REFLECTOR: First Flight

lawrence epstein ljepstein at hotmail.com
Fri Nov 16 05:26:24 CST 2007


Congrats Terry-

Well done!!

Larry Epstein



> From: terrence_miles at hotmail.com
> To: reflector at tvbf.org
> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:01:28 -0500
> Subject: REFLECTOR: First Flight
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Well, it finally happened.  The first flight was this Monday.  Everything
> went fine.  She flew straight right up to a max intended 1st flight speed of
> 140 without any tendency to roll off.  Sorry no pictures, and no don't
> bother to check my web site.  There's no changes there either.  It was all
> over by 10 am, and I spent the rest of the day in a daze.  I don't feel like
> I did it.  I feel like I just asked a million questions and followed a
> million directions/suggestions until one day there wasn't another page to
> turn or query to make.  
> 
> I have a long list of thank yous.   It just couldn't have happened without
> knowledge sharing.  I should write to try and thank the many individual
> contributors both on and off the forum who helped me along the way.  I know
> some I have forgotten now, and it would be a discourtesy to a list some at
> the exclusion of others.it becomes a blur now of the enormous knowledge
> absorbsion it takes to build an airplane from start to finish.  .but then I
> have never been known for my diplomacy and so in no particular order:   a
> big THANK YOU goes out to Al Gietzen, Chuck Jensen, Ronnie Brown, Dave Dent,
> Dave Scharfenberg, Keith Hallsten, and my old pal from Flying Tiger days,
> Mac Murphree, then there's Kurt, Brian, Ken Mishler, Rene Dugas.certainly
> there are too many to name.  
> 
> A separate thank you for certain venders:  At the top of the list has to be
> the factory.  They have been there to stand behind their stuff and make it
> right when things were found to be otherwise.  It is a very complex job.  I
> am grateful for everyone out there.  Stein Bruch of Stein Air.  He doesn't
> do this anymore, but I went up there and did my panel wiring under his eye,
> and took it home in a shopping bag.  He has been there for notes, questions
> and advice as I got it all unraveled and into the airplane.  Doug Law at
> Stein Air was a sounding board for my harness designs and modifications, and
> my first exposure to TurboCad which clearly became a necessity for me.
> Thanks to Chris Waldrop of Spartanburg, SC who I met along the way.  We did
> the exterior finish work together.  He did the spraying.  Together we worked
> on the prep, and rehab of an abandoned auto spay booth and made it
> happen.even to pulling off the front face of the booth to get the fuselage
> in!  He showed me how to set up a gun, how to spray.and maybe most
> importantly how to fix knicks and chips of which I have several now from
> tools, work stands, belt buckles.but hey it is an airplane not a trophy.  
> 
> Last goes to Malcolm Collier, who is an artist to anyone who has seen his
> work.   He is also a whiz at 3 dimensional thinking, far beyond my levels,
> and I am the richer now for his patient tutelage these past 31 months.  In a
> near weeks and after a 40 hour fly off, I will be packing up my jeans and
> work clothes, and filling a U-Haul truck with what is now a whole shop full
> of tools and parts to bring back to PA which will be much to the dismay of
> my 3 hangar mates at Donaldson AirPark who have counted on me to have
> whatever is needed to keep a Cessnas screwed together.  She is a beautiful
> airplane, and I will miss all the friends I have made down here. I can't
> wait to fly her home, so I can just turn around and fly her back for a
> visit!  
> 
> Here's a couple of specs:  XLRG-5  Slow build wings & fuselage.  Lycoming
> IO540 (300 hp version)  Engine from Don George came with two mags, I pulled
> one for a J.Rose Elec Ign.  Aerocomposite Prop.   Final paint was done out
> of sequence in the course of construction due to availability to a paint
> booth.  I used Dupont autopaint.two stage stuff.  The interior is or will be
> all my work.  I used the Velocity seat pans.  Hooker seat belts.  Seat foam
> from the same source that Oregon Aero uses.  They came out great.  No
> sidewalls or headliner in yet.  Back wall done by Hangar 18.  In addition to
> my nose light, thanks to advice from Rich Riley I used Zolatone for the
> interior cabin carbon beams.  Color mix was my own to match the interior
> colors and that worked great.  Avionics are the GRT EFIS, a Garmin 480, the
> TruTrak VSGV autopilot, and their standby attitude indicator.  Electrical
> harness was a Nuckols spin off with 2 Oddysee 925 batts, one 60 amp
> alternator, and auto fuses for all but a 10 aircraft CB's that are panel
> mounted.  She also sports the full suite of Hangar 18 embellishments and
> some further embellishments on the embellishments that we made along the
> way.  I will give best efforts toward trying to document some of this on my
> website across the next few months with emphasis on what might be helpful to
> others.  I am grateful to several of you, Jorge comes to mind now, who
> really make a great effort at sharing website info.  I hope to do the same.
> 
> Regards,
> Terry
> 
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