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the beast has taken flight!

schristo@mac.com

[email protected]

Well Known Member
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first flight... fantastic! what an airplane. love the engine, love the prop... more details to follow after i come down from this high.

two days off from work to begin to explore the envelope... woo hoo!

completed to first flight in just under 22 months on the calendar logging 2,059 hours of construction during 376 work sessions.
 
first flight!

Stephen: Wow, great news. Congratulations!
We'll be expecting reports on your io-390 and its performance.:)There's not too many of those power plants installed and flying.
I'm looking closely at this engine as well for my 7a.
Best wishes!
 
Add one more to the list!

Congratulations! It's a great feeling to get some air under the wheels. Fly careful.

What airport are you at?
 
Congratulations

Congratulations Stephen! That was a lot of work in a relatively short time. Wow. I love reading about these first flights. Really helps with the motivation factor to keep banging those rivets.

Enjoy and have fun.
 
IO-390 performance

Congratulations Stephen!

I have 700 hours on my Barrett IO-390...awesome engine and can't wait to hear about your performance. Best wishes during Phase 1.

Bill Gill
RV-7 N151WP
Barrett IO-390
Lee's Summit, MO
 
a few notes...

a few notes after the first two flights.

  • high power fuel guzzling orbits while breaking in the engine easily push the beast right past 190 mph without fairings... dirty stall is docile at 52.
  • i have fitted a firewall mounted oil cooler and plenum from the RV-10 and CHTs are 300-350 with an oil temperature of 190, EGTs are around 1200. OSA was in the low 70s.
  • the fiberglass oil filler door pops up from flexing under the airflow during climb out; i need to stiffen it up or replace it with an aluminum piece.
  • in cruise i need just a bit of left rudder input to center the ball and the right wing is a little heavy with the ball centered... about 5 degrees per second.
  • belly was pristine clean.
  • the lightweight prop is very responsive and accelerates right now.
  • even smooth take off roll requires a ton of right rudder... gads of torque.
  • absolutely love the constant speed prop.
  • the tip-up canopy is GREAT.
  • i need to work on my technique for starting a fuel injected engine.
  • the brake pedals should be angled back a bit more to ensure that ground handling rudder inputs do not accidentally introduce braking action. it is okay but if i were to do it again i would angle them back another 10 degrees.
  • it is much quieter in the cabin when the audio panel squelch is set properly:)
  • from pattern speed pushing the throttle is like taking off again!
  • climb performance is... WOW!
 
Hats off to ya, dude !!!!

Big time congrats, Stephen ! That pic shows one of the finer RV Grins I've seen. Makes me smile just looking at it.
BTW, when it comes to hot start protocols, a quick search in the Forums will give you plenty of them. I wrote down three and laminated them on a 5x8 sheet that I keep in my kneeboard. They have helped immeasurably in starting the recalcitrant FI C-172s I fly at present.
 
great job, steven!
congratulations on the first flight!
have fun in the remainder of the flight test period!

rgds,
bernie
 
Stephen,

WOW!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Seeing your first flight report really made my day.

That's definitely one of the finest RV grins I've ever seen!

If your phase 1 is anything like your building pace, you'll have the hours flown off in time to come down to Homecoming! Can't wait to see you and your beautiful plane!
 
thanks everyone!

thanks to you all!

building the airplane has been so very interesting in so many ways. looking back on the build i can say that i was never really building an airplane... i was too focused on building a part, fabricating a piece, or finishing an assembly... as all of the parts were completed the airplane sort of appeared! the end really raced up on me.

scott - i am also at arlington... on the far north end, come on by!

chad, brantel, tony - i expect to see you guys at a flyin soon!

vlad - your posts carry your enthusiasm with them and have always been great to read, you will be moving to an airport in no time.

jeff - you and your dad did an amazing job with the paintwork on your project... very inspirational but also very sobering for the effort to paint an aircraft. once i am out of phase one i would love to come see it.

lorne and bill - i love my engine. i am planning to collect thoughts on fitting it up and flying it in a new thread soon.

luca - your paint looks great! i can only imagine how much harder it is to build a project in Italy... congratulations, and hat's off to you!

jamie - the skyview is fantastic... the data overload is a bit overwhelming right now and i have turned off synthetic vision as it is a distraction for me while trying to become accustomed to the panel and tape gauges. the amount of information available on these glass systems is crazy. dynon addressed the noise on their units with capacitance filters and the leads are silent.

bruce - i am not sure if i will make it to homecoming this year but i will be down to see you soon... finish those honey-dos and go pick up a canopy!
 
[email protected] said:
i have fitted a firewall mounted oil cooler and plenum from the RV-10 and CHTs are 300-350 with an oil temperature of 190, EGTs are around 1200. OSA was in the low 70s.
Click to expand...

Can you post a picture or two of this? I'm going to change my oil cooler setup this winter and am collecting pictures for inspiration and ideas.
 
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