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N84JE first flight

RV8Squaz

Well Known Member
http://www.costcophotocenter.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=14429231/a=3204850/t_=3204850

Hey Guys,
I finally had my first flight today after 9 years 7 months! It was awesome! The weather was good, a high ceiling, calm winds, and about 45 deg F. I had done a couple of taxi tests in the days past. Today I just taxied out, did my run-up and let her rip! During the first couple of seconds I had some propeller surging, but by the time I got around to making the decision to abort, the surging was gone and I was airborne! I climbed to 5500' circling over the airport. Initial numbers looked pretty good. 177 mph IAS at 24" and 2450 RPM 7 deg C OAT, without wheel pants and intersection fairings. GPS seemed to correlate: 150 kts upwind and 178 kts downwind. CHTs were all about 325 except #4 which was 285 with the mixture rich. I forgot to lean it out the first 15 mins of flight! Oil temp was 182 during the climb. I checked it out through the entire speed range and performed some stalls. Flaps up stalled at 60 mph indicated and flaps down about 56 mph. I had a slightly heavy right ring requiring a couple of bars of left roll trim. The ball was centered favoring the left line. I had offset the vertical stab about 5/32" during building, so I guess it worked! Finally I practiced some landing approaches and it was time to land. Not a greaser, but respectable. I was airborne about 45 min. The only squawk is my G-meter. I must have forgotten to unlock it after I put it in the panel. It was a blast! I wanted to go up again in the afternoon, but frankly I was spent. Tomorrow will be a prettier day. My wife was busy with the video camera and she was also manning our 3 year old son, so I don't have any still pictures of the flight itself but here are some ground pics with the famous RV grin. I'll see if I can post the video on YouTube . The runway is about 6500' long, so during the actual takeoff and landing I was kind of far from the camera. We'll see if we can get some better pictures and footage next flight. Thanks for everyone's help. I couldn't have done it without the help of my online friends, Kevin Horton, the late Phil Arter, Danny King, Bill Vondane, Brian Denk, Mark Navratil, and many many more. You guys are the best!

Jerry Esquenazi
N84JE Flying!!!!
 
Congrats!

Great job Jerry! Your's was one of the names I saw often on the RV-8 list while I was building - great to see that you're airborne!

Paul
 
Congrats!!

Well done Jerry!

Look forward to seeing your ship. I've been lookin for an excuse to fly my -8 down to VLD but haven't made it yet. When you get your time flown off, come on up to KAJR.
 
Congrats, Squaz!

Congratulations, Jerry, on your big day. All that hard work paid off! If you're ever passing through the Chicago area, stop by and visit. I'd love to see the bird.
 
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for all your kind words. I flew it again this afternoon. It was great! I definitely felt more comfortable this flight! The performance is quite impressive . I tried to get better pictures today. My camera man was closer this time, but by the time I got abeam I was already close to 1000' above! Anyway, I didn't realize the link I posted required registering. Here's another attempt through Image Shack:
http://img253.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img253/2826/11707342825be.smil

My wife editied a nice movie. I'll see if I can that uploaded soon.

Jerry
 
Congrats Buddy!

Hey Jerry,

Huge Congrats on getting her airborne! I'm happy for you man! It's about time too!

Fly safe and get those hours flown off so you can start taking Max along with you. There's nothing better than having an enthusiastic kid who loves to go places with Dad in the airplane. I've hardly flown solo since I got my test time flown off, and if anybody else wants a ride they have to ask Skyler (5 yrs old) for permission to sit in "his" seat.

Look forward to seeing you at OSH or somewhere else this summer...

--Mark Navratil
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
RV-8A N2D with 120 hrs since first flight last Feb 15th...and still grinning...
 
OUTSTANDING, JERRY!!

Man I'm proud of ya. I know how hard it can be to work on an airplane with the little one in your life now. You kept at it, asked questions, and relied on your buddies (I'm proud to be one) to git'r done.

I don't have to tell you to be safe, fly high and close for a while, but I will anyway. :)

Good on ya, mate. Have FUN. It's your turn now.
 
Way to go!

I remember emailing you way back when we were both getting started, and now we are both flying!
 
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