REFLECTOR: First Flight - XL/FG 44VF Cincinnati
Terry Miles
terrence_miles at hotmail.com
Tue Sep 11 07:52:55 CDT 2007
Way to go. We are all celebrating with you. I like it when the words to
the prayers shift from "Help me, Help me, Help me" to "Thank you, Thank
you, Thank you"!
Warmest congrats to you and Elizabeth to Dave.
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Brett Ferrell
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 6:25 PM
To: Velocity Reflector
Subject: REFLECTOR: First Flight - XL/FG 44VF Cincinnati
Our Velocity XL/FG, 44VF, took to the air for the first time on Friday
just over 5 years from receiving our (all fast-build XL/FG) kit from the
factory, with Dave Bertram at the controls. It's an early birthday
present for us, as Elizabeth and I both have late September birthdays!
First off we'd like to thank Dave for being so professional and taking
such great care of our baby, as we were both on pins-and-needles all
day. When you add on top of that the fact that the weather was a bit
dicey as we arrived to the airport, with high (at least for Ohio) winds
and gusty conditions, we were pretty tense. But the weather calmed
considerably and Dave gave the OK to push her out of the hangar. Dave's
been really patient with us as well, he came up previously and had to
abort the flight due to a rough running motor. But after cleaning up the
fuel injectors and running on the ground a fair amount all seemed well,
and after a run-up (and a back-taxi to the *very* end of the runway) she
and Dave were ready. Being new parents to our airplane, I was trying to
untie the knots in my stomach, and Elizabeth asked one of the lineman to
chase the plane with a fire extinguisher and to put the local
fire/rescue squad on alert just in case. ;-)
With the camera running and a brief prayer for Dave's safety, we watched
44VF accelerate and leap into air after what seemed an impossibly short
ground roll (of course we had 15-20 mile an hour headwinds), and I
started to breathe again once she was 50' off and crabbed into the
breeze, clearly answering the helm. I began to really enjoy the flight
as she departed the pattern with the throaty tone of an unmuffled
high-compression IO540, but I was anxious to see her safely return to
the airport as well. Dave began to lap the airport at about 4,500', and
a good friend of the family assumed the camera duty, just as Dave
reported in that the oil temps were running high, at 240 F, but would
cool when throttled back, so he took another couple of circuits. For
about 30 minutes everything went really perfectly.
I always figured there would be some defect that would need to be
addressed after the first flight, and so it was, at about 35 minutes in
Dave reported that engine was running rough and the #6 cylinder EGT was
low, and that he was coming in. Fortunately the weather had shut down
the sky-diving operation and scared the rest of the airport community
into their hangars, so Dave had the airport to himself, setting up a 4
mile straight-in approach and made a picture perfect landing, easing off
the runway at the mid-field taxiway.
Dave reports that she flies well and didn't display any ill behaviors,
even at pretty good speeds for a first flight, running her to about
150kts, and slowing her down to about 70 to see where she would start to
pitch-buck. What a magnificent feeling, watching Dave taxi her in, back
safe and sound as though a first flight was a completely natural and
unexciting event - the weather aside. We retired to the house for a
celebration of beer and pizza, and as they say in Monty Python, there
was much rejoicing. Thanks to all of the folks at Velocity for their
help and patience, and to all of our friends here on the reflector, it's
been a long but fulfilling journey.
Brett
www.velocityxl.com
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