First three flights, actually, all today. Trailered the
plane to the dry lake bed at Ocotillo Wells, CA, about 80 miles east of my
San Diego home. 4200' runway, wind sock, and nothing else around for miles
and miles.
Wayne, thank you , thank you, thank you for designing such a great,
sweet-handling, just-the-way-it-should-be plane. Spirited takeoff, docile
ground handling for a taildragger, very adequate climb considering what a
porker pilot it had on board, and the plane talks to you every minute.
VERY easy to feel changes of speed, very little trim needed, controls
react just the way you expect (which the 2-seat Quicksilver didn't, an
extreme rudder airplane).
This one is a Minimax 1100 that I bought from a fellow here, he was the
3rd or 4th owner himself. It's around 10-12 years old, I'm guessing - has
the steel wheels with single-shoe brakes, Wayne said that those wheels
haven't been available for 12 years, though it might have been retrofitted
(why? the brakes suck).
Rotax 377, flaperons, full turtledeck for enclosure though it's
open-cockpit, steerable tailwheel. Acceleration is astonishing when you
open it up on takeoff. Tail comes up as normal, and you can feel the plane
eager to fly as speed builds. I held it on till 40 mph, which didn't take
long, and lifted it off gently.
I'm not into those JATO takeoffs I've seen some ultralight pilots do.
Climbed out at about 600 fpm, 55 mph seems to be its happiest speed (I
weigh 240), and keeps the cyl heads a little cooler, or so I hoped.
Pulling the power back in level flight, produced a noticable pitch-down
moment. I like it a lot - the plane knows just what it should do in case
of an engine failure. This called for a lot of back stick during glides,
which surprised me a little - CG was right in the middle of the acceptable
range with full fuel (5 gal).
With my weight sitting slightly behind the CG, I was worried about aft
CG conditions, but the plane was sweet and docile, no bucking or
hypersensitivity in pitch at all. The 7AH battery I put under the
windshield may have helped.
Landing gear is sturdier than it looks, except for the tailwheel mount.
I thumped it in a few times - shot about 20 landings all day for practice.
No protests at all from my abuse of the gear - I'm pretty rusty after not
soloing for 26 years, and the plane probably isn't used to being flown by
an elephant.
Several landings scored multiple touchdowns - good thing the runway was
4000' long. Even I didn't need that much, though, but I felt sorry for the
gear. Glad no other pilots were watching. Last few landings were fairly
decent paint jobs, though not always exactly where I wanted them to be.
Sink rate surprised me, as several people on this board said it would.
When you pull off the power, it knows it's time to come down, and it
doesn't waste any time. Tried to hold the glide between 50-55 mph IAS, but
it came down fast (compared to the old Taylorcraft L2 I once flew), at a
steeper angle than I expected. Pretty good flare power, though the stick
was in my belly.
Below a certain speed, it REALLY settles fast, and there isn't much you
can do to stop it except apply power. That was one of my thumper landings,
and I was gun-shy after that, and touched down later landings with too
much speed and ballooned several times. I obviously need lots of practice.
But every landing was good enough to walk away from, and even taxi away
from - testimony to the quality of the airframe, especially with the abuse
visited upon it by its clumsy pilot.
Wayne Ison, (designer of the Minimax ultralight airplane) my hat is off
to you. Thank you for such a wonderful little airplane.
(Can you tell that I've just finished my first flight in a Minimax?)
Little-Acorn
San Diego, CA
