. . and Now the Payoff - First Flight N528DP

So the REALLY big day is finally here!

My wife Pam and I just got back Friday (July 25th) from a trip out to Lees Summit, MO where I got my final transition training from Bill Gill in his beautiful RV-7. I didn't want my training to get stale and the weather for Saturday July 26th looked pretty good so . . . . out to the Courtland (9A4) airport we go about 9:00 AM.

After dragging the plane out of the hangar and giving a thorough preflight, it was time to get in.



Strap in, start the engine . . . . .



. . . . and taxi out.



Thorough mag check, lots of butterflies, push the throttle up and then . . . .



How about that! It flies just like Bills out in MO! I can't stress enough the value of the transition training I received. The familiarity and feel was right there.
Flew in a circle around the airport for about 30 minutes at 3500 ft. Did a stall to get a feel for the airspeed calibration and then brought it in to land. Following Bills advice, I actually did a go around on my first attempt since I wasn't completely happy with my roundout. Did a pretty good landing on my second attempt.

After taxing back in, Pam and I couldn't resist taking this goofy selfie showcasing the RV Grin.



The plane does have a few issues. The prop governor is way out of adjustment (RPM too low). High cylinder head temps. Just a bit of a heavy left wing (maybe). But it was a thrill to finally fly it after 7 years of work!

Pam took lots of video and still shots. http://youtu.be/U4wGEgJRYHs is a link to a 3 minute edited down youtube video of the flight.

I guess I'm now one of those guys who can say "Keep pounding those rivets"!

First Flight Congratulations!

Congratulations, Dan! All that hard work really paid off. She is a beautiful RV-7. I'm hoping Doug sees this and puts it on the front page tomorrow morning (Monday).

P.S. for those that may not know... The Courtland Airport, built in World War II, was a training base for B-24 bomber pilots. Two of its original three runways are still in use. There are lots of open airspace and open fields around that airport.

Awesome

Congratulation!

Very nice Dan (and Pam)!

If you ever see Dan's plane, take a close look at the immaculate paint. Matter of fact, scroll back up the page and take a good look at the photo...check out the shadowing on the N-numbers. What you are seeing is all paint, no vinyl. And Dan painted this plane in his basement shop! The rest of the plane is built with the same attention to detail....beautiful example of RV art.

Nice job eight delta pop! Congratulations!


PS; Original runways? On my bucket list

Nice

Enjoy many years of great flights. Good job!

Wow!

What a great paint job and super nice plane! Was this your first one to paint?

Great paint scheme!

Congratulations, I cannot imagine the heart pounding excitement of a first flight after seven years of work. Your title "And now the payoff" is perfect! If you are giving tours of the final product sometime let me know. I would love to see it and show it to my son. We are in Huntsville.

Excellent, Dan!!

Nothing like that first flight, congrats on it and the build.

Beautiful plane! First flights in a fully painted RV are rare. Thanks for the inspiration and enjoy Phase 1.

Right on! glad everything went well.

Excellent, Dan ! Have fun, and fly safe.

Congratulations on your first flight! What a great feeling that must be. Blue skies ahead for you!

Dan Langhout said:

I guess I'm now one of those guys who can say "Keep pounding those rivets"!

Click to expand...

10-4 Boss! Going to pound some rivets right now. Congrats! Looking forward to sharing the skies with you soon.

It's a great feeling, isn't it? Now have a safe Phase 1 and enjoy that pretty airplane.

Congratulations, Dan!
It's got to be an awesome feeling.
Be safe.

congrats

Congratulations that is a very beut aircraft! enjoy.

You made it!

Outstanding Dan. A great story to wake up to this morning. I'm so happy for you. Fly safe.