Sebastian_G wrote:
One pilot at my local airfield apparently bought and got delivered one of those Chinese made Extra 500 but I have no more details.
That was one of the 4 (?) aircraft produced by Extra in Germany.
Paolo – Tell us about your Extra 500 !
It’s a great airplane, I love it :) I have now flown it for about 250 hours mainly IFR at FL 240 as I need to cross the Swiss Alps with a TAS of 195 kt. The fuel rate while cruising is low at these levels 75 to 80 liters/h. The high wing let you have a nice view below. Very easy and stable to fly. Range is also great.
I was considering this one, too. Unfortunately Extra sold the program to some Chinese company and it’s dormant.
How are service and spare parts handled? I believe 2 or 3 were sold. One is in Berlin. Did you buy yours new?
Yes I did buy it new. The service and parts are today provided by the factory.
Why is the aircraft so slow? It looks much slicker than a Silver Eagle, yet seems to be a few knots slower…
Cool!
The Allison/RR 250-C20 has a pretty low thermal rating, so up high it loses power quick. It’s also got less power compared to many other 6 seaters in this segment (Meridian/Jetprop etc), which makes it a little bit slower. This is also the reason for it’s great fuel economy. Paolo, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you have 1600nm range at max economy cruise, right?
Another good thing I’ve heard is that the RR250 engine is very cheap to overhaul and parts are everywhere, as they are in every helicopter ever made, pretty much. I heard the overhauls was in the $100K region, which is half of most other turbines.
And please Paolo – if you can publish any other info and some pictures, that would be greatly appreciated. It’s one of my favorite airplanes. 
One pilot at my local airfield apparently bought and got delivered one of those Chinese made Extra 500 but I have no more details.
That was one of the 4 (?) aircraft produced by Extra in Germany.
I spoke again to this owner lately and his 2nd Extra 500 plane was indeed produced in Germany. He apparently sold his first one as a sample to the Chinese investors.
Recently we did a fly out and apparently the performance in the low levels is a little better than our piston PA46. Higher up the Extra seems to have a disadvantage as the PA46 turbochargers can hold the cruise power all the way to the FL250 ceiling while the Allison turbine apparently can’t.
But what strikes me most is the open turbine inlet. Recently we got big bird right into our air filter below the prop. No damage to the engine only a big mess. But what would have happended with the Allison turbine?
@Adam yes you’re right the range is impressive 1600nm and I can push it to 205 kt max but I’m there to fly not to race. The best level for the engine is FL180 after power is decreasing, max temp is 752 deg.
Also you find JetA1 allover. Avgas is difficult to find in southern europe.
@Sebastian: thank you for the great ADL110 product you build!
