REFLECTOR: Successful first flight for N173VS

[Alex Balic]

Hi Geoff,

 

Congratulations on your success!!

 

I'm glad that the gear didn't hang up on the lip on the way down and cause a
gear up landing for you- I need to check my clearances too with high
pressure in the tires just in case!  

 

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of David Rene Dugas
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 9:26 PM
To: geoff.gerhardt at gmail.com; Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Successful first flight for N173VS

 

Welcome to the club. The "Persistence Club.". 

Congrats. 

So glad the gear did not hang in the well.

Rene' Dugas

Sent from my iPhone4S


On Aug 18, 2012, at 6:24 PM, Geoff Gerhardt <geoff.gerhardt at gmail.com>
wrote:

Oh, I left out that when I got back to the hangar, I put the plane up on
jacks and raised the gear to see what was wrong.  I realized that earlier in
the day I had put 55psi air in the main tires (they had 45psi), but I didn't
check the gear after this.  That extra inflation a was enough to cause the
pilot main gear to hit the edge of the gear hole when it was going up.  I
shaved off the gear hole where it was hitting, and it goes up fine, now.

 

Geoff

On Sat, Aug 18, 2012 at 7:10 PM, Geoff Gerhardt <geoff.gerhardt at gmail.com>
wrote:

Guys,

 

Just as I did with my wife, I'll tell you all first off that I had a
successful first flight today.  There were a couple issues, but nothing
serious (although one did cause some nervousness during flight).  I'd been
putzing around most of the week doing high-speed taxis and checking and
re-checking trying to build my confidence in this beast I built.  Finally,
today, after a couple high-speed taxis and hops I had no more excuses.  I'd
pushed it as much as I could on the ground without any issues, so it was
time to take it around the pattern.  I got a bit anxious on the climb out
and got the nose a bit high.  I've got a pretty "long" prop, so after I
realized I need to build some speed before climbing and put the nose down,
things got better (still not great climb, tho, but I suspect its what can be
expected from a 68x74 prop).  When I raised the gear, the gear unsafe light
stayed on.  I didn't think to turn around and look at the main gear legs, I
just figured something wasn't quite sitting right in flight.  I did one loop
around the pattern and when I prepared to land and lowered the gear, all
green.  With the speed brake down, I dropped it down in a tight pattern and
had a nice, smooth landing.  The airport ops guys know me here (KORH) and
heard on the radio I was doing first flight.  I had told them I'd let them
know when I was going to do it so they could get the emergency gear ready
(KORH is a real slow class D - they're looking for some excitement).  I
decided not to tell them, tho, as I didn't want any pressure if I got to the
runway and wasn't comfortable.  Anyway, they heard me announce on the radio,
so they scrambled the trucks - I saw them driving back as I taxied in.

 

Oil temp was fine (it was only ~78F on the field, tho).  One cylinder got a
little hot, but cooled down fine when I leveled off - I'll have to keep an
eye on that.  Its all a bit of a blur now, I suspect I'll be noticing things
a bit more on future flights once I settle down a bit.  Took awhile to stop
smiling...

 

Geoff

 


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