Another motivational First Flight video
 

Well this is a little late for posting, but I found while building, a little motivation was always a good thing. I didn't have a good video of Black Magic's first takeoff, as I was in the chase plane. A friend however, did video the first liftoff, and first landing, performed by Kahuna in Black Magic. As briefed, Mike was going to quickly get her off the ground, test the ailerons then perform a 45 degree turn and climb to altitude as quickly as possible for safety reasons. No editing was done to the video so it is raw footage.

BTW Kahuna, that light elevator is a treat.;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYCeLfJCW6s

Keep poundin em gang, it will become an airplane!!!

Not exactly a conservative first take off. Looked a lot like hot dogging to me. :eek:
Tin Man

Tin Man, to the contrary it was a very safe, well briefed takeoff. The idea was to get the airplane off as soon as possible and check the ailerons. The 45 degree turn and climb brought the airplane immediately over much more favorable landing terrain and would have allowed 3 different landing directions. Going to be a little bold here and state you need to know the facts before making such a statement as you did. I reiterate, the takeoff was briefed, understood and performed according to plan. Don't let this turn into a safely thread or I'll ask the motivational thread be removed by the mods. It was safe.

Safe Take Off
 

I think I would want to know if the ailerons are OK 10 feet up rather than 1000 while I still have runway ahead of me.

The three irrevokable laws of aviation.

Nothing replaces:

1. The runway behind you.

2. The altitude above you.

3. The fuel you left on the ground.

A perfect example of the first law.

Way to go Dana and Kahuna.

Dave Nellis

Sounds like damage control to me. I'm think any respectable test pilot or the FAA might disagree. To each thier own.
Tin Man

You are going to get blasted!
 

Dana,

That was a great video of your first takeoff. Don't let the Safety Nazi's get to you. As soon as I saw your left and right rolls, I understood exactly what and why you did it.

That is the problem with this and all forums is that everyone's risk level is different and what is acceptable to some is completely reckless to others.

People, please don't trash Dana for his test plan. If you are adverse to this type of test, then simply don't do it. Those of you who are to follow, you have just learned something from this thread. Now it is up to you to plan your first flight according to your comfort level.

The trick is to do what Dana did, plan your flight and fly your plan. Don't improvise. He did not, he flew his plan. You may not agree with it, but he flew his plan.

Knowing the terrain thanks to flying in to several of your fly-in's, I understand the turn. Gotta give that one to ya. Your test pilot knows what he's comfortable with. Nice plane, and congratulations.

BTW, looking forward to our first arrival in the RV instead of the Tomahawk.

Bob Kelly

Good video!
 

:D


I'm with you Bill, Kahuna is no rookie and he was the guy flying.

Great video Dana and BTW, I love the color! :)

The first thing I thought when I saw this video was, "After all that time and money, you didn't want to invest in some transition training?" At a glance it looks like there was ridiculous overcontrolling right after takeoff.

The man that was flying has a couple thousand hours of RV transition training under his belt. Read the details, the test pilot was Kahuna not Dana. Those moves were on purpose and for a reason.