REFLECTOR: First Flight

Jorge Bujanda bujanda at dslextreme.com
Fri Nov 16 08:15:38 CST 2007


Congratulations Terry!  
You have joined the ranks of those who have turned a lot of parts into a flying Velocity
and now you have experienced the joy of seeing it in the air.  You have gone from being
the owner of a kit to being the builder, owner and pilot of your own airplane.  I hope to
follow soon.  
Enjoy!

Regards,
Jorge Bujanda
XL FG (FB fuse/wings) 
Toe Brake Pedals / Cleveland Brakes / Drop-down keel controls



-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Terry
Miles
Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2007 6:01 PM
To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list'
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

_______________________________________________
To change your email address, visit http://www.tvbf.org/mailman/listinfo/reflector

Visit the gallery!  www.tvbf.org/gallery
user:pw = tvbf:jamaicangoose
Check new archives: www.tvbf.org/pipermail
Check old archives: http://www.tvbf.org/archives/velocity/maillist.html



More information about the Reflector mailing list