First Flight Distraction

As a Flight Advisor, I am always interested in reading First Flight Stories from homebuilders. Always full of joy, they frequently include little tidbits of information about things that didn?t go ?exactly? as the pilot expected. In fact, it is rare when something slightly out of the ordinary DOESN?T occur! Unusual instrument readings, heavy wings, unexpected wind noise or rattles ? almost all of these things are usually due to minor, non-threatening causes which, if ignored make no difference to the safe and successful completion of the flight. (Complete silence at 400 feet or reversed control action would not be included in this list of ?minor? annoyances BTW?.) When I talk to pilots? about their upcoming first flights, I like to spend time discussing these minor problems, and to get an understanding of the individual?s tolerance to the off-nominal, because how they react is going to determine if the issues will simply be minor notes on the kneeboard ? or major distractions that lead to bent metal! Successful test pilots have proven their capability to distinguish between the two, and to filter out those events which might lead them down the road to a mishap.

It would be interesting to build a list of events in one place (this thread being a good place) that RV?ers have experienced on first flights for the purpose of giving those yet to make their first flights a place to read about the distractions for which they might want to be prepared. Forewarned is forearmed, and you can never be too well armed when going many tens of knots a significant distance above the ground. Put bluntly - the accident records are filled with tales of bent airplanes that resulted from pilot distraction caused by what should have been ignored, and that?s a shame! If we share those tales and stories, we can build a nice library of things to review before those all-important first flights ? things to ignore, and things that require attention. The goal, of course, is to help people understand the difference.

An example. As I added power for the first take-off in the Valkyrie, everything looked and felt good. I was mostly concentrating on staying on the narrow taxiway that served as a temporary runway during some airport construction, and keeping the plane straight during the early acceleration part of the roll. When I looked down to check the gauges, I noticed that the RPM?s were indicating 1800 ? well below the 2700 rpm redline I would have expected with full throttle. Due to the incredible acceleration of the RV, I was already at takeoff speed by the time this all registered, and a rejected takeoff would have been more difficult than flying ? so I flew. I knew by the seat of my pants that I had full power, and the indication was meaningless ? I didn?t let it distract me from flying the airplane. It turned out to be an incorrect constant that was set in the EFIS, easily corrected by the next flight, but something that needed to be ignored at the time. An abort could easily have lead to a bent airplane as I learned about the effect of deceleration on steering in an airplane I hadn?t flown before.

From insects in the cockpit to missed push-buttons on audio panels; from minor oil leaks to loose wing root fairings ? I am sure we can build quite a list. Anyone else want to share their ?there I was? stories?

Paul

"Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!"... for 20min. AFS AOA, don't take off with it on for the first flight. I felt so busy that I didn't even bother trying to shut it up. Just tuned it out with my brain, no problem.

Inadvertant first flight

I was guilty of not being prepared for flight on a high speed taxi test.
Back in 1990, after 7 years of building my RV4, I was preparing for my first flight and tracking down reasons my engine wouldn't develop full power. A too rich carb. jet( lean about halfway back), and new sparkplugs(dropped some......is that bad??? Ha Ha!), anyway it was time to see if it would make full power without stumbling. All I really wanted to do is see if the engine could be brought up to full power, so I taxied into position on Lunken's 6000 ft rwy. After fighting with the engine for a week, I wasn't too hopeful. Imagine my surprise when the engine smoothly powered up, I was so excited that it finally ran smoothly I decided that I might as well do a high speed taxi test. No sooner than I had full throttle, I quickly retarded it to idle as the airplane accelerated to flying speed, and fly is what it did. I was about 10 feet off the ground, flew along for about 2000 ft and then set it back down with about 2000 feet left.
The next day I INSTALLED the seatbelts and harnesses! and made the official first flight.

Always be prepared for flight on those taxi tests!

By the way, I don't do taxi tests anymore.

35 minutes into my first flight

Everything had gone really well for the first half hour. I was stuck under a 1300 foot Class C ceiling at the home drome so after 3 circuits of the pattern at the speed of heat, I headed up to my intended landing field KMAE 13 miles NW. As soon as I got out from under the Class C, I climbed to 4500 feet and set up to orbit KMAE.

All went well until I turned on the fuel boost pump and switched tanks. I started smelling 100LL, normally a pleasant odor, long associated with good times, in this instance I became concerned. Crapped my pants is probably a better discription. There was obviously a lot of gas going somewhere I didn't design the system to take it. Fuel pressure remained constant but I switched back to the first tank. No change, lots of 100LL fumes in the cpit. Well, let's try turning the boost pump off and see if the XP-360 remains the dear friend she's been so far. Yep, fuel pressure and power remain normal with the boost pump off and the smell might be disipating a little.

