REFLECTOR: First flight

[Al Gietzen]

Way to go Chris!!  That is a life-changing milestone.  Congratulations!
 
Reminiscent of 1st flight with my plane - oil temp hit 225 and ended the
flight with one turn around the patch. As you said; not critical, but you
don't want to run a rotary very long above that temp.  For me it took some
work on the scoop; and eventually a second oil cooler to keep things in the
comfort zone on a hot day.  You might consider an auxiliary oil/coolant heat
exchanger.
 
Now that you are a "real" pilot, get out there at 0700 when air temp is
below 80 and maybe you can fly long enough to enjoy it.
 
Al
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On
Behalf Of Chris Barber
Sent: Saturday, June 09, 2012 9:50 AM
To: REFLECTOR
Subject: REFLECTOR: First flight



Cleared to take active and hold. Taxied out. Lined up castering nose wheel
down center stripe. Cleared to take off. Added power and engine smoothly ran
up. Airspeed coming in. 30 kts...50 kts ....60 kts, approximate rotation
speed. Lots of runway (9000 ft).....hold it....70 kts....72 kts... Slight
pull on the yoke....AIRBORNE!!! Leaped into ground effect. Screw this,
pulled back on yoke and I am climbing. Jiggled the yoke a bit to verify
control authority. 

Climbed to about 400 feet and turned right pattern to crosswind. The Dynon
altitude and airspeed seem to be working. That's reassuring. Pattern
altitude is only 600 feet and I was there already as I turned to downwind.
Leveled off and noticed the clouds were lower than reported and appeared on
the ground. Also, noticed coolant temps had dropped to 190....but oil temps
were flashing at me and had reached 225 (synthetic Royal Purple). Damn. Ok.
Fly the airplane, the oil is not at not a critical level. , but let's just
finish the pattern and land. I grabbed my phone while on downwind and
attempted to record some data but while I can hear the engine the video is
awful....uh, in my defense, I was a bit distracted and way more concerned
with flying. I called the tower and informed them I was coming in. I think
they were looking out for me since as I turned to base I noticed the fire
department staged just off the runways threshold

I noted I was a bit far out on down wind so I stared easing over to turn
base. Wow. I really overshot it as I blew by the runway and had to use full
right rudder to get back to the runway. I wish I had had more rudder. In
hindsight I think I was not using much aileron as I was cognoscente that I
had no idea of stall characteristics so I did not yet wish too strep a turn.
I was able to get over the runway and dump some altitude as I got over the
numbers and pulled power. Crap, I am fast. I am lined up and right on the
numbers but at 95 kts. I come and touchdown and bounced. Pulled power to
idles and settled down easily but fast at 90 and rolled out and exited at
Delta. The tower was clearing me back to the city hangars as I was exiting
the active. I taxi back and noticed the oil temps had decreased but I don't
recall how much, just noticed they were lower.

I got back to my hangar and popped the door and shut her down. The engine
went silent without any hissing or gushing. 

I called my mom. 

I am mowing informing the world. 

I did a walk around and did not see anything missing. I am about to pull the
cowl and check things out. 

I did notice I did not develop a slight hand shaking untill after I landed
and exited the aircraft. ;-) Hey, how about that, it really is an aircraft
now. Ten years to the day following delivery. 


Thank you for your support. 


Christopher Barber, JD
Houston, Ellington Field (EFD)
Velocity N17010
Turbo Rotary 13b
RWS Re-drive and engine computers
Dynon Skyview
Mistral intake


Sent from my iPhone 4

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