ArVeeNiner
Well Known Member
Wow! I can't believe that I'm posting this. After almost 9 years of off and on building, my flying machine took to the sky today: Memorial Day, 2012! Oh man, what a feeling! Going aloft in an airplane that you built is indescribable.
I, like all of us, have had my share of ups and downs during this project. This was a project with some doubt, too many second guesses, and a fair amount of bloodshed (literally). It took me quite a while to actually take ownership of this collection of parts. At first I really didn’t think that I would get through it. I wish I had a nickel for every time I asked myself, “What the heck do you think you are doing here?” My wife knew otherwise. She knew that I just don’t quit and I guess she was right.
In my mind, I was never building an airplane; I was only building a collection of airplane parts. The fact that these parts might someday go together and become something was so remote that I didn’t dwell on it too much. I treated this kind of like how I treated college…just one class at a time.
Well, I graduated today! I was hoping to fit in a first flight this weekend but my daughter was participating in a soccer tournament across the hill in Aptos. I knew Saturday was out but I had a shot on Sunday. However, the forecast was for some overcast in the morning and my daughter had to be in Aptos at noon that day. Plus, I had an issue with the top cowl which had me pretty frustrated on Saturday night. I was feeling too much pressure and called it off.
Today looked much better. I jumped out of bed at 5:30 am and saw clear sky. I got ahold of my ground crew and told them that today was the day. My airport (E16) is 20 minutes south of my house and it was unfortunately overcast when I got there. I knew it would burn off eventually so while I was waiting, I did a couple of high speed taxis down the runway.
Well, at about 9:30 am, I was out of excuses. I sucked it up and made personal history.
I strapped in my copilot for this trip: the always diabolical Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. I was ready for some evil doing!
I hedged my bets with a little bit of help from the boys. My good friend Dave (who was part of my ground crew) collected some sand for me from Kitty Hawk. Hey, it can't hurt to have the spirit of Orv and Will on board!
Our relaxed looking hero participating in some before shots with his yet untested steed.
I actually was pretty relaxed today except for a brief moment just before I got into the plane and also right after my run up. "You don't have to do this" ran through my head briefly both times.
Time to go!
Man, that baby got off the ground in a hurry. It seemed to say "Oh, you want to fly? Fine, let's fly!"
See ya!
It flew great! My right wing is slightly heavy but it performed as expected. A week ago, I got some time from the right seat of a friend's RV-9A and that sight picture and feel was very transferable to my plane even though his is in knots (I'm in mph) and he has a constant speed prop (and I have a Catto).
I climbed up to about 3300 feet and flew a practice pattern. I had Mike Seager's notes taped inside for easy reference and everything felt fine so I decided to try it for real.
As luck would have it, I got smacked with some weird turbulence just before touchdown but she handled it with no problem.
You know how whenever there is an audience you can never get the greaser landing? Well, that didn't happen to me. I rolled that airplane on! It was one of the best landings that I've ever made.
After a very short roll out, it was done.
See the next post for Part II.
I, like all of us, have had my share of ups and downs during this project. This was a project with some doubt, too many second guesses, and a fair amount of bloodshed (literally). It took me quite a while to actually take ownership of this collection of parts. At first I really didn’t think that I would get through it. I wish I had a nickel for every time I asked myself, “What the heck do you think you are doing here?” My wife knew otherwise. She knew that I just don’t quit and I guess she was right.
In my mind, I was never building an airplane; I was only building a collection of airplane parts. The fact that these parts might someday go together and become something was so remote that I didn’t dwell on it too much. I treated this kind of like how I treated college…just one class at a time.
Well, I graduated today! I was hoping to fit in a first flight this weekend but my daughter was participating in a soccer tournament across the hill in Aptos. I knew Saturday was out but I had a shot on Sunday. However, the forecast was for some overcast in the morning and my daughter had to be in Aptos at noon that day. Plus, I had an issue with the top cowl which had me pretty frustrated on Saturday night. I was feeling too much pressure and called it off.
Today looked much better. I jumped out of bed at 5:30 am and saw clear sky. I got ahold of my ground crew and told them that today was the day. My airport (E16) is 20 minutes south of my house and it was unfortunately overcast when I got there. I knew it would burn off eventually so while I was waiting, I did a couple of high speed taxis down the runway.
Well, at about 9:30 am, I was out of excuses. I sucked it up and made personal history.
I strapped in my copilot for this trip: the always diabolical Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz. I was ready for some evil doing!
I hedged my bets with a little bit of help from the boys. My good friend Dave (who was part of my ground crew) collected some sand for me from Kitty Hawk. Hey, it can't hurt to have the spirit of Orv and Will on board!
Our relaxed looking hero participating in some before shots with his yet untested steed.
I actually was pretty relaxed today except for a brief moment just before I got into the plane and also right after my run up. "You don't have to do this" ran through my head briefly both times.
Time to go!
Man, that baby got off the ground in a hurry. It seemed to say "Oh, you want to fly? Fine, let's fly!"
See ya!
It flew great! My right wing is slightly heavy but it performed as expected. A week ago, I got some time from the right seat of a friend's RV-9A and that sight picture and feel was very transferable to my plane even though his is in knots (I'm in mph) and he has a constant speed prop (and I have a Catto).
I climbed up to about 3300 feet and flew a practice pattern. I had Mike Seager's notes taped inside for easy reference and everything felt fine so I decided to try it for real.
As luck would have it, I got smacked with some weird turbulence just before touchdown but she handled it with no problem.
You know how whenever there is an audience you can never get the greaser landing? Well, that didn't happen to me. I rolled that airplane on! It was one of the best landings that I've ever made.
After a very short roll out, it was done.
See the next post for Part II.
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Now all your money will go to petroleum companies. You should have painted it before first flight.
