Mine too - once I was flying, I knew I'd never be able to stand taking the plane down to do a bunch more work on it. I took the extra couple of weeks to finish the pants and fairings before first flight, and was glad I did. The month it went into the pant shop later on was agony!
Well, it's in the build manual so I think that's probably why a lot of folks do it this way.
I think it makes sense to me. Fairings are for going fast. If you are breaking in a new engine you will run wide open for the first 10 or so hours.
I also wanted to fly without them to see if my airplane flew *really* straight. If it flies straight without fairings then you *know* that you built a straight airplane. If it flies with the ball off center and you have all of the fairings installed how do you know the problem isn't simply a matter of a crooked gear leg fairing?
Yeah, with or without fairings would work but there is absolutely no advantage to flying the first flight *with* the fairings but there are several (albeit small) advantages to flying without them. Note that flying without the fairings does not necessarily imply that the fairings aren't finished.
Exactly. I had mine finished and ready to go, but left them off for Phase 1 for all of the reasons mentioned. On my first flight with them installed and with a shiny new paint job, I was astounded at the difference in IAS. 12 to 15 knots!
