rv9av8tr

Well Known Member
Today, Saturday 7/24 at 0850, I performed the first flight of my RV-9A, 9-1330, from the Mothership homebase of Aurora, Ore.

Wind was 10-15 mph straight down runway 35, acceleration was swift, and on lift off the airplane flew ?hot, straight and normal?. Climbed to a racetrack around KUAO at 3500ft at full throttle (26? MP / 2400 RPM, 82% Power, full rich, resulting in 14 GPH) for initial engine break-in. CHT?s stabilized at 380 to 410 and at 30 minutes into the flight, in a manner of a few minutes, all four CHT?s dropped 40-50 Deg, indicating that the rings had broken in. Oil temp was stable throughout the flight at 183.

Full power was maintained for 45 min, then throttled back for initial stall Vs IAS verification. Clean stall buffet occurred at 58 MPH IAS, 20 Deg Flap buffet at 53 MPH IAS. Entered the traffic pattern at 85 MPH, turned final at 70 MPH with 20 Deg flap and made a greaser landing! WOW?. What a sweet & honest airplane!!!!!!!!!!

General flight observations:
  1. Rudder authority on take off is immediate.
  2. Manual pitch trim is very sensitive.
  3. Control stick flight pressures are pretty high, but well balanced.
  4. No heavy wing? yea!
  5. I have about 1/3 diameter of a GRT EFIS left ball skid, so I?ll need to figure out some left rudder trim. But this needs more evaluation on subsequent flights before any changes.
  6. The airplane really floats in ground effect.
  7. Not a drop of oil on the cowl/fuselage after the flight!

http://picasaweb.google.com/mikerv9a/RV9AFirstFlight#
 
Congratulations Mike, and thanks for the fine report. Well done, sir.

Happy phase one,
dr