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N86TF First Flight

Zazoos

Well Known Member
I was very excited and nervous but the weather was perfect for my first flight today. I received tail wheel and transition training with Jan Bussell last week and that was a fantastic experience. I highly recommend it. I had never even flown in a tail wheel aircraft prior to meeting Jan. We flew 10 hours over the course of 3 days and it really paid off for my first flight.

I would say the biggest stress factor of the first flight was the glass panel. My limited flight experience has always been with conventional instruments. I managed it but for the next flight I am going to have the Dynon display the traditional six pack on 1/2 of the screen and the engine monitoring on the other half. I had the map up on the first flight but really didn't need it as I was just circling the airport at 2500'. After I get a bit more comfortable I will transition back to the tape layout.

I did have a fair amount of shimmy at about 20kts on takeoff, but it lessened around 40kts. Thinking maybe the tubes where getting situated in the tires. Pressure set to 38psi. No shimmy noted on landing.

Fuel pressure with boost pump on and rpm's low in the pattern result in a high pressure. Around 8psi. Is that ok ? If so, for how long? If I turn the boost pump off the pressure drops to about 5 psi. Otherwise engine parameters where all good. (0-320)

I flew about 45 minutes and while I didn't really do any testing the plane did fly very nice and didn't seem to have any issues.

Looking forward to the second flight.

Thank you to all the VAF members for all the help.
 
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Congrats!!!!

Outstanding achievement sir! Many congrats and wishing you a pain free phase 1.

v/r,dr
 
Fantastic! There a new world of air adventure now open to you.

I did my RV7 transition training with Jan a few years back; he's great. How'd you like his Impossible Turn lesson?
 
Congrats, I'll be in the same situation in a few years on my -7. I have fair amount of TT (750) w/instrument rating mostly in my Tiger (sold) but currently no tail wheel time. I have a instructor lined up the initial tail wheel endorsement... figuring I can learn same as hundreds of others before me!
 
Congrats! The first flight of your first homebuilt is a major life achievement, no doubt.

:):):):)
 
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