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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>Due to Mike’s generosity and trust, I was able to get
a flight on his new Impulse today. I thought I might add a few comments
to his thread on the flight characteristics to this point. Keep in mind
that this is a very new plane and a very new engine that is still running
pretty rich. The plane is light in weight and it flies “light”.
The controls are pretty sensitive but can be controlled with throws set up for
personal taste. The roll rate is somewhat dependant on airspeed as is the
usual case. Elevator has a very nice feel but it did take a bit more push
for inverted flight than I am used to. With that said the plane does not
show any other tail heavy tendencies at this point. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>Uplines were straight and had a pretty nice locked in feel,
downlines were dead on, without the usual throttle to elev. Mix, at least to
this point. Small amount of mixing with rudder to elevator for a pitch to
belly in both rudder directions, very little if any roll coupling was noticed
today but that will be checked out a little more thoroughly in the next few
days. Rolls at this time seem to be pretty darn axial, but this too, will
be looked at more closely. Snaps and spins were tinkered with today but
they will need some fine tuning in the set up. Plane would spin with the
current cruise controls but would not really snap, so conditions will need to
be set. We had some crosswind this afternoon but not in the strong
range. Without getting into the “weathervaning” banter but
for lack of a better word, the plane did like to weathervane into the
crosswind, but being a light, wide and deep bodied plane that is not surprising
at all. The rudder is pretty powerful on this plane and it will take some
flights to get the cruise set up right and to the feel of the rudder. Slow
and point rolls are very easy with this plane and should only get better with
some additional trimming.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>The Impulse is a very constant speed type plane; the
addition of throttle does not really speed the plane up very much but certainly
will sustain an upline. Downlines are not dead slow but they are slow and
constant and do not seem to increase very much in an extended line.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>That is about all I can say with only the one flight on the
plane at this time. It does appear to be a quality flying aircraft and
with proper trimming and set up for individual preferences I can see this plane
being very competitive and well received.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>Hardware and construction:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>The craftsmanship on the kit is very nice, not perfect by
any means but certainly up to and surpassing most of what has been available to
us lately. The trend the past few years has been to save as much
weight/cost as possible in the cowl and canopy areas. This one is no different
in that respect. The cowling is large and pretty flimsy. It needs reinforcement
right out of the box. One kickback from a DZ or one little over zealous hand
on the nose during start up can crack this puppy real fast. The firewall
and motor mount combo seems good at this point. The CF spinner is a bit
of a pain. It does not take much for the back plate and the prop to
loosen their grip with each other with the prop becoming loose and the spinner
cone loosening. This can happen to the point of the back plate twisting
to the nose and binding on the nose of the plane. I am not sure how long
the spinner will hold up to the use of an electric start either. As seems
to be the case of the imports, the spinner is an odd size to us. It is
large with a 3.5” tru turn being a bit small as well as a bit expensive</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Wingdings><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Wingdings;color:navy'>J</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>. I think this fit could be managed
with a bit of work around the aircrafts nose, which would allow an aluminum
spinner and would avoid the CF spinner problems.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'>I don’t know if any of this rambling has been helpful
or informative but I hope it has been. Several people have wanted to get
some kind of flight report on this model so Mike and I thought we would get out
as much as we have at this point and time. I think the plane is a good
one and the outlook for it is pretty bright, at least after one flight</span></font><font
size=2 color=navy face=Wingdings><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
Wingdings;color:navy'>J</span></font><font size=2 color=navy><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><font size=2 color=navy
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'>Dan</span></font></st1:PersonName><font
size=2 color=navy><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:navy'> Curtis<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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