I'm pleased to report that N557BD joined the sky today for the first time over Ryan Field in Tucson. The Superior O-360 we built in my garage performed flawlessly and by the time I turned downwind I had gained 1,400 feet of elevation. Two clicks of the electric trim and the plane flew hands off level. I could have taken a nap (haha). Eventually, I leveled off at 5,200 feet, circled the field a couple of times & just enjoyed the view.
Unfortunately, it started to drizzle and I didn't want to make my first landing on a wet runway so I cut the flight short and did a picture perfect landing. For months, I practiced "driving" my Cessna 150 onto the runway and that practice paid off big time. Plus, two hours of transition training with Dan Anderson in his 7A helped big time.
Aside from some computer settings, the plane was great and I sat back and enjoyed the ride. When I de-cowled, I found no leaks, nothing wrong, nada.
ADVICE? Yup, here's some. Given this was my first airplane project, this plane was inspected about a million times by seasoned people. Every nut and bolt was checked and double checked. The elevators were balanced separately and then together just like Roberta told us to do it. The lineup of aileron, flap and wingtip was perfect. We used a digital level to make sure everything lined up and came out with .01 on the bubble.
We got advice from lots of experts from Doug's website and local, more experienced people too. And we listened. When bolts were set, we marked them with Torque Seal so we always knew what was done and maintained Honey Doo lists for those jobs not done. Spruce care packages were weekly, if not more often, but we always stayed ahead of reqd parts so we could use reg ups.
Who do I thank? After my patient wife & her checkbook comes Doug for this fantastic website, Gil Alexander for his extraordinary inspections (when Gil inspected, I had a Honey Doo list that went on for days), Mel Jordan and of course Chet for his endless help.
Words cannot describe how much I enjoyed today. After 18 months of 7 days per week, the excitement and pleasure of such a stable airplane is nothing less than breathtaking.
Sorry, no pics of first flight but if you wanna see our project, please click on
www.arizonaairparks.com/rv-completed
What would I do differently? Paint the fuse on a rotisserie.
Barry
Tucson
First Flight - RV-9A
King of the world for 15 minutes
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