Wheel pants / First Flight

[g zero]

Getting ready for my first flight , plane is completed , paint , fairings , wheelpants . Should the first few flights be done with or without the pants and gear leg fairings ?

[Mike S]

Congrats on getting 99.9 %

Gonna be a few varied opinions about the pants----------Vans instructions for my 10 was to fly without them if breaking in a new engine, which is what I did.

[AJ85WA]

Fly without for at least the first 8 hours

That way you can tell if you actually have a heavy wing or out of balance aircraft.

The only thing to consider is that your RPM will not get in the red due to the extra drag so don't think of any prop changes without flying with the pants on.

Congrats on the completion, it is such a great feeling to finally be there! Enjoy

[Jesse]

Without, so you can inspect wheels and brakes between flights easily and so you can keep within your Phase 1 area by going a little slower.

[DaveO]

I flew mine for the first time and for the 40 phase 1. All was good. Mostly because I did not have them ready for flight. I was too anxious to fly!

[Ironflight]

I have done all my initial flying with the pants on. If you're breaking in a new engine, you want as much cooling air as you can get for the cylinders - and the difference in mass flow rate between 150 and 170 knots is quite a bit. Everyone agrees to run a new engine at high power setting for break in - give the cooling it needs to prevent glazing the rings. Inspect the tires and breaks the same way you will the engine - by taking the cowl off after each early flight. It takes a little longer, but your engine break-in will be with you for years.

[Steve51B]

How much speed loss can I expect with the wheel fairings removed from an RV-4?

[fixnflyguy]

I did all mine with the pants on. I did initial taxi test with them off and that will pretty much tell you if there are any brake issues/leaks. I wanted the airplane flying all together as it would any other time, and there are areas (at least on the -4) gear that move around with ground operations, clearance from tire flexing vs. the pant cut-out ,ect. that are also validated during phase one. In fact I opened the cut-out due to some tire rubbing I wouldn't have seen otherwise. If the airplane is flying sideways and seems way out of trim, then take the pants/fairings off and isolate.

[Bill Dicus]

First, I respect all the previous posters' opinions (and thank them) . Here's my experience on the first flight of my RV-8. N9669D has a Lycon IO-360M1B with 10:1 pistons. Prop is a Hartzell BA CS. It runs cool on the ground. It also needs breaking in, so I'm keeping power up. It was about 26 degrees in WI for my 1st flight. Off the ground in less than 300 feet. In climb with full throttle and 2600 rpm (prop limitation) CHT's all 330 or less (on 1 & 2). After leveling off left full power in and was flirting with Vne. Decreased pwr to 25/25 and was indicating 0ver 200 mph. CHT's were 285 #1, 300 #2, 310 #3 and 315 #4, all varying slightly. At any lower power setting the CHT's were lower. It was suggested I land since 285 was felt too low. I have no wheel pants, gear leg or intersection fairings. If I had had them I don't think I could have kept the speed down and not had excess cooling. The next day we added Al dams in front of cyls 1 & 2. Temps now much better. In my particular case it was good, I think, not to have had the wheel pants and fairings on the airplane. YMMV!

[Taildrgr]

I'm almost ready for my first flight and even though I have my pants and fairings ready and painted, I plan to fly without them for the first 10 hours or so.

My reasons are as previously stated by others, I want the drag during engine breakin and I want to see if I have any yaw or heavy wing tendencies without the fairings. I don't expect any engine cooling issues during the winter.

Once I get the plane flying true, when I install the fairings, I will know if I need to adjust them based on changes to flight characteristics.