Re: REFLECTOR: First Flight - 642PT

[jcbarnes@ibm.net]

Congratulations and safe testing.
Regards,
Jeff Barnes
XL-RG (also years away)

Pete Wetmore wrote:
> 
> After 3 years, we finally had our first flight in our Velocity Standard
> RG Elite.  We elected to follow the adage of "if you have more hours
> building, than flying  - get a test pilot".  Tom Jeter was kind enough
> volunteer for the task (for a very reasonable fee).
> 
> Tom took about 3 hours to pre-flight the aircraft - it was great to see
> another set of eyes go over the plane.  He suggested a few items but
> nothing that was going to deter him from flying.
> 
> Tom took off from Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, AZ at about 4 pm -
> yes, the hottest part of the day - about 107 degrees.  We got concerned
> since Tom was forced to stay on the ground for longer than we wanted
> while the world seemed to want to land.  The airport had been quiet for
> at least 45 minutes before he took off but as soon as he started to taxi
> - the airport came to life.
> 
> Tom started the take off roll, rotated and then retracted the gear!!!
> All seemed to be going smoothly except for the concern about high engine
> temps.  We monitored Tom's communications with the tower and wre
> expecting him to make a circuit and then come back in because of engine
> temps.  Tom then left for a while and then came back toward the field.
> We figured (and later found out we were correct) that Tom decided to see
> if he could get the high engine temps under control - lo and behold he
> did.  The highest he saw while, as he put it, pointing the nose down and
> letting the air flow was at about 390 degrees.  We felt the Swing's
> plenum system justified itself at that point - we are running a 200 hp
> IO 360.
> 
> After a fly by  - Tom asked the Tower to check that the gear and all
> doors were up and closed - Tom went away for a while and then came back
> to a touch and go - Boy is that a pretty sight!!!!  He then returned for
> a full stop landing.
> 
> The flight info he gave us were (this is based on memory- the info is at
> the airport):
> 
> Engine CHTs      - no more than 390 degrees
> Climb                 - 2000 fpm (after the touch and go)
> Flight Character. - No adverse flight characteristics-
>                              A dream to fly- he said
>                              (Yes, we did hire him so we have to take it
> with a grain of  salt)
> Speed                - He ran at about 130 kts at about 2450 RPM
> 
> Now for the bad news - we discovered we have a problem with our retract
> system.  The co-pilot  main gear socket became cracked and the pilot
> side is stressed.  We need to repair that before we go up again.  So
> regretfully we let Tom go home before he was able to do the high
> performance test.  We'll need a couple of days to fix it and didn't want
> to waste his time.  After discussions with Scott Swing, we discovered we
> had just glassed in our sockets instead of taping them to the legs and
> lowering the gear and the sockets (with micro in place) in place.  So
> we'll redo the sockets, and get ready to go again.
> 
> Even with the sockets, it's a wonderful feeling to know that it flys and
> flys well.  We're looking forward to more flight time in the near
> future.
> 
> Pete and Toni