Big-Tail Lancair 360 Update

Originally published September 1995

As many of you know, Bob and Marlys St Clair's Lancair 360 has been down for many months while Bob worked to repair the damage from a hard landing. While he was at it, Bob incorporated the large Australian horizontal tail modification that was required by the Australian CAA to correct handling qualities deficiencies in the design. Since the last meeting, Bob has gotten the aircraft flying again and both Doug Shane and Norm Howell have flown it. Data are only preliminary as only 3 sorties have been accomplished in this new test flight phase, however! The plane seemed vastly easier to land and Norm says he no longer had to use a pitch-rate command type of control input (sample-wait-sample) in the flare as with the earlier iteration. This version exhibits much better handling and ability to judge flare altitude and attitude, and increasing back stick displacement commands greater AOA in the flare, just like you want it to. As more data become available, we'll present it as a follow-up article to our previous Lancair handling qualities article. I hope Bob and Marlys get to fly it soon and enjoy the fruits of their many years of labor.

Related Articles:

Lancair 360 First Flight - June 1993

Test Pilot Report - Lancair 360 First Flight - June 1993

A Look at Lancair 360 Handling Qualities - November 1993

President's Column - December 1993 - Neico's semi-official non-response to the handling qualities issue

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