Info on Extreme Motor-Glider made by Katana mfg.
jo...@li.net
Has anyone flown the motor-glider made by the same manufacturer as the new
composite Katana ? I think it is called the Extreme. The club were I rent
Airplanes is getting one. At first I will have the opportunity to train for my
glider license in it, then they will be selling 16 shares of ownership of the
plane. Here are a few of my questions:
Any personal experiance with this plane ?
Any thoughts on buying a 16th share in an airplane ( availabilty of plane ?)?
Thank you in advance for any replies.
Jon G.
jo...@li.net
hel...@isl.stanford.edu
The Katana Extreme started life as the Super Dimona motor glider,
designed and manufactured by HOAC Austria (Hoffman Aircraft
Company is what I think it stands for). They then clipped the
wings and made it into a nose wheel plane, dubbed it the
Katana, and started selling it as a regular power plane.
Diamond Canada bought the design and manufacturing rights
to the Katana a few years ago, and all Katanas were then
manufactured in Canda, while the Super Dimona continued
to be made by HOAC Austria. Recently, Diamond Canada
also purchased HOAC outright and now the Austrian operation
is Diamond Aircraft GmbH.
About a year ago, Diamond rechristened the Super Dimona into
the Katana Extreme -- also adding winglets and a few other
minor mods. But basically the Katana Extreme is the same as
a Super Dimona.
To turn to the meat of your question, I bought a Super Dimona
in March 1995, so I've had it for a little over a year and a half,
during which I've put about 300 engine and 500 airframe hours
on the ship.
The low ratio of TTAF/TTE should not be misconstrued
as saying the plane cannot soar since I sometimes
use it as a power plane, without
much attempt at soaring (it cruises at 100 kts and has
five hours of fuel). I also use it to get from the
SF area to Minden or other great
soaring in the Sierras, taking a little under 1.5 hours of engine time,
instead of 5 hours of engine time on my car. A typical one
day soaring trip will put 3 engine hours and 6 airframe hours
on the plane, but 90% of the engine time is getting there
and home. I'll typically soar for 3 hours with only 20-30
minutes of engine time. A serious contest pilot who flew
with me was very impressed by its thermalling ability.
I could cut the engine time while soaring even more
if I were content to do local soaring. The need for
the engine comes when doing longer distance x-cntry
where you have to cross large areas of sink. The poor
penetration of the Super Dimona is due to the fixed gear
and non-retractable prop -- also possibly do the high
lift wing that seems optimized for climb rate. I used
to say the plane has poor penetration, but have changed
that to saying it has poor penetration with the engine
off, but fantastic penetration with a few minutes of
engine!
I love the ship, though of course I have a few gripes.
What do I love? The freedom that a motor glider gives -- any
airport becomes a glider port; if the lift is 15 minutes from the
field, I can motor there, whereas that long a tow would be
prohibitive, plus I'd have to worry about getting back; no need
for a ground crew; no waiting for aero retrieves ....
All those apply to any motor glider. Where the Super Dimona
comes in uniquely is its climb performance. The factory claims
830 fpm at max gross at sea level on a standard day, and my
experience agrees. They also claim a service ceiling around
17k MSL, and again, my experience agrees. All this out of an
80 hp engine! On takeoff at sea level, over half of that 80 hp is going
into lift -- 1700 pounds x 830 fpm = 23,500 ft-lb/sec = 42.8 hp.
Truly impressive! When I first was training at Minden, NV in pure
sailplanes and indicated to my instructor that I was interested
eventually in a motor glider, he warned me that they were
dangerous. When I asked why, he said "inadequate climb."
He's right about many motor gliders and self launchers, but
not the Super Dimona. (Until Stemme started offering the turbo-
charger option, the SD was the king of the hill of motor
gliders/self launchers in climb performance. Of course the
Stemme costs twice as much, even without the turbo option!)
The engine is also extremely reliable and easy to maintain.
The fact that the Katana has become very popular
also helps. There is now a great customer service group
that I can reach at an 800 number in Canada and order parts,
etc. And they are really helpful. Also, when I needed a canopy
cover for the plane, the cover shop already had a Katana
pattern, which was the same as for my ship. At overhaul time,
I'll be able to ship the engine to Canada, instead of Austria,
and I believe the bill will be in the $5k range.
The liquid cooled heads also help minimize thermal shock
that motor gliders are prone to.
OK, what are my gripes? The prop feathers electrically (part
of the constant speed mechanism which gives the
great climb performance) so it is slow -- a minute to feather
and the same to unfeather. If I launch in good conditions, I
might shut down the engine at 1500 AGL but don't feather
until at least 2000 and preferably 3000. In the meantime,
my sink rate jumps from about 250 fpm to about 325 fpm.
