N562E First Flight

[Paris12Man]

Congrats on your achievement! Fly as often as you can and learn the airplane. Have fun and be safe.

[lewy]

Congrats on your first flight. We are just a couple weeks away and hopefully kit number 328 will join you .

[ArVeeNiner]

I know the feeling. Congrats!

[Catbird]

Thanx for all the congrats, and for the tip on final approach airspeed. The main reason I wrote this was to offer encouragement to everyone out there who is building. Although it doesn't seem like it during the construction phase, there does come a time when everything is finished, signed off, and ready to fly. During most of my three years of building, I could never envision actually flying this project. All I could imagine was the next section of the plans. Crossing over to the bright side, as I did Tuesday evening, is definitely worth all the long hours in the shop.

[funflying]

I recall the first flight in my RV6 in 1996 and recently showed the video (converted to a DVD) to family and all those great feeling returned. I look forward to the RV12 being ready and your post gives me more encouragement and anticipation.

Thanks for all your previous posts and assistance along the way.

[Hal-san]

Originally Posted by Catbird

N562E took to the skies yesterday evening. The uncontrolled airport is vacant and nobody is there to witness ? not advisable. I?m frozen at the end of the runway for almost five minutes wondering if we?re ready for this and trying to muster the courage to run up the throttle. Once we reach 55 knots and pull back on the stick, there?ll be no turning back. I?ll be committed to depending on the plane to function smoothly and on my limited skills to land us in one piece. Finally with heart racing release the brakes, ease in full throttle, pedal dance, and quickly everything happens really fast. Acceleration, pull back, and suddenly the ground is rushing away from us. Climb to 3,000 ft at 75 knots and keep telling myself to calm down. Level off. Airspeed builds rapidly to 110 knots - pull back on the throttle. Heavy wing? No, stick is centered. Adverse yaw? I don?t think so. Ball is pretty much centered with feet on the floor. Calm down! Trim tab ? oh yeah, let?s use it. Nice. Engine instruments are all in the green as we do some wide sweeping 360 degree turns to the right and left over the central Washington desert. Wonderful! Now to descend and get into the pattern. Airspeed really builds during descent - pull power back even further. On downwind now, focus on slowing down below 82 knots to extend the first notch of flaps. Attitude changes as flaps go down, but not abruptly. Trim. Nice. Turn right base - more flaps. Now final approach. Too high and a little hot. Power back to idle. Gentle slip to bleed off airspeed and altitude. Cross runway threshold at 60 knots and 30 feet AGL. A little lower than comfortable for first landing, but still manageable. Straighten her up to settle in for a light touchdown, keeping the nose high. Chirp-chirp, pedal dance. Can?t ask for anything better on the first landing from a low-time rusty pilot. This thing is like driving a small sports car compared to the rental planes. Love it and can?t wait for tonight!

Now, I finally understand that all of the hours spent building this thing are definitely worth the reward at the end. The feeling of flying your own kit plane for the first time is beyond words and will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Hi Jerry,
Just returned from my short visit to Okinawa and find that you made your first flight in your shinny new bird. Congratulations on your accomplishment and I know you will enjoy the flying.

Hal