REFLECTOR: N19VA

[Brian Michalk]

I did fast taxi tests as well.

I read somewhere about this procedure as it relates to Velocities, and 
it will not accidentally get you in the air.

Pick a speed somewhere below stall, say 45kts.  Hit your speed, cut 
power, and pull back on the stick.
Repeat, each time increasing speed by 5kts.

I was told that once the nose lifts, you can test the controls, since 
the mains get pretty light.  Bad problems should be found here

The trick is to cut power before you try rotating the nose.  That extra 
added energy to react to unexpected flight would be difficult to manage 
to try to get back down.  Plus the energy added to overcome the 
thrust/CG vector(see below).

I did about five high speed taxi tests with the nose in the air.  My EAA 
advisor advised me to not do anymore high speed taxi tests because of 
the risk.

If I did want to try the short hop, I would keep iterating the same 
test, noting at which speed the mains get airborne.  Again, the key is 
to pull power before pulling the nose.

For me, it felt like the thrustline was above the CG, resulting in 
engine thrust pushing the nose down.  Without the thrust, the nose came 
up much easier.  On my first flight, the first time I kept power on, the 
takeoff roll (while trying to pull the nose off) was much farther along 
the runway than during testing.  I was surprised how long it took the 
nose to get off the ground, and when it did, it really jumped off the 
runway.