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The Big One, FIRST FLIGHT!!!!

S

Scott DellAngelo

Well Known Member
I sometimes wondered if I would ever actually get to type this, but at around 5:50 tonight I did it. I cannot begin to describe what it was like. It lifted off FAST, and my first thought was, "well I have no choice now". No idea what it climbed at, but I was going fast and up high quickly. Made a few laps overhead and remembered to radio to my wife (on the ground with a handheld, a nervous wreck) that everything seemed good and it flew great. Flew straight as an arrow. Seemed to be a little out in rudder, but then I realized that was just my tense feet pushing on one pedal more than the other. It was getting dark quick so I landed and that was that. My wife was balling and I have this stupid grin that is not going away. I'll fly tomorrow I am sure and hopefully get a chance to at least see what the rate of climb says (other than a bunch). :)

The plane:
RV-9A serial #90598, ~3.5 years and 1400 building hours
Tip-up, O-320-E3D overhauled my me, 66"x72" Catto Prop (smooth), Flightline Interior, basic IFR panel with Dynon, standard airspeed, alt, vs, trutrak pictoral pilot and alt hold, SL30 nav/com, panel mounted Garmin 296, GTX327 transponder, all Van's engine gauges, e-mag, p-mag. I think that is all the good stuff.

Thanks to many. Alex DeDominicis for the transition training, Checkoway, Bill Marvel, Tony Munday for the rides they gave me, and countless others that gave me useful information even if they didn't know it.

It's been said many times before but keep pounding them rivets because one day there will be nothing left to do and man is it AWESOME to fly.

Scott
N598SD - FLYING!!!!!
 
Way to go! May this be the first of many great hours on your now flying -9A. Sounds good huh, "now flying"!
 
awesome!!!

Congradulations Scott, my 9a is right behind you. :) couple more months.. been working 16 hours a day
for a month.. :) this better be worth it is all I can
say.. girlfriend gave up on me today.. :( maybe I will find a new one when this madness is over.. complusive/obsessive..
Good to hear you made it to the light.. have fun..


Danny..
 
Great job

What a feeling. Brought back memories of those tense moments before going full throttle for the first time. What a rush. great job. Check everything out carefully and have a good time flying your new airplane. Jack
 
Congratulations Scott! That has to be a great feeling.

Keep us posted and show us some photos!
 
You da man

Scott, I remember flying with you a year ago or so out here in SoCal. You really put the spurs to her since then. Glad to hear you're enjoying the result of your hard work! Safe and fun Phase One and then some...
 
Congrats

Congratualtions on the flight. Hope to see you in the air someday after I get my wings working. The 9 is a wonderful airplane. I had the chance to fly one several times and enjoyed every minute.
 
Outstanding, Scott!!!

First post I read today - what a great one!

Many congrats to you (and your wife) on the accomplishment and here's to the 'fun part' from here on out...

Best,
Doug
 
Congrats, Scott!!! I know the feeling 2X. My SeaRey, then the 7A. The 7A was much more exciting, and less terrifying. Many happy flights and enjoy phase1.

Roberta
 
Forgot to add empty weight was 1077.

Here are a couple pictures from the ground, not great as my wife was far down the runway and the lighting was getting marginal.

Flew twice so far today and the comfort factor is definitely going up. Flys great. I glanced at the VSI on flight 3 and in a climbing turn at about 120 mph it was reading 1800 fpm. 2500 rpm yields about 160 mph true (according to the dynon), full rich about 2800 feet with no fairings. No idea if that is good or not, but as of right now i'm not worried. It was really rough so not much else was done.

CHT's are all running around 400 except #3 which is more like 425. EGT's were 13xx something. Not sure what they should be?

Edit: Another flight and at 3700 wide open it read 168mph true. No leaning, no fairings.

Scott
N598SD - Flying 1.1 hours


LIFTOFF



Turning Final
 
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But why!

Sorry to rain on the parade, but why on earth would you have undertaken a "first flight" at dusk - based on the pictures that appear to be technically *night*. There are already enough things to worry about in pristine bright daylight, to not have to worry about a "first flight" problem while in less than ideal lighting conditions. What if you would have had smoke in the cockpit from a faulty wire/breaker/fuse. I didn't see any runway lights either.

While it appears you got away with it... I would take that 9 live calendar and mark one off. IMHO, that ranks right up there with not using a fire extinquisher on first startup, not tying down the tail on first startup, etc.

Please, others, don't try this! I'm just getting so tired of reading about "GA accident rates going up" and that if every pilot would just do two simple things (a) maintain currency; (b) use a CFI once in a while for recurrent training - we'd cause the accident rate to go in HALF! But I suppose pilots, by their nature are not risk-adverse. :(...

Come on people, don't put yourself in a position to become a statistic. While you may have been 100% legal, you weren't the smartest turnup in the batch that day.

my .02,
 
Scott: Congratulations, I know the feeling. My first flight was on January 24th.

I'm seeing an 8000' PA cruise (WOT, 75%) of 165 knots, 190 mph +/- 1 knot.
This is with all fairings and wheel pants. Right on Van's numbers.

Landing is easy, but the deck angle is quite high for full-stall landings. Also, once you yet your fairings on you'll see how this baby likes to glide.

At 6000 feet, you can pull the throttle to idle and land 15 miles away! (I don't recommend trying this yet).

Vern Little
 
Congrats Scott!

For those listeners out there, I do believe that Scott implied he had flown at least three times, hence the dusk flight was not a first flight.

I will probably drink several brewskis after my first flight to celebrate, but I can see how, if all has gone well, that you wouldn't want to stop! I can only dream about that moment at present.

