REFLECTOR: Successful first flight for N173VS

[Terrence Miles]

Geoff,

Well I feel like I had a hand in your decision to do this Velocity thing to
start with.  Congrats !  

Terry

 

From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Geoff Gerhardt
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2012 6:11 PM
To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list
Subject: REFLECTOR: Successful first flight for N173VS

 

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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