On Sunday, May 3 the airplane that I have been building for 5 years, 3 months, and 10 days flew for the first time out of Racine, WI (RAC). I was the test pilot. There were a couple minor issues during the flight, but the airplane flew beautifully and the engine ran great. Here are the details:
It all kind of came together rather quickly. I had a few bugs to work out with my engine that was keeping me from flying an otherwise airworthy aircraft the last 1.5 weeks. On Saturday, I got everything to work the way that it should (lengthy, semi-boring story omitted). During the troubleshooting, I did two taxi tests, making an adjustment on the nose wheel in between.. Once everything was fixed and ready to go, I thought "tomorrow's weather is supposed to be decent, let's see if I can round up my support crew." Fortunately everyone was available and first flight was scheduled for 10:00 AM.
On Sunday morning, I got everything ready and we discussed a flight plan. Ralph Skorupa and his RV-6A volunteered to fly "chase" plane for me. I got my friend Ben and another experienced flier for a ground crew with a hand held radio. The plan was for Ralph in the RV-6A to take off before me and keep an eye on me for anything that could go wrong. We agreed on a 30 minute flight.
We both fired up our aircraft and taxied out to the runway. He took off and I said something to myself to the effect of "well, this is it, let's do it." I taxied on the runway, slowly added full power and eased back on the stick. Before I knew it, I was airborne and climbing very quickly. Then I encountered the first minor problem - my AFS AOA was repeatedly saying "angle, angle, push!" due to the fact that it was not calibrated, making communication with my ground crew and chase plane impossible. I can't tell you how distracting this was. I first thought about reaching under the panel and disconnecting the plug, then I realized that there was a way for me to get it into calibration mode to at least shut it up. After a few attempts, this was successful, and I was back in business. It is always important to fly the airplane during these issues as to not earn a spot on the Darwin awards.
I climbed to 3500-4000 feet and circled the airport. After doing this awhile I calmed down and felt very comfortable with the airplane. I then took my hand off the stick with balanced fuel tanks and centered aileron trim. It didn't have a tendency to roll one way or another - no roll trim!. I then took my feet off the rudder pedals - the ball was exactly centered. Hopefully this remains true when I install the fairings.
After 26 minutes or so, my ground crew informed me that it was probably time to start thinking about descending. I decided to do some slow flight to see how it would feel for landing. After this, I eased the aircraft down to pattern altitude. When I got down to pattern altitude, I entered the landing pattern and reverted back to my training with Mike Seager. I had a bit of a crosswind, but nothing serious. The view that I saw on final approach to the runway is still burned in my mind. I pulled off a good landing and breathed a sign of relief. The expression of my face transitioned from a wide-eyed serious look to a wide-eyed goofy grin (at least I think so).
I taxied back to be met with a much bigger crowd than what I left. The only significant bad news is that we saw some smoke come from the engine cowl, which was oil dripping on the exhaust pipes. It turns out that I had a significant oil leak that leaked oil all over the engine and the entire underside of my airplane.
After removing the prop, I realized that the B-nut for the front governor line connection was loose. Even though the all the oil was in the bottom of the engine, it looks like it was being sucked through a small gap in the RTV for the baffling.
Even though this is very annoying, it is dwarfed by the great flight that I had. Also note that my decision to keep the flight to 30 minutes proved to be a good one as I would have shed much more (valuable) oil if I stayed up there longer.
I learned that:
1) There is a price for having a perfectly trimmed airplane, something must go wrong to maintain balance in the universe.
2) Good plans (like limiting first flight to 30 minutes) are often rewarded with good results (like not loosing all of my engine oil during flight).
3) No matter how hard you try to make sure every darn thing is tightened and safetyed properly, something will come loose and the builder will be both embarrassed and upset at himself.
The airplane flew beautifully and its pilot performed reasonably well. What else can I say? Here are some pictures to say the rest ?
Oh yeah, and keep those first flights short!
It all kind of came together rather quickly. I had a few bugs to work out with my engine that was keeping me from flying an otherwise airworthy aircraft the last 1.5 weeks. On Saturday, I got everything to work the way that it should (lengthy, semi-boring story omitted). During the troubleshooting, I did two taxi tests, making an adjustment on the nose wheel in between.. Once everything was fixed and ready to go, I thought "tomorrow's weather is supposed to be decent, let's see if I can round up my support crew." Fortunately everyone was available and first flight was scheduled for 10:00 AM.
On Sunday morning, I got everything ready and we discussed a flight plan. Ralph Skorupa and his RV-6A volunteered to fly "chase" plane for me. I got my friend Ben and another experienced flier for a ground crew with a hand held radio. The plan was for Ralph in the RV-6A to take off before me and keep an eye on me for anything that could go wrong. We agreed on a 30 minute flight.
We both fired up our aircraft and taxied out to the runway. He took off and I said something to myself to the effect of "well, this is it, let's do it." I taxied on the runway, slowly added full power and eased back on the stick. Before I knew it, I was airborne and climbing very quickly. Then I encountered the first minor problem - my AFS AOA was repeatedly saying "angle, angle, push!" due to the fact that it was not calibrated, making communication with my ground crew and chase plane impossible. I can't tell you how distracting this was. I first thought about reaching under the panel and disconnecting the plug, then I realized that there was a way for me to get it into calibration mode to at least shut it up. After a few attempts, this was successful, and I was back in business. It is always important to fly the airplane during these issues as to not earn a spot on the Darwin awards.
I climbed to 3500-4000 feet and circled the airport. After doing this awhile I calmed down and felt very comfortable with the airplane. I then took my hand off the stick with balanced fuel tanks and centered aileron trim. It didn't have a tendency to roll one way or another - no roll trim!. I then took my feet off the rudder pedals - the ball was exactly centered. Hopefully this remains true when I install the fairings.
After 26 minutes or so, my ground crew informed me that it was probably time to start thinking about descending. I decided to do some slow flight to see how it would feel for landing. After this, I eased the aircraft down to pattern altitude. When I got down to pattern altitude, I entered the landing pattern and reverted back to my training with Mike Seager. I had a bit of a crosswind, but nothing serious. The view that I saw on final approach to the runway is still burned in my mind. I pulled off a good landing and breathed a sign of relief. The expression of my face transitioned from a wide-eyed serious look to a wide-eyed goofy grin (at least I think so).
I taxied back to be met with a much bigger crowd than what I left. The only significant bad news is that we saw some smoke come from the engine cowl, which was oil dripping on the exhaust pipes. It turns out that I had a significant oil leak that leaked oil all over the engine and the entire underside of my airplane.
After removing the prop, I realized that the B-nut for the front governor line connection was loose. Even though the all the oil was in the bottom of the engine, it looks like it was being sucked through a small gap in the RTV for the baffling.
Even though this is very annoying, it is dwarfed by the great flight that I had. Also note that my decision to keep the flight to 30 minutes proved to be a good one as I would have shed much more (valuable) oil if I stayed up there longer.
I learned that:
1) There is a price for having a perfectly trimmed airplane, something must go wrong to maintain balance in the universe.
2) Good plans (like limiting first flight to 30 minutes) are often rewarded with good results (like not loosing all of my engine oil during flight).
3) No matter how hard you try to make sure every darn thing is tightened and safetyed properly, something will come loose and the builder will be both embarrassed and upset at himself.
The airplane flew beautifully and its pilot performed reasonably well. What else can I say? Here are some pictures to say the rest ?
Oh yeah, and keep those first flights short!