Even though it is certified for both 100LL and hi test
unleaded auto fuel, the engine runs best on the latter.
Hence I lug fuel cans around the airport a lot. I do use
100LL when traveling because there's no other option,
but I like to baby the engine as much as possible. The
plus side of this is that you save about $0.50 per gallon,
but the plane burns so little fuel, that I'd rather
pay that and have the convenience of a fuel truck.
(If you burn any 100LL make sure you use at least
some natural, as opposed to synthethic, oil in the engine.
The manual recommends pure synthetic, but I think
that was based on experience in Europe where
unleaded fuel may be more available at airports. A
recent service bulletin from Rotax confirmed my
concern.)
Another gripe has to do with the large amount of rudder
pressure needed. After a long day of thermalling,
I feel like I've been on a bicycle trip. Of course, that
does turn soaring into a more aerobic activity.
While it is no longer a serious gripe, since I've adjusted to the
plane, the Super Dimona is a bit tricky to
take off and land -- especially if you want to grease
it onto the runway when landing. (My advise is to
relax your standards a bit and enjoy the plane more,
though I must admit I still am fighting that battle.)
I think the landing issue
is due to the larger amount of weight on the tailwheel (at least
as compared to the Grob 109B in which I transitioned).
The extra tailwheel weight does make taxiing easier
in high winds though.
The takeoff issue is probably
also partly due to the higher tailwheel weight, but
is also partly due to the great climb performance.
The more climb rate, the more the "torque effect"
on takeoff.
Although the plane is a bit tricky to learn to takeoff
and land, I know that the SD has been used as a club
ship and that pilots new to the plane were able to
solo in a reasonable time -- in the Denver area no less!
Hoping this helps,
Martin Hellman
mur...@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at
Martin gave a good description of the Super Dimona, but there is a new
Super Dimona available now.
The main improvement is that the Dimona is now available with an
115hp-engine manufactured by Rotax (turbo-charger) and with a nose
wheel. Our club has just ordered one, which should be used as a
motorglider, but also for towing! I have not flown this plane, but some
pilots of our club have been able to test the towing-capability. And
they are truly impressed. When it was tested, it was hot, 2 persons were
in the Dimona and 2 in our Super Blanik (the weight of each of these 4
persons exceeds 100kg) Accelerating on the runway is not as usual, a
little bit slow. But once airborne, the performace is excellent. The
Super Dimona needs ab. 1 minute longer to climb from 550m MSL to 1550m
than a Robin DR400 - really impressive.
And the handling of this nose wheel plane is also good. One pilot made
his first landing with a nose wheel and he had no difficulties (he is
not happy with the taildragged-Dimona)
Christof Bodner
BAConrad
My dad is one of 12 owners of a Cessna 172. He has no trouble scheduling
time to fly it. The only problem with the motorglider is it's most fun
daytime VFR, cutting down on useable hours / week.
Drewmail
These planes sound interesting. What is a ball park price on one?
hel...@isl.stanford.edu
In <19961214204...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, drew...@aol.com (Drewmail) writes:
>These planes sound interesting. What is a ball park price on one?
Two years ago, the list price was $91,000, but you had to
add about $5-10k for radio, xponder, etc. So $100k was
the right ball park (new). At that time there weren't
any used ones for sale, but there may be now or in
the near future.
Yes, it is an interesting plane! And, if
5-10 people form a club to buy one, it doesn't cost
much more than buying into a pure sailplane, yet
you can get infinitely more use out of it. I think it's
been overlooked as a possibility, and deserves
a lot more attention than it's gotten.
Martin Hellman
mog...@lsil.com
In article <32A9DE...@friedrich.schiller.big.ac.at>,
I can add to Christof's comments that the nose wheel version is easy flown.
I tried the 115 hp version at a demo flight at our club. Because of the power-
full engine, take-off is very easy - it's leaves the ground as a rocket!
The demopilot turned of the engine at 500 feet!!! The propella turns to a
"neutral pitch" in 5 seconds, and returns as fast, using pressure from
a hydrolic capacitor. I brought the plane to a stalled position slowly
with the engine in idle. It sinks heavily, but still with full ruder control.
Applying full power rapidly, just makes the plane go into climb. The approach
was done at 200km/h, and applying full brakes at low altitude (the demo
pilot was also a rally car driver!!!). Tuching down
was done with half airbrakes, and felt relatively simple.
We did a tow as well, and reached 100m and the end of the runway, which
is 1000m, towing a two seater! Very convinceing!
We are a group of 21 people having a 'motorfalke', but have now ordered a
Super Dimona for delivery in May 97! I'm looking forward for that.
Happy flying...
Mogens Balsby
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