First Flight

The all talked about first flight!  Well it has come and gone in a flash!

A couple of weeks before the first flight I started doing some initial high speed taxi tests on the runway to confirm the control ability of the RV6.  It felt exactly like a tail dragger should. It gave me real confidence to give the first flight a go myself, after speaking to a friend and owner of an RV7 he offered to give me a ride in his RV7 , after that ride it kinda made me think twice if I am actually the guy that should be doing the first flight.

Peter’s RV7

It was not because I felt scared or couldn’t handle my RV6, I just thought the workload will be rather large and having an experienced pilot (Gary DePiazza) do the first flight would be a massive advantage. So I decided to put my EGO aside and do the smart thing. I called up Gary and setup the first flight for Friday 25/04/2014

It funny that straight after making the call I felt much better with the decision.

So I met up with Gary early Friday morning to do another check on the compression, spark plugs and fuel flow to the carby. All checked out and we started cowling her up and getting her ready for flight. With 50L of fuel in each tank we taxied out to the runway, Gary wanted to do some initial high speed taxi test with me in the aircraft to fill him in on the particulars of the RV6, especially the EFIS setup.

After two taxi tests….where I think we actually floated above the ground for a second or two Gary said to hop out, carefully check the belly of the aircraft for any leaks and give him the go ahead. And that was it, I shook his hand , heard him call taxi clearance for RWY27 as he taxied back onto the runway.

I was on the radio (mission control) and had my Dad, wife, and her parents there to capture the moment.

VH-AJK  powered up and started rolling down the runway, tail lifted and next thing she was airborne, a quick initial test of all the controls made her look a little unstable to the untrained eye 🙂 but she was roaring into the skies.

Once Gary was happy with her he landed her like an absolute pro. We brought her back to the hangar to pull down the cowls and inspect the engine and all the connection. Everything looked great so it was time for that second flight, this time me sitting left seat with Gary in the right just in case I needed that extra hand.

I managed to get in 3 touch and goes before I said I am ready to solo this beauty!

She really does fly so amazingly well, All the hard work was all worth it just for that moment of freedom 🙂

Let the testing phase begin!

Celebrating

RV grin after Solo