I'm 4000 feet over the airport, and decide that I will get a feeling for the slow speed handling on my downwind. One small buffet let me know what she thinks of slow flight, so I proceeded to land. One of my luckier landings to date.

Got on the ground, pulled the cowling and was puzzled to find the hard fuel line from the gascolator to the primer solenoid had cracked at the silver soldered fitting. It was the same stuff that is used between a fuel injection flow divider and the actual injector nozzles...not experimental homebrew stuff. It had a loop in it to damp vibes. Why it failed I do not know. It's replacement has 300 hours and counting with no problems. The system was pressure tested the evening prior to the first flight and all had checked good. Vibration will do things in flight that won't necessarily show up on a ground run.

The smell of fuel in the cockpit is disconcerting. I had the option of stopcocking the fuel and doing a dead stick. I'm glad I didn't, all that needed to happen for for me to return to the previous known good condition. Back on the first tank, and boost pump off and all was well as far as I could tell. Training tells us if we move a control or switch and don't like the result, return to previous position and analyze.

No High Speed Taxis,,,these things will take off with as little as 1400 rpms,,,My first flight was an accident also,,,I just wanted to lift the tail and see how it handled on the runway. I'm just glad that it had an airworthiness certificate at the time.

Nothing on the first flight

My very first flight went smoothly but I had a couple of things happen on some early flights.

It was probably the third flight where I had high cylinder head temperatures. They were around 450 or 460F and climbing and I made an immediate landing. This was just a combination of high ambient temperatures, an already warmed up engine, a not broken in engine and possibly too steep a climb angle. No immediate action was taken although I did open up the cooling air exits a little later.

Maybe the third flight or so the fuel flow indication went suddenly to zero. I prepared for an immediate landing, but the engine kept running. Bad fuel flow transducer.

I was also alarmed on some early flights by popping noises and bangs on the floorboards while slowing down to land. I would probably still have this but I have learned to use gentle enough power reductions to avoid it.

Spider on Roll Bar

Not a first flight distraction. About two weeks ago, just before pushing the throttle forward for takeoff, I had a spider drop down off the front rollbar, hanging there on a web and then dropped into my legs. I am not sure how I would have handled that on takeoff.

The ensuing flight was good for me, sorry to say the spider did not have such a good day...or really any more days.

Steve
RV8 250 hours

Gee Paul, you didn't bring this up because of my first flight report (http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=43207) did ya?

scard said:

"Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!", "Angle, Angle, PUSH!"... for 20min. AFS AOA, don't take off with it on for the first flight. I felt so busy that I didn't even bother trying to shut it up. Just tuned it out with my brain, no problem.

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I'm glad that I'm not the only one that did this! I admit that this was very distracting when it happened to me and it took significant effort to fly the airplane. I really wanted it off quickly, not only because of the distraction, but I felt that it was very important to maintain communication with my ground crew. Luckily, I was able to think it through and get it into calibration mode within the first minute of flight.

RPM Issues

Had the same thing happen on my first flight with the RPM, as I had a wrong setting in the GRT EFIS and got that resolved before the second flight. This seems like a common issue for those with Grand Rapids! Other than a heavy wing, the RPM was the only issue for the first flight. However, it didn't take too many flights before I forgot to latch the tipper canopy latch, so good think I'm in the habit of turning the center canopy latch to the locked position!

Hibernating wasp

That crawled out from behind the instrument panel...Yikes!

Ok not on the first flight but a most unwelcome visitor...Didn't get stung though!

ericwolf said:

Gee Paul, you didn't bring this up because of my first flight report

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Let's say that I was both inspired and impressed!

Paul

Paul I also think we should think about this when adding new 'features' to our planes.

We've found many times when upgrading, changing, or adding new features ... it's best to take a co-pilot and MAKE SURE the co-pilot does nothing but FLY THE PLANE.

The first few times we updated our EFIS's we found our head down 'playing' with a new feature ... our complacence with how our plane flew took our eye off the ball of flying.

I have a complete electronic cockpit on my RV10. On the first flight first one EFIS and then the second went black. It was very distracting, but the words fly the plane kept playing in my head and I landed safely with the backup instruments. Obvously I had all the instrumentation I needed but it can be very distracting when something big is not working. As some famous astronaut once said, "Is the plane flying? Keep it that way."

Gary Specketer
RV10 Flying

Fuel issue

On another first flight with a VW engine I suddenly got fuel flowing back over the windscreen. I was sure that it would ignite and I would look like giant roman candle, but it didn't and I landed safely. Very nerve racking but again, if it is flying, keep it so.

