Is the risk worth it?

[AX-O]

First, I want to say that I am in no way trying to damper the awesome feelings of a first flight nor the magnitude of the accomplishment reached. I don?t know the owner of the video posted nor do I intend to hurt anyone?s feelings. I am addressing this post from a safety point of view and safety concerns only. First flights (regardless if there are 7,000 RVs flying today) are dangerous and somewhat higher risk than normal. I took a long time to type this and even longer trying to figure out if I should post this. If at least I keep one person from doing something that can potentially put their life in danger, then the flak that I will receive from this post is worth it.

Like many of you I watched the video of the first flight located on the front page. The video does not show what occurred before the first flight so I am aware that I don?t have all the data available and data may be skewed. I conduct flight test on high performance airplanes and helicopters for a living. As I watched the video, the hairs on the back of my neck kept standing up. All I kept hearing were my instructors at Test Pilot School and my dad saying don?t do this and don?t do that.

I don?t know the background of the pilot, I am sure he is well qualified and experienced based on the flying skill observed on the video. However, I think we should address some things.

-I never saw the use of a checklist during the entire flight (maybe it was on the EFIS). First flight is a time that your nerves are potentially on edge and a time were you are potentially task saturated with all this ?to dos? in your head. One of the best mitigation for minimizing a mishap is the use of a checklist.
-The aircraft was started and almost an immediate taxi to the grass followed. Were the brakes check? I assume they were.
-Was the engine warmed-up enough prior to departure? I am assuming that there was a ground test performed prior to the video and the engine was within operating temps/conditions.
-Were controls checked? I saw a quick aileron/elevator check. I am assuming the rudder, trims and other controls were checked for proper functionality before the video.
-Were the mags/engine/prop checked prior to take off?
-Was the backup altimeter set to field elevation prior to take off just in case an electrical failure occurred and the glass cockpit went dark? I assume it was.
-Seconds after the first time the wheels left the ground for the first time under its own power, we see a ?look mom, no hands on throttle?.
-I saw a very nice roll during the first flight without much previous ailerons control checks. This one is ? I will leave it at that.
-A quick low pass with shallow dive (looking outside and no apparent cross checks with instruments, Vne? Engine rpm?).

There are some plusses:
-Stall checks prior to coming in for landing, verifying slow airspeed handling qualities in potential landing attitudes and airspeeds.
-Nice long stable final to get settled in on parameters.
-Nice smooth landing profile and landing.

I am not pretending to know everything about RVs or flight test (I know I am a pup compared to others) and I do have the luxury of Monday morning quarterbacking but the point is; flying is dangerous, first flights are more dangerous, not reducing risk by using common know aviation practices is very dangerous and introducing maneuvers that can have higher negative outcomes to a first flight is extremely dangerous. Why put yourself into that situation when your life or job does not depend on it?

Moderators, if this is not an appropriate post, please delete. Just want to get future pilots performing first flights on RVs to be aware of some potential hazards.

[Noel Simmons]

As one that has been test flying RV's and others I quit watching when the wave to the crowd happened on the take off role.

[apkp777]

Yes, there should be a disclaimer on that video. It was NOT his first rodeo! He is clearly a very accomplished pilot and has flow RV's before and not just a few hours of transition training. Not your typical first flight video.

I actually enjoyed it very much.

[Sig600]

Hmmm... I don't use a checklist in any of the six varients of F-18 I fly. Whats that mean?

Maybe he was a repeat offender, built several before.
Maybe he's alerady inspected it top to bottom.
Maybe he's already taxi tested it.
Maybe he'd already test run the engine earlier.
It was VFR, who cares if the altimeter was set?



Or maybe... it wasn't actually the airplanes first flight.

Unless discussing an accident/incident for the purpose of learning/education, Monday morning quarterbacking isn't a "luxury." It's a sign of unprofessionalism.

[Mike S]

Axel, thanks for putting into words the feelings I had running through my veins, and down my spine.

As I hope to be doing my maiden flight tomorrow------I was eager to see the video.

Like you, it struck me as a very different set of activities than what I have expecting for my first flight.

Add to the list of missed items, cycling the prop.

As I learned a long time ago, you can usually learn from most folks, sometimes it is to do what they do, sometimes it is to NOT do what they do.

In all fairness, the video did mentioned things were edited ------- hopefully most of the items brought out were part of the edit.

[rvaitor87]

It's good to see that others feel the way I do, I was going to post, but didn't want to ruffle the guys feathers. I would however like to hear from him, to hear his side of it. How about it???

[Brantel]

I got some mixed emotions as well about that formation flight video in questionable vfr conditions in mountainous terrain....Right after watching that I saw the post of the crash in similar conditions.

I am also guilty of similar things. Guess we all should take a good look in the mirror at times....

[Vlad]

Gents, it's first flight video, not the video of first flight. Those who read forum long enough, know how skilled Mike is. I like the video great editing job! I also like other movies and videos but it doesn't matter I will follow them.

[Sig600]

Originally Posted by rvaitor87

It's good to see that others feel the way I do, I was going to post, but didn't want to ruffle the guys feathers. I would however like to hear from him, to hear his side of it. How about it???

Why does he have to come on here and "defend" himself? It's his plane, he built it, he obviously flew it within his comfort level. Others may not agree, that's their opinion.

I used to pick up brand new Cessna's in Kansas, built by high school drop outs, rolling off an assembly line. You want to talk about nervous? Had more failures on more $x00,000 172/182's with 2 hours on them than any other platform I've flown. I'll feel a lot better the first time I launch in a plane I built myself, knowing what standard it was built to.

Oh, also had/seen plenty of failures in F/A-18 Super Hornets with <50 hours on them, so it's all relative.... your tax dollars at work!

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by Sig600

Why does he have to come on here and "defend" himself? It's his plane, he built it, he obviously flew it within his comfort level. Others may not agree, that's their opinion.

Asolutely true, he does not need to defend hiimself. From his profile, and the testimony of others, he is a very experiened pilot, and was probably well within his personal capabilities. However, the point that I read into Axel's post is that the more experienced folks need to be examples to those less experienced. What happens when an inexperienced builder/pilot looks at that and goes "I guess that's what I am supposed to do..."? I have seen numerous reports of first flights from very inexperienced pilots that had no idea how dangerous some of the things they reported really were.

I am with Mel - I am an EAA Flight Advisor, have been in the aerospace flight test business for over three decades, and I try to be a good example to others.

We are fortunate to have the freedom to do whatever we want - within reason. I personally feel that I also have a responsibility to help those less experienced understand the safe way to do things. Others may not feel that way, but it is how I serve our community.

Paul