I paid a visit to Wayne's hangar for some more flight time in the Extra 300L, and grabbed a few quick pics, I have to say that the original looks better than my A6M5 Zero variant, but anyway, here is the inspiration.

The Extra, the Raven behind it, and Wayne's well decorated hangar.She's ready to roll!In between one of our flights Bill Stein showed up (his Edge is at Metz).  Wayne is cleaning the canopy (my girlfriend seemed to think this picture was funny, with Bill watching as the Extra appears to eat Wayne.)The rear cockpit of the Extra is very well designed, with lots of ergonomic adjustments and good fit. The Seat position, height, and angle are adjustable more than other aerobatics aircraft I have flown or sat in, and the electrically adjustable rudder pedals are cool too! The Extra allows even me to be comfortable with a chute and a well cinched 5 point harness, I might only ask for a little padding on the sides where I invariably hit my arms during snap rolls, tumbles and knife edge. Please Ignore Wayne's physical contribution to this pic  ;-)The Fun Meter! If anyone knows what a gunit is please tell me  ;-)Bill Stein's Edge 540 with it's remarkable paint! S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Eco I really like the Edge 540. Incredible looking. You are a very lucky person. Man those wings are so far forward. I bet they are well balanced. S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Yeah, the Edge 540 is a sweet ride, they used to just make wings, which mounted onto the Extra etc. After a few years they decided to make complete airframes. Wayne's Raven has the Edge Wing, and that gives it a faster roll rate. The modern Edge will roll at 420 degrees/sec, compared to the Extra at 380 degrees/sec. But keep in mind that the most baddazz Pitts out there rolls at 300deg/sec. Which is plenty fast really, in fact I find that even at 300 deg/sec that it takes your eyes and brain a second to catch up. As far as balance goes everything you touch on these planes feels 100% smooth and moves with almost 0 resistance at all. Even in flight the stick forces are so light that for the first few minutes I find myself pulling 2 Gs when I  inhale deeply and just put a little pressure on the stick. The Edge is Hwkmn's favorite plane out there, and he has a 1/4 scale RC version of one. Here is one in motion:http://www.chamblissaerobatics.com/media/kirby1.wmvS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Holy Shazbot.... Incredible... Just friggin amaizing....1. Is he wearing a G suit...probably a stupid question.2. Looks like he is completely out of breath...true?3. Whats his name..4. How in the hell do the wings stay on...5. Wouldn't you hate to meet one of these in WW2 and it only had a .30 cal    machine gun...just one.... jesus...could you imagine...5. could you buy me one???????S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

No G suit. . .just a lot of conditioning and grunting and some intense feelings that some people would call uncomfortable.Yeah, high +Gs may result in breath holding, or more appropriately,  anaerobic muscle tensing and lots of grunting and growling and other things you want to do only with close friends listening.Kirby Chambliss is his nameThe Wing is certified to +/- 20 G (which would pretty much  annihilate a person) so if the guy inside is still awake that wing is staying on ;-)Yes, these don't have the top end speed of most of the fighters we are flying, but these would still be a force to be reckoned with, and in a low alt fight, well, the fighter would be toast in short order.If I could buy you one I would probably have one.   ;-)We could all chip in and buy an Edge 540 T (2 seater version) they really arent too costly when you think about it. . . about $250,000S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Okay then I have $7.63. will that help....S~TX-FlightRisk Black 3

Wow!  Looks like you had fun!I got a call from Bill on Friday letting me know he was back in town and heading down to Wayne's.  Though I wasn't actually invited, I did think about dropping everything and heading to Metz myself.  Unfortunately, I had a flight early, early saturday morning to Portland and had too much work to finish.  As a matter a fact, that's where I'm writing this from.  Had I known you were going to be there as well, it may have made the hour long trip to Metz worth it!So how does the prop look on 301WH?  When I was there on tues., Wayne was prepping it for repaint due to some minor bubbling.  Only cosmetic of course.  I also heard Ken was released from the hospital...hope he's showing signs of improvement!  Unfortunately, I also heard some back surgery may be in order...my prayers are with him!Tysonhttp://www.tvrphotography.com

During the day there were a lot of Updates on Ken Erickson, it does sound like he is OK all things considered, but I heard Wayne discussing the fusing of some vertebra with someone who called.  Ken apparently went for a walk that day, but I am not sure how big of a walk it was, and what sort of help he had.  Wayne went to Colorado Wed. for an Ag convention of some sort, and was bringing his videos along, I am not sure how long he was going to stay.Oooooh the prop. . .sore subject. . lolWell, it looked fine when I got there. . . but  we noticed in between one of our flights that G's from the spinning prop caused the paint to run, and to wrinkle. Wayne didn't seem to think it was that big of a deal, but I couldn't help but feel bad for being the causal factor  ;-)  It will need to be sanded down, and redone. . . and presumably this time it will be allowed to sit for a few more days.Next time I go I think I am going to bring the vid camera, and try to get the girlfriend to come down too. . . though her school is all she wants to give time to right now. I think I would just love some video of an "airshow" that I am flying, then my life would be complete!!   ;-)S!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Re: Gunit...so, why's it blurry?  Excuses, excuses!Tysonhttp://www.tvrphotography.com

Hehe. . . well, I only got a few cockpit shots, and I left the ISO at auto (Canon Powershot S400 Elph) when I should and I didn't want flash. I should have gone to a faster setting via manual. . . but I wasn't really paying enough attention to the images on the LCD to know that I needed to at that time, and I didn't know this camera would opt for a shutterspeed that low when it had more "speed" to work with. When I enlarged that instrument it made it even worse. . but my official answer is that I shot that while I was flying with the other hand as I pulled over the top of a loop. . .

Wayne had a new MT Composite Prop on the floor of the hangar, ready to be installed, and a standby MT installed on 301WH, apparently the paint on the original one was bubbling because the composites were de-laminating! Wayne sent it back to MT, and they replaced it.On March 30 and 31 my dad met me at Wayne's and brought his video camera that he hadn't really used before. So given this, well, lets just say a warning that if you get motion sickness easilly dont watch this  ;-) It's really not THAT bad for shooting such a difficult subject backlit by the sun, so I gave my dad some compliments, even though he was frustrated by watching the tapes. . . this is my first attempt at editing it into one complete sequence, plus some freestyle fun at the end.ftp://209.163.147.67/Aerobatics Tracks and Movies/EcoDragon extra flying mar 31.rmS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX Squadron XO

Kirby has a new video out that makes use of a gyro cam equipped helicopter to film it. . makes for some great footage!!Kirby is venturing into the realm of full scale 3D, and doing a fine job of it (duh!)!!!Watch it!!http://www.chamblissaerobatics.com/visuals.cfm?view=videosS!TX-EcoDragonBlack 1TX-Squadron XO

Awesome!TX-Deck out.