Airborne on Halloween!

[Caveman]

Well, we braved the ghosts and goblins and launched into the wild blue yonder Friday. I?d like to describe the feeling but I really can?t. The words just aren?t there. This whole project has been a wild emotional roller coaster.

The flight went well! And better yet, the plane and I survived the landing. It just goes to show that the best money spent isn't on the airplane but on yourself. I spent a few days having Alex D. beat some bad habits out of me down in Texas before trying this taildragger thing on my own. Very eye opening. There are some things about these airplanes that I would not want to learn on my own, the hard way.













The chase plane was flown by Officer Roy Anderson of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. (Notice the "OHP" in the Highway Patrol Plane?s N number. Some things never change... still being chased by them after all these years. It?s a good thing Roy doesn?t know about my hot rod days). My beautiful wife, Carey rode with him and acted as cheerleader and spotter. This project would have been dead in the water without her support . Thanks for helping out, Roy and making Carey?s experience all the better. She?s been calling friends and relatives. She?s really wanting me to get the test hours flown off so she can get a ride!

The guys in the last picture are friend and fellow airport bum Clay McGuire, Officer Anderson, My flight instructor and aviation mechanic Jim Judge, myself and Jim Mitchell, who helped a lot with the build.


BTW this thing flies better than I could have imagined. I made another flight later in the day & two yesterday. 5 landings and 5.5 hours so far. Awesome machine!

Don't give it up guys! It really is achievable!


Builder 72793

[Louise Hose]

Must be a great feeling. Stay safe and let us know how it goes.

[OneCharlieKilo]

Nice looking plane and great pictures.

Congratulations and good luck with the test flying.

[Caveman]

Originally Posted by Louise Hose

Must be a great feeling. Stay safe and let us know how it goes.

Thanks, Louise & Chris,

So far the only squawks have been pretty minor. I had a CHT running in the 170 to 180 range. I just got back from the airport where I found and fixed a bad connection in which a piece of cold solder had ended up in a spade connector. Even covered with heat shrink, it worked the connector loose as it couldn't make good tight contact. I checked the CHT probe In boiling water and it was within two degrees of the lab grade high tech candy thermometer I swiped from the kitchen. All the other cylinders where running in the 320 to 330 deg. range so I hope this one will be right in there, too.

I have a heavy left wing which I understand is quite common, and I want to fly some more in different configurations and at different weights before I try tweaking on that. I had the gear fairing and wheel pants on and those may be the culprit.

I'm having a blast flying around breaking in the engine and playing with the AFS 3500 amd ADI Pilot two. It's going to be awfully hard to go back to work tomorrow. My mind will be elsewhere.

[N624EJ]

CONGRATS!!! Nice 7!
You must be feeling fabulous. I am a fellow RV7 builder from oklahoma and hope to experience this someday.

Have fun flying off your 40.
Eugene

[Guy Prevost]

Awesome! Congratulations!

Guy

[Brantel]

Congratulations!

[rv8guy]

congratulations!

great to see more and more get going

welcome to the aviating part of this great club!