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N302RM First Flight!

MikeyDale

Well Known Member
I finally made my first flight in my RV-7 Friday.

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I have logged 9 hours since. The flight went well other than me being really nervous! I realized later, I had not flown a plane solo in 2.5 years. Two squawks, CHT on #1 cylinder hit 400* before I got 800' in the air. I am working on getting CHT's more manageable now. The second thing rattled me the most, I added 20 deg of flaps and the plane yaw'd hard to the left and my left rudder pedal came up against my left foot! Needless to say I had to make the first landing with no flaps. I later found out the left rudder cable was caught under the nut on the flap control rod.

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I must have pulled my rudder pedals back when I put my carpet back in after the inspection and created slack that sagged down and caught the nut. I should have operated my flaps before take off and I would have caught it! I got three landings out of the first flight (see video below) but I'm doing much better now and I am really falling in love with this airplane! I want to thank VAF and all the people that has helped me! I really believe it couldn't have been done without VAF!

Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqgxhWH3pqA
 
Flap bolt

Congratulations on your first flight ... well done!
That flap rod bolt is in backwards (refer DWG 33, A5). But even with the head of the bolt on the outside it can still catch. This is why my AP insisted
on a length of conduit, small enough diameter to fit inside the snap bushings and just long enough for this bay. Easy to fit now .... simply slit the conduit, feed it over the rudder cable and inside the snap bushings at both ends, then
gaffe tape end to end. Main difficulty is finding conduit which is non-flammable, non toxic etc. Maybe someone could advise if a length of 3/8"
aluminium tubing is a possibility.
By the way, the only way to reverse that bolt is to unbolt the entire flap weldment.
However I, (like just about every other one I have seen), prefer it the
way you have it as it makes disconnecting the flap so much easier. Otherwise with the bolt in according to the plans, to remove the flap you have to undo the bolt into the flap and I don't know how many times you can do that without interfering with the integrity of the platenut inside the flap.
To each his own!
May your Phase 1 go quickly.
Cheers,
Rob,
RV-7A Hobbs 1.2 hours VH-MyRV
 
Great job Mike! Congratulations!

We have something in common besides RVs. MY wife Nancy puts up with my obsession too! :D
 
Congrats!!!

Congrats Mickey. If things were exciting enough, you added to it. Nice job of keeping cool.
 
Better pilot than me

Congrats on first flight!

2.5 years since solo and to have a yaw like that appear on first flight while applying flaps ?...... tells me you must be a helluva pilot!

I will look to installing some kind of conduit at whatever weight cost or penalty to avoid this. Funny never heard of it before this.

Dave C.
 
What a rush that must be...congrats!!! And you handled the flap situation very well. You'll have hundreds (thousands?) of happy hours with her.
 
Congrats on the first flight. BTW I installed return springs on the rudder pedals to the firewall for that exact reason!
 
Congrats on the build and first flight Mike.
The incident with the rudder cable and flap arm is interesting, good job flying the airplane.
As I recall that bolt will just clear the fuselage side wall to get it in the other way.
 
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I wouldn't lose any sleep over the flap cable. The only reason it happened is there was a lot of slack introduced into the cable. I do remember thinking the plane was a little squirrelly on that long taxi and I should have noticed the pedals being closer but I was a bundle of nerves and was going through engine out landings in my head. To make sure it doesnt happen again, I looped a couple of zip ties from the flange above to support the cable if it gets slack in it again.
 
Good job.

Good to hear and I could not help but see the canopy over-lap in the JPG, that really looks first class. It shows you put a lot of time and care into this bird. Good work, you will not regret it. Yours. R.E.A. III #80888
 
Good going, Mike! Great excitement for sure. And I'll take you up on getting together sometime after the phase 1 thing.
 
Hey Mike, it seems we are somewhat loosely related through a couple of marriages. Here is what my sister-in-law, Kim Tanner (formerly Hirt), emailed to me yesterday.

"Our cousin Nancy Batla Hillger?s husband Mike Hillger from Garden City built his own plane. See his maiden voyage on this video."

We live near Fort Worth, and keep our RV-8 at Hicks Airfield, T67. Welcome to the fold, and congratulations on the successful first flight. Come on over to Hicks some weekend. We have a great restaurant on the field and my wife Judy (formerly Hirt) and I will buy you and Nancy lunch.

John
 
Gee Bubblehead! I've been snoopin around Hicks several times in the past couple of years. My son, Justin, lived just 5 miles away from there. I stopped in and pestered Jay Pratt for a while asking him how to do this and that. If I'd only knew we had kinfolks with a plane there! You might have even talked me into building an 8! We will definitely get together soon!
 
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