops a right wing tip. If your not done flying when she stalls - your going to be in trouble. She also had a dynamic stall in elevator control and rolls like you were using ailerons. I didn’t notice this problem until I flipped on the dual rates. What fun.

So where do I rate this plane. Right now its in the middle of the road, somewhere between the best and the worst. I think I will try a Saito91 and see if a lighter engine makes a difference. I do need to share with you that VF offers customer service that is unmatched in the industry. How often to you get a email from the distributor asking how your plane is flying and genuinely interested in solving any problems. I have probably talked with John at VF a half dozen times. Greatplanes are you listening? No.

Mark Stafford