AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2013 - 54

ITALIAN PAINT SCHEME DESIGNER
SOUGHT WORLDWIDE

The unique paint scheme for the Xtreme shown with this article was
created by Mirco Pecorari of Aircraft Studio Design in Modena, Italy,
located halfway between Florence and Milan. Pecorari has created
paint schemes for the Nemesis NXT built by Jon Sharp, the Relentless
Reno air racer; airshow pilots around the world; and for Italy’s
Pioneer Team four-ship airshow act. He coordinates aircraft paint
schemes with each performer’s uniform and then keeps the same
look as he designs the performer’s website.
—AKM

“We’ve also redesigned the wing tips,”
American Champion engineer, test pilot,
and aerobatic instructor Jody Bradt said.
“They’re three pounds lighter. They’re
clipped so the wingspan is shortened
from 32 feet to 30.8 feet. The 390 engine
has a 76-inch propeller, so we went up two
inches in diameter [compared to the Super
Decathlon prop]. That meant the gear legs
had to get longer. They are an inch longer
and they’re dual-tapered, both in thickness
and in width. That saves a pound and a half
over the old gear legs. In the interior of the
airplane we got rid of the carpet and got
rid of the Russian birch plywood and went
to a carbon fiber-balsa-fiberglass composite laminate. That saves eight pounds in
just the floorboards and an additional four
pounds without the carpet.” The longer
gear legs mean you might need to S-turn
during the taxi, although forward visibility on the ground is still among the best in
the tailwheel fleet.
54 | AOPA PILOT July 2013

The end result was that while the
new engine added 40 pounds, weight savings subtracted 50 pounds. The aircraft
felt slightly heavier in pitch, as might be
expected.
You’ll notice two things when you fly
the Decathlon. It continues upward further during a vertical climb, such as when
doing a hammerhead maneuver, and it is
fast. In the older Decathlon, having excessive speed wasn’t much of an issue; in fact,
you need to dive just to reach the entry
speed for some maneuvers. Not so with the
Xtreme, which can enter a loop from level
flight—just like the powerhouse aerobatic
aircraft used by top airshow stars.
The Super Decathlon can come out
of a maneuver, such as a loop, going 140
miles an hour, but with the Xtreme you’re
about 20 miles an hour faster. “The airplane wants to fly 160 or 170,” Bradt said,
“so you have to enter maneuvers slower
just because it retains its energy more. In

this airplane, you’re going to be flying level
and enter a loop, as opposed to diving for
that airspeed.”
Maybe entering maneuvers isn’t your
thing, although you’ll be proud of yourself
if you at least learn to spin to a heading.
It’s a fun way to get over any fear of stalls.
Still, you have a hamburger getter that will
speed towards that distant McDonalds at
126 to 133 knots, according to my flight
test. (The aircraft was originally certified
in miles per hour.) At the higher speed
the JPI EDM 930 engine and fuel monitor ($9,200 installed) showed 78-percent
power and a fuel burn of 14.5 gallons per
hour. The factory promises that if you
reduce power to 75 percent you’ll see a fuel
burn of 12 gallons per hour, or you could
slow to 115 knots (55 percent power) and
burn only 7.2 gallons per hour, according
to factory numbers. That way, you could
afford the chocolate shake.
I performed my old spin, loop, and
slow-roll routine and found the aircraft
behaving much like the Super Decathlon
I had used in a beginners’ contest. Takeoff
is much faster than the Super Decathlon.
At maximum gross weight we climbed
200 feet per minute faster than the Super
Decathlon, or 1,400 feet per minute.
Left to its own desires, the Decathlon
doesn’t really want to spin. I waited two
seconds too long to apply full left rudder
for the spin entry as the aircraft slowed
with power at idle, and the Xtreme sat
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2013