Congratulations to you & your better half!! Let us know how you progress!

We who are still building are envious of those who are flying......especially those who fly 400+ hours a year ;) Are you out there Sharpie!

Have fun & be safe!
 
Great News!

Congrats on the first flight Scott!

Some day I might actually join you in the air. What I'm trying to figure out is what am I doing wrong? I'm 1600 hours into my -9 and still a year away. Could it be that all the non-standard stuff is slowing me down? Like rebuilding my engine, installing a throttle quadrant, etc? With that stuff behind me, I wonder how much longer my project will take.

Thanks for the motivation!
 
Um...

n615ks said:
For those listeners out there, I do believe that Scott implied he had flown at least three times, hence the dusk flight was not a first flight.
Click to expand...

I believe that "last" message was *after* the first flight, he'd flown a couple more times since the evening first flight. And the original message said...

I sometimes wondered if I would ever actually get to type this, but at around 5:50 tonight I did it.
Click to expand...
And the title of the thread was "FIRST FLIGHT".

If there is more to the story, then it should probably be said, if not, then it wasn't a very wise choice and we as pilots *have* to start making smarter ones.
 
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Alan,

There was some time that had past before the RV Grin shot was taken. It was light enough that I could see perfectly and there was not so much as a thought of even turning on interior lights because it was still light enough I would not have even known they were on. It was starting to get dark enough that a camera 1500 feet down had a slightly hard time. You cannot see runway lights because they were not on yet because it was not dark enough for them to be on yet. The conditions were as safe as they could have been I assure you, perhaps not for you but I was totally comfortable with it and I am a pretty conservation person.

Edit: To add, sunset was somewhere around 6:02 or something Friday and I was actually probably on the ground already by 5:50. This was on an absolutely cloudless sky. Sure it was only 10-12 minutes away but this was only a 10-15 minute flight directly above the airport.

Scott
N598SD - Flying 3.5 hours (now out of town for work for 2 weeks, and the tanks got removed yesterday afternoon for the SB. :( )
 
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Glad to hear it

Scott DellAngelo said:
Alan,

It was no where near FAA "night". There was also some time that had past before the RV Grin shot was taken. It was light enough that I could see perfectly and there was not so much as a thought of even turning on interior lights because it was still light enough I would not have even known they were on. It was starting to get dark enough that a camera 1500 feet down had a slightly hard time. You cannot see runway lights because they were not on yet because it was not dark enough for them to be on yet. The conditions were as safe as they could have been I assure you, perhaps not for you but I was totally comfortable with it and I am a pretty conservation person.

Scott
N598SD - Flying 3.5 hours (now out of town for work for 2 weeks, and the tanks got removed yesterday afternoon for the SB. :( )
Click to expand...

Scott, seriously, I didn't want to detract from the experience that I'm sure you had, but it did appear in those pictures to be too dark for a first flight. I think the lesson here is still valid tho. I think the best approach to signoff and first flight is to do them on separate days. (BTW, I know you did that)

Do the signoff, fix the stuff needing fixed, and then savor the mental checklist for first flight for a day or two and *DO IT IN CAVU DAYLIGHT*. After all, wouldn't it be a terrible thing to read about a first flight in the FAA accident reports that occured because someone pushed to get the first flight in as the day ran out, or after some major issues were resolved.... And only because they were so excited that it had to happen *that* day. Ah, but unfortunately, the accident reports are *Full* of exactly that...

I'm very happy for you, and I certainly hope I remember this thread when I get ready to do mine as I'm sure the emotions are very powerful. Those sames ones that say "Ah, the weather isn't that bad", or "Ah, you can make it the next 50 miles on that fuel". I've learned one thing in aviation - Nothing happens as fast as I expect or want it to. It seems I wait for everthing. Perhaps, that is a good thing. :)

Congrats, and good luck going forward, even tho I'm not building an RV, I do enjoy seeing/reading/ and living thru yours and other proxy.
 
I agree Alan (DO NOT push it), my thoughts were actually that lots of people knew that it was inspected and Saturday had a good forecast. My thought on Friday afternoon became, if I get ready Friday and it happens (or doesn't) that there is no pressure because there was no expectation and if there is ANYTHING I do not like then nobody even knew I was giving it a try. So, in a way I think I did the "safer" thing by doing it when noone expected. As I told my wife when I called her saying I was gonna try, "if it gets too late, then it's just ready for the morning". That's when the expectations would have begun though.

Scott
 
Big Congrats

Congratulations! You've accomplished something truely great. Glad to see another 9 is in the air.

I can't believe someone would argue about how you did it. Keep doing it your way.

12S
 
Do it your way

Scott,
Congats on finishing your machine and making the first flight. ....sounds to me like you did everything just right, despite the lecture we all got from the Lancair guy.
Dave
 
i wouldn't diss on "the Lancair guy" - think it's always important to be mindful of safety in all aspects of our flying. Would rather have people be reminded "too much". If anything, this might be the reminder that prevents someone from doing their first flight at dusk.

Think it's hard to get tone and inflection in an email, could come across as lecturing. I appreciate Alan's input in the posts he's had so far - none in the past have even bordered on the condescending...

Think it's great that we have such a good forum that a "Lancair guy" is using us for a reference (and should be vice versa)

Congrats Scott - i won't even be able to understand the exhilaration until i'm a few thousand hours down the rivet trail...

Cheers,

phil
KSLC
 
We appreciate different viewpoints

All the differing viewpoints and the insight that each brings is great...at the right time and place.
12S
 
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