Dave McD's Extra 300
Kit:  Carl Goldberg
Span:  68"
Wing Area:  852 sq. in.
Weight:  10 lbs / 2oz.
Eng:  Thunder Tiger 1.20
Radio:  Futaba 8UAF

Special features:
Setup for Ailervators
and Flapperons.



 

After I bought a Thunder Tiger Pro 1.20, I didn't have a plane to put it in....so I bought this EXTRA from a friend who had been actively flying it with a ST 90 for several years.  I'd test flown this plane for him about 3 years before I bought it, and had flown it many times after that.  I was really impressed with the way it flew!  But where he was happy with the performance of the ST 90, I felt it needed more power to fly closer to it's potential.

So he kept his ST 90, I bought this EXTRA, then installed the brand new TT 120 in it.  Although he had been using a single elevator servo, I modified it to use dual elevator servos, but I went ahead and installed the servos in the servo tray.  The battery is located in the rearmost section of the radio compartment.  Although it isn't terribly nose heavy with the TT 120 up front, it's still more nose heavy than I'd prefer.  If I ever get around to building my own EXTRA kit, I'm going to locate both elevator servos back in the tail to improve the balance without having to add extra tail weight.  For the first year, I flew this EXTRA with Futaba S-148's on everything, including dual elevator, dual aileron, and a cabled rudder.  Later I changed out the S-148 servos to Futaba S-131SH high speed ball bearing coreless servos to improve the flying characteristics.  Then I changed the 4.8 volt airborne battery to a 6.0 volt battery to make the servos even faster.

Rolls, point rolls, loops, spins, flat spins, and tumbling maneuvers are all nearly effortless, whether upright or inverted.  It might even be easier to hover than my Stickit IV, which is the plane I learned to hover with.   After flying this EXTRA, now I understand why most of the Tournament of Champions competitors seem to choose EXTRAs.  They fly great!  In fact, this EXTRA flys SO well....it's almost boring!  :-)    The ABS cowl is falling apart, but like all other Goldberg kits, what their kits lack in quality, is MORE than made up for in the way they fly!

I've been using a TT 120 to turn an APC 16 x 8 in this CG Extra 300 for a few years now.  It starts easily, has gobs of power, idles at ridiculously slow rpms, throttles perfectly, and doesn't vibrate much at all.  I LOVE it!  The TT 120 is easily one of the best R/C engines that I have EVER owned in my 31 years of R/C.

The TT 120 and the Goldberg Extra make an ideal match.  With an APC 16 x 8 prop, it would hover at 2/3 throttle.  Going to full throttle would make it climb vertically out of a hover, and with the stock muffler, the TT 120 never needed a pump.  Because the TT 120 throttles so well, I normally flew it at about 1/2 to 2/3 throttle.  Full power was usually reserved for raw pulling power when going straight up, or after exiting a violent tumbling maneuver.  I flew this Extra with a TT 120 for nearly 3 years before an untimely fuel tank problem caused the engine to quit during a low altitude inverted flat spin.
  I needed power to exit the flat spin.....
but the engine died because the fuel tank was now prematurely empty.......
and my EXTRA went to balsa heaven.

I really miss this plane!  :-(