First flight RV-9A N942PT with double grin

Saturday 9/21/13, N942 Papa Tiger flew for the first time. Slow build took 9.5 years but there was another RV9A (N942WG) that was built during this same time frame by Todd and I. Special thanks to Todd Wiechman, aluminum guru and top mechanic that checked every rivet twice and made me do many tasks over and allowed me to use his large garage and tools when I moved two times due to work and Kraige McElroy, who created the wiring diagram for the instruments that I purchased without his knowledge and watched with careful eyes on each pin that I crimped. Yes, we even painted the plane ourselves which took 613 man hours of prep, paint and clean up.



My father helped work on the wings when he visited in 2004 and he got pretty quick with clecoes and deburring. He felt better when he was doing something like this but he unfortunately passed away before we could finish the project. He wasn't too keen about flying in such a small plane by his standards and I am not sure I could have gotten this WWII navy vet in the plane for a ride. I did pin his Klamath County Oregon Sheriff's Deputy badge to the co-pilot seat for my first flight momento.







First light took place at Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, KS. Here is Todd before first flight. Todd was chief ground crew for first flight. His daughter Selena took video.











Wichita tower allowed me to complete an orbit in the pattern, at pattern altitude to confirm everything was in the green. I then released to the west practice area for a total of 1.1 hour flight.



Pat Garboden
RV9A Flying!
N942PT
Katy, TX

Dues paid.

First flight part two of RV Grin

Coming in for the first landing. Wichita approach vectored me to towards the north of the runway for a straight in landing but when they transferred me to the tower I requested to divert across the south end of the runway to enter the downwind to 19L to avoid congested areas. Tower asked me not to cross the threshold end as I had requested but gave me instructions to cross just to the right of the tower. I guess they wanted a closer look.







Taxi back with pre-grin.



Flight went well.



And the first grin of the day.



Todd takes the second flight of the day for 0.9 hours and produces the second grin of the day.



Todd got another 1.1 hours flight Wednesday so we now have 3.1 total and working towards the Phase I requirement.



Thanks to all the contributors to this site that allows information sharing. Thank you Doug for continuing to produce this wonderful resource of a web site. Thanks to Van's Aircraft for producing an excellent line up of aircraft.

Pat Garboden
RV9A Flying!
N942PT
Katy, TX

Dues paid

Congrats Pat. Love the paint scheme! I'm sure your father was along for the ride, so there's probably a third RV grin in there somewhere.

Congratulations!!

Congrats on the fledgling of your new bird.

The tribute to your dad............priceless. I suspect we will see more about it tomorrow on the front page.

Nice

Always nice to see another rv hit the sky. Enjoy. Cant miss that plane!

Fly lots. Rick

Congratulations! Awesome paint scheme. Visibility to other pilots will not be a problem.

Cheers,

Nicely done! Congratulations on double first flight. Be justifiably proud of this accomplishment. I am looking forward to joining you in the air within the year. Super paint scheme, and matching helmet!

Congrats Pat! I live in Wichita and would love an opportunity to meet you and see your new "official" airplane, if you're up for it.

Congrats on the first flight!

COOL PAINT! congrats on the frist flight!

Way to go!

You took your time and did it right...and what a beautiful paint job. Congratulations! Now it is time to put it through its paces and enjoy flying.

Wichita

Thanks for all the kind words. The tribute to my father did mist the eyes while pinning it to the co-pilot seat.
Kurt W., send me a pm and I'll let you know when I am in town again. The 600 mile each way commute forces me to "plan" each trip. You are more than welcome to take a look.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT

Congratulations as well!!! I've just started and hope in far less than 9.5 years to be done but probably with a lot less craftsmanship than yours has. Beautiful paint job.

First Flight

Cool Paint Job, Congrats on the first flight !

Great looking plane and congratulations on finishing. I had Cheltons on my RV 7A and they are a great product. My new plane is an RV9 and it is sooooo sweet. You are going to love it.

Bernie
RV9 N579DB
Dues paid

Congratulations on your first flight and a great paint job !!!!

Awesome!

Nice job. Good looking airplane. I know that airport well and went to college at WSU. I'm on hour 5 on my 9. I may see you there sometime in the future. Well done! I recognize the significance of the badge!

Love the teeth!!
Congrats
Now the fun begins

Congrats !!!!

... and welcome to the 9A bunch! My first flight was 53wks ago, 9/16/12, on a day with weather just like in your video. Great to see you flyin' !!!

Congratulations Pat,
Awesome paint job
Jack

Just saw it.

I think.... We're you at the Jabara air show today?

Nice -9!

I am in Washington DC on business but my build buddy flew it over there for around half of the day. The kids were relentless and would not keep from climbing on the plane and the parents let them approach it like a jungle gym. My buddy moved cones and yellow tape around the plane and the kids continued to want to climb on it.
He wasn't going back Sunday due to this.
Thanks for the kind words about the plane. We spent a long time getting it to flying status.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT

Dues paid.

I tried to help...

I kept my kids back, and even helped 2 kids that went through the tape, find the way back to the correct side..

Neat plane.

Thanks Greg. Sounds like the kids are all excited to touch things.
Appreciate your assistance.

Pat Garboden
Katy, TX
RV9A N942PT
Flying phase I

I love it!! Congratulations on the wonderful job completion and the first flights.