Jeff A
Well Known Member
Since I have not one poetic bone in my body, I'll just give you the facts....after nearly five years and nine months of building, N218HM has finally taken flight. First flight was yesterday morning around 8:00am out of Fort Worth Meacham in the capable hands of Roy Geer....thank you Roy. He was nice enough to fly the airplane for 20+ minutes and reported no discrepancies afterwards. Wanted to thank my dad, whom I could not have started OR finished this project without his help. Also have to thank my wife for the help and putting up with my madness over the past few years.
After working up my nerves and waiting for the winds and temperature to be within my comfort zone, I decided to fly her myself at 7:00 last evening. About 30 minutes in duration. Orbited the airport on the west-side to get a feeling for the plane and headed north for just a few minutes. First landing attempt had a few small bounces and I didn?t see it getting better, so went around for another shot. 2nd landing wasn?t perfect, but it got the job done. For the record, not only was this my first flight in the front seat of a RV-8, it was actually my first SOLO in a tail-dragger. To say the least, I was a bit nervous. Overall, an amazing experience and I can?t wait to get out there again.
Airplane was a standard build kit, has a Barrett (Superior) IO-360X, Catto 3-blade, VP-X, Dynon Skyview, GNC-250XL, Becker comm, Mike Cingari bent stick, etc, etc....
HD YouTube video for anyone interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfc79BWcNo
After working up my nerves and waiting for the winds and temperature to be within my comfort zone, I decided to fly her myself at 7:00 last evening. About 30 minutes in duration. Orbited the airport on the west-side to get a feeling for the plane and headed north for just a few minutes. First landing attempt had a few small bounces and I didn?t see it getting better, so went around for another shot. 2nd landing wasn?t perfect, but it got the job done. For the record, not only was this my first flight in the front seat of a RV-8, it was actually my first SOLO in a tail-dragger. To say the least, I was a bit nervous. Overall, an amazing experience and I can?t wait to get out there again.
Airplane was a standard build kit, has a Barrett (Superior) IO-360X, Catto 3-blade, VP-X, Dynon Skyview, GNC-250XL, Becker comm, Mike Cingari bent stick, etc, etc....
HD YouTube video for anyone interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWfc79BWcNo