VAF Forums - First Flight

Chalk up another one for the Van's RV-8 fleet ... I successfully completed my first flight today in N605TT. I had a beautiful morning with winds about 6-8kts right down the runway out at KFYE. The flight was about 35 minutes from start up to shut down. The airplane is very well balanced and flew hands off. The power developed by the Titan IOX-360 and Whirlwind 200RV prop was impressive even at a reduced power setting. The GRT HXr looked great on the panel and the radios were 5x5. Still can't believe I wired this all up myself and the boxes even speak to each other nicely!

I found a few items to tend to, most notably oil temperature a little higher than I would like, but I had a baffle seal blow backwards so that fix may help. Cylinder head temps shot up quickly on departure to 385 deg but after adding about 30 kts with a shallower climb, they cooled just a bit and remained stable.

I have to give much thanks to my wife for her patience and understanding of my long days and nights at the hangar. I need to also say thanks to Mark Dickens (RV-8 KFYE) for his invaluable assistance and helping hands, to Dwight Smith (RV-4 KFYE) for his expertly experienced second set of eyes on the plane, and to Bruce Bohannon for getting me trained up for RV-8 ops.

And, thanks to Van's Aircraft for a great airplane and to Van's Air Force for the wealth of knowledge, advice and Q&A.

Here's a screenshot pulled from the GoPro video. Some quality was lost with the web hosting process.