AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016 - 54

AT A TRUE AIRSPEED of 120 mph, an XCub
burns 6 gph or less and has about eight
hours of endurance.

Range Rover than sports car, and visibility is exceptional for a tailwheel airplane. I
can see forward over the nose, the side windows are cut low for an almost unrestricted
downward view, and there's an expansive
skylight overhead.
The VFR instrument panel is quite low.
The fuel selector on the left side of the
cockpit has positions for Left, Right, and
Off (there's no Both), and the electric fuel
pump should be on for takeoff and landing. The flap handle near the left wing root
has three detents (16, 33, and 45 degrees).
Clear sight gauges in the wing roots display fuel quantity.
Elevator trim is electric and actuated
via a grooved rocker switch atop the stick
grip. Startup and run-up are normal for a
carbureted Lycoming O-360. Lined up with
Runway 27 at Yakima's McAllister Field,
full throttle results in brisk acceleration as
the prop spins up to 2,700 rpm. With flaps
up and neutral elevator, the tailwheel rises
off the pavement at about 20 mph, and I
hold a tail-low attitude as the mains lift off
at about 50.

TESTING THE XCUB The riskiest part
THE TOPICS THAT TEST PILOT LEN FOX was discussing at this morning briefing couldn't have been more
consequential-yet you wouldn't have known it from his
calm, clinical demeanor.
"I'll initiate each spin at 9,500 feet and recover by
7,500," he told Pete Dougherty, who would be flying the
chase airplane with an observer, and three other members of the flight test team assembled around a whiteboard in a closed Arizona hangar. "If I haven't recovered
by 4,500 feet, call 'bailout, bailout, bailout'-and don't
hesitate to call it a little early. Too soon is better than
too late."
These instructions weren't academic for Fox, a
former U.S. Navy test pilot who has bailed out of two
not-so-perfectly good airplanes.
The flight test team was preparing for the riskiest
series of spins required for FAA certification in the first
fully conforming XCub. The two-seat aircraft was loaded
with ballast (a wooden box filled with bags of lead
shot) so that the airplane's center of gravity was at its
aft limit-the worst place for spin recovery. Fox would
intentionally compound that disadvantage by delaying
each recovery and using less-than-ideal technique, as
required by FAA certification rules.
Much was on the line for Fox, as well as for CubCrafters. These tests had to go well for the 160-employee
company to proceed with XCub manufacturing and sales.
54 | AOPA PILOT July 2016

A 15-degree nose-up attitude at 65 mph
indicated results in a 1,500-fpm climb.
Only light pressure on the right pedal is
needed to keep the slip/skid ball centered.
Turning out of the pattern provides the
first sampling of the ailerons, and they're
delightfully quick and crisp with a natural
self-centering tendency.
I reduce power to 25 inches of manifold
pressure and 2,500 rpm, level off at 3,500
feet msl, and let the airplane accelerate.
Even with the draggy oversized tires, the
airspeed indicator climbs above 130 mph-a
number most Super Cubs see only in a dive.
FAR DIFFERENT

The makers of backcountry airplanes
know every trick when it comes to allowing their specialized aircraft to fly more
slowly, and fly on and off impossibly short,
rough surfaces.
Tundra tires; tall landing gear; automotive shock absorbers; slatted wings;
drooped tips; vortex generators; and long,
flat-pitch props allow some models to
seemingly defy gravity by landing almost

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y PA U L M A R K O W

HIGH-RISK SPIN CERTIFICATION tests took place in Arizona to
increase the odds of favorable spring weather. Pat Horgan
(black shirt), CubCrafters' director of engineering and product
development, oversaw hundreds of hours of test flights that
created more than 45,000 pages of reports. The team weighs
the tail to confirm proper loading (right), and records takeoff and
landing distances (far right).

Fox and the rest of the flight test team held to form
during the tightly scripted preflight briefing. They covered the weather, which was a brilliant, blue-sky morning in Phoenix, where the team had come for several
intensive weeks of out-of-the-way testing. They discussed airspace, alternate airports, and a long series of

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2016