Van's RV-9A in Aurora

The Big Picture

The Big Picture
Flying! 8/28/2011

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

First Flight!

N207LT flew for the first time today.
Engine start at 1:13 and we took flight at 1:20pm. Wayne and Cora
were my ground crew.



She flew very well, except for the minor
distraction of no airspeed indicator. I check for controlability and then started a climb, turning to downwind about the same time. I thought for a second about returning immediately, but quickly decided to keep her in the air, climbing to 2000AGL. CHTs climbed pretty high, with #4 at 442. I backed out the power and lowered the nose and she cooled off nicely, staying around 400. Wish I could remember what the oil temp was. On the 430W I dialed up the page that shows ground speed, so I had some inkling of how fast I was. At about 2300 I was doing 125kts.



I circled over the airport for about 30 minutes trying to stay on track with my test flight procedures, but that was hard to do with no airspeed. Also the card called for 10 degree and 20 degree turns. Well, sorry, that would take me to Oklahoma. I ended up with 30 degree turns to stay close to the air strip. I climbed up to 4000 to try some slow flight, but didn't stay on task with this too long - kinda hard to do slow flight without knowing what slow is.

Then I decided it was time to come down. I had to go around twice because the plane really didn't want to slow down. I was trying not to use the last notch of flaps as per the test plan, but also I was never sure I was slow enough for full flaps. On the final approach I was still too high and hot, but tried out a slip. The plane responded well and I was able get down and lined up. But pulling the throttle all the way out still seemed to produce too much lift. I chopped both mags and pulled the mixture and finally she started slowing down. Still she floated till the hangars. I vaguely remember that the landing wasn't too terrible. Wind was calm.

When I taxied in and shutdown, they had to remind me to grin. I obviously wasn't following the checklist anymore.




Many thanks to Wayne and Cora Wagner who have given my project an airport home and tolerated my invasion of their hangar. Wayne has been there to help, especially the last month. He was providing a calming flight instructor influence today as I was obviously nervous and frantic. He also took all of these pictures.

I have to repeat flight card 1, but at least I know she flies!
Squawks:
Airspeed (fixed already, loose connection from the pitot/static check)
Brakes not releasing all the way. Classic RV problem. Need return springs.