Gary Specketer
Dragonfly

First flight

Two issues! Both stupid on my part. First during my final inspection (Canada) my inspector felt one of my wing bell crank bolts was a little loose, which we tightened, now it felt a little stiff, but I guess a new aircraft maybe a little stiffness was acceptable...NOT. Second, a day or two prior to my first flight I decide to change the display on my GRT EIS 4000 and move where the oil temp and oil pressure displayed after having it in the same place since I installed the instrument, really dumb because those numbers are not labled unless you push the instrument buttons. I take off and right away I realize hey this isn't right. I was having trouble making small adjustments on the stick, and as all RV'ers soon realize ALL inputs on the stick are small adjustments, so here I was tipping left then right and then left and so on. The thing is during your first flight your brain (mine anyways) is a little overwhelmed and I really did not know what the issue really was with the handling and then add the fact I changed my display and my brain was already overworking and oil temps and pressure looked all wrong, they were in fact all right but now in a new location. So a quick call to the tower and back down I go. After adjusting the bell crank and relearning my new instrument the second flight was a breeze. In hindsight simple issues were greatly magnified due to the excitement of the first flight. Take from this what you can.
Mark Mercier
RV-7A C-GQRV

Fuel Pressure Low!

A low fuel pressure alarm. The EFIS started telling me a had Low Fuel Pressure at about 500 ft off of the ground once I turned off my Boost Pump. I turned it back on and it went to 0.3 psi, then back down to zero. I took a quick look at the fuel flow gauge and it seemed to be normal for the 360 it was feeding so I felt a little better in knowing that fuel was flowing and not to fast indicating a major leak. My decision was to keep climbing over the really long landing strip that was under me (a nice quite highway)and head back to the airport when or if i could get enough altitude to do so without an engine if I had to. The engine continued to run strong for the next 15 minutes, and all the way back to the airport, and upon examination, all it was, is the voltage setting for the sender in the EFIS. I still don't know why the gremlin didn't show its head when doing the Taxi Tests.

Not RV related but in my Super-Cub. I was doing a taxi run only but with what I thought was complete readyness for flight. Fuel on right tank for start up and taxi to run up position. Left tank for run up then both for take off. I did a high speed taxi (OK I know it was not high speed for an RV) , got it light and pulled the power. The Cub rolled to a stop and then things got quiet. Could not get it restarted , and after checking everything found the fuel selector in the off position. Who do you suppose did that. I will probably get criticized here, but my procedure from then on is to switch from off to both, no left, right , other than when at altitude and for a short time on each to make sure flow is working. I have sight guages to make certain fuel is flowing from both tanks.

The flight prep and runup went according to plan. My favorite flight instructor was on the handheld and I indicated all was ready. As planned, after I announced my takeoff, we switched to 122.750. For some reason Dave quit talking to me--plan B, fly the airplane. It seems someone must have crept into the plane and switched to 122.725. Even a minor thing like that can be disconcerting.

Bob Kelly

videobobk said:

The flight prep and runup went according to plan. My favorite flight instructor was on the handheld and I indicated all was ready. As planned, after I announced my takeoff, we switched to 122.750. For some reason Dave quit talking to me--plan B, fly the airplane. It seems someone must have crept into the plane and switched to 122.725. Even a minor thing like that can be disconcerting.

Bob Kelly

Click to expand...

This wan't a first flight, but that same gremlin snuck into my plane and switched my frequency to 128.00 instead of 122.80. I wondered why there were 3 planes in the pattern and none of them were using the radio.

Geico266 said:

This wan't a first flight, but that same gremlin snuck into my plane and switched my frequency to 128.00 instead of 122.80. I wondered why there were 3 planes in the pattern and none of them were using the radio.

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First flights are frequently accompanied by gremlins and also special guardian angels, but they don't have the power to correct really stupid mistakes.

That's why it is so important to use a flight advisor and have a plan - and above all else, fly the airplane.

I like to do mucho taxi time, with several full power pretend take offs, notwithstanding the mantra about a new engine and risk involved going high speed. If the ground operation gets down to a routine, it just seems the first flight turns out to be kind of routine also. Although just a while back with the first Lycoming flight, the darned flap motor failed....that was an interesting first flight transition from a CS prop and its drag to a FP prop and its no drag.

Thanks Paul Dye

Great discussion!!!!!!!

There are an amazing number of things that can happen on a first flight. I hope I never forget the items I dealt with. After the fact it is interesting to disect the issues and enjoy how I dealt with them. Thankfully they were of little consequence. I hope all first flights are as much fun as mine was.

