First Flight - N630PK

[Mcgaero]

Looks beautiful Phil, Congratulation!

[mscotter]

Congratulations!
That little bit of the nose we can see looks awfully pretty. How about posting a full profile or 3/4 view so we can see how pretty the rest of that airplane is?

[foxbait]

Congratulations, like the colors, provides some more inspiration.
Mike

[PapuaPilot]

Thanks everyone! The first takeoff was a surreal moment. The right wing went down just a little bit at liftoff. After that I added a blip of nose up trim and that was it. I was amazed how well the plane flew. At one point I had my hands off the stick and the plane remained straight and level, but it does need some right rudder to center the ball.

I checked the data on the Garmin SD card for the first takeoff and it showed the rate of climb was over 1200 FPM and I was definitely going faster than Vy. I can't wait to see what it can do when the engine is broken in.

I made a video and did my first upload to YouTube. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/3f7LNq1h9co

I talked to B&C yesterday about the alternator issue. We still aren't sure what is causing the over voltage circuit breaker to pop. One thing that helped was to know that they set the voltage regulator at 14.4 +/- 0.2 volts, which is what I am getting. I thought that might be the problem. It appears the problem may be caused by a spike, a bad switch or a bad over voltage sensor . I just might have to fly the plane to troubleshoot it. :roll eyes:

Mscotter, here is a picture showing the whole plane. There are a few more pictures in my albums too.

[DesertFox4]

Woo Hoo is right!

Nice Kitfox Phil. Beautiful and sounds great too.

Wishes for many exciting aviation adventures.

Looking forward to seeing it up close at the next Kitfox factory fly in.

Enjoy every flight.

[rosslr]

Nice one Phil! 1200fpm is impressive. How was the balance, given the heavier engine? And I liked the little celebratory 360 at the end!

cheers

r

[n85ae]

I see 1200 fpm all the time in N85AE, and probably climb at 80+ most days.
There's not much difference in climb speed between 65-85, the wing makes
a lot of lift in that entire band.

60 will get some very impressive climb angles, good when a lot of Cessna's
are in the pattern

N85AE ate it's mechanical fuel pump shaft seal on test flight #4, and
cavitated, needless to say that flight ended as a glider from several miles
out ... Don't get comfortable for about 100 hours.

Jeff

N85AE, IO-240B, Series 5

[N981MS]

I am curious to hear more performance details about that Whirlwind prop on that IO-240.

I have been flying a fixed pitch Sensenich since first flight. I see similar initial climb rates and 100kts IAS at 2000-3000 ft. (I do have the Kitfox strut fairings.

[airlina]

Phil Looks like the IO-240 squadron are all anxious to hear your perf figures, ones you get into your flight testing. Like Jeff and Maxwell, my IO-240 powered Series 5 climbs at 1200 fpm and cruises at 100 knots with strut fairings. That may be all we will ever see, but if your catto prop has you climbing at 1500 fpm and cruising at 110 knots, I think we will see a run on catto props. Keep us posted thanks, Bruce N199CL.

[N981MS]

Oops, I thought it was a Whirlwind. I still want to hear though.