First Flight!!

After 7 years of building, on Tuesday, February 10, I completed the first flight of my Eggenfellner H6 powered RV-7, N143JL in San Luis Obispo, CA (KSBP). The first flight was fairly short: just once around the pattern due to high coolant temps. Turns out I failed to adequately fill the coolant tank, and despite my extensive preflight, still managed to miss it (I feel like a complete idiot). Thankfully, nothing was hurt, and everything else on the plane behaved normally. After addressing the coolant level, I had a second flight of 1.1 hours. The engine had plenty of power to spare and the temps sat comfortably around 185. I'm looking forward to the rest of my flight test period! Here are some photos and video:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mrblobbyone/FirstFlight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMhJ0I6XHQs

Paul

Congratulations!! Looked like a really nice landing to finish it off.

From the sound of shutter snapping you could probably put together the first thirty seconds of flight together from photos alone.

Wow - can't imagine waiting that long for anything!

Congrats - and fly safe!

Super congratulations on the first flight!

(On a side note - talk about a small world!)

...Dillon

Congratulations!! Sounds like you have a terrific airplane.

Congratulations!

Awesome feeling isn't it!

Paul-
Congrats on the first flight! The feeling must be unbelievable!!
Gerry Peterson
Merritt Island, FL

Congratulations and way to buck all the negativity of the Sube engines!

Another congratulations!! It brought back many exciting memories from my first flight! I too was a 7 year builder but in the early RV6 days in the 90's.

It was all worth it! Enjoy and be safe!

Pat Claar
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