A FIRST FLIGHT TRAGEDY

This happened several years ago in Fulton, NY. It has been written about by Lauren Paine in his Sport Aviation Column. The aircraft a Lancair Legacy. The pilot, very experienced, former military, then current CFI and current in a Mooney. Chapter President and "safety counselor". The planned first flight evolved into a quasi airshow. A large group of invited family and friends. TWO PEOPLE IN THE AIRPLANE FOR THE FIRST FLIGHT. Engine failure on takeoff, two fatal. NTSB report states engine failure for undetermined reasons. The people close to this accident know the truth-he ran out of fuel. The airplane had been fueled with 30 gallons several days before. There had been some fuel leaks, some engine runs and taxi testing and no fuel was added. 30 gallons is not much for a IO550 Continental, with much of the time probably full rich. Someone had asked the pilot as he climbed into the airplane, do you have enough fuel. The answer was yes. This is not the only first flight I know of with "two crew" onboard. My understanding of the legality of this is as follows: unless you built a replica B17 or somthing of that nature the "required crew" is ONE.

Backwards throttle....

...is what the builder of a Cassutt told me just before he hand-propped it

It was in South Georgia in the early 70's after he'd visited me and my flying Cassutt. I inspected his and didn't see an air intake for the carb. On questioning him, he said, "It's a Posa carb...don't use no air!!" this is the truth guys, so I looked up the exit of the lower cowl and yup, there it was...a Posa carb but I figured it would just suck hot air and be okay.

I buckled in and he said, "Oh, meant ta tell ya...the throttle's backerds!!" (spelling intentional). It was a huge throttle too...off a Kenworth's gear shifter but it worked...it's "Experimental", isn't it? And who says the throttle has to be "pushed" when it's just as easy to pull, huh?...boy was I in for some learning experience.....how often did you have to talk to yourself on final..."pull for power...push for idle....?"

After one quick pattern, I landed because there was so much pitch up that I never pulled on the stick to land...just pushed less...the stab was mounted with about 5 degrees tilt, leading edge down.

On the way home in my buddy's Super Cruiser, I asked myself what the heck I'd been drinking/smoking to even get in that thing....yep...old too soon and smart too late.

Never heard from the guy again and some of you in South Georgia might just know ..."The rest of the story...Paul Harvey"

...goodnight.

The ole' left-the-pitot-cover-on trick

That was my little first flight screw up. I was just not used to flying a low wing and was not following my preflight checklist close enough. Family distractions added to the situation.
Upon climbout I glanced at my ASI which was pegged on 0. First thought "I tested it and know it works", second thought "I left the cover on."
I flew for about 15 minutes using my GPS ground speed for reference.
It took me three approaches before I was slowed enough to land. On the video, you can hear my family members commmenting that I must be "having too much fun" because of my go 'rounds.

This wasn't a first flight, and certainly not an RV, but it provided an excellent learning experience nonetheless.

We had just installed a major inflight entertainment system upgrade on a commercial air carrier B767. All ground tests had been totally satisfactory and the test cards were showing no snags. Next was the test flight required for certification. Minimum crew - pilot, f/o, DAR and manufacturer's tech reps (me and another fellow) and one engineer from the airline. Takeoff was normal, as was climbout until passing through about 8500' when a faint smell of smoke was detected. Smoke smell increased to the point where all cockpit occupants agreed they were definitely smelling smoke.

At this point the "magic" happened. The "pilot not flying" (PNF), the guy in the left seat, took over cockpit management. The guy in the right seat had one job - FLY THE PLANE. The PNF directed troubleshooting in his spare time in between getting clearance back to the airport, setting heading and altitude bugs, etc. That guy in the right seat was very well positioned to keep the airplane flying safely because he didn't have an emergency to deal with, he just had an airplane to fly. The PNF orchestrated the rest, including directing all resources available - telling the tech reps and engineer to isolate the newly-installed systems by securing their circuit breakers, walking the cabin to see if smoke could be smelled or seen elsewhere, etc. It really was an emergency that was run "by the book".

What did I learn from this experience? The simple answer is "fly the plane" - nuthin' else matters very much. The more complex answer is that if you're the pilot, use all the resources at your disposal in order to off-load you and allow either continued safe flight or a return to mother earth.

What caused the smoke? Well, let's just say that somebody had been working on the environmental control packs and hadn't cleaned up as well as he should have. Hot rags tend to smoke...

On my first flight, I had planned to have a nice long time to run the engine, find the edge of stall etc... (40 mins). I had EAA friends on the radio and I was reading off engine readings etc... At first the oil temp seemed a little high, then higher, then HIGH (350 deg by the time I was on the ground). Oil pressure was good and so I suspected the sensor had gone south, but I had to land very promptly in an unfamilar plane.

The transition training worked and I landed the plane just fine. Shutting the engine down as I rolled off the runway. I told everyone to go home and I went to the hardware store to buy a propane stove. Sure enough, when I lowered (the previously ground tested and confirmed good) sensor into the boiling water, the EIS said that water was about 350 degrees.

Whew! I was worried I might have just cooked an engine.