Maiden Flight Today

[jiott]

Completed my maiden flight today at my little grass strip, Sandy River O3S. Everything went quite well with no major issues. Was up for an hour and basically followed the FAA AC 90-89A procedure for Phase I testing. Only 3 minor issues:

Left wing a little heavy-need to tweak the lift strut rod end.
Need just a little more nose UP trim-will tweak the trim ballscrew adjustment.
Fuel pressure was dancing around the low limit red line during WOT climbout. In the green during all other times. I'm not sure about this-if there is a problem or not. I do not have an electric boost pump. What do you guys think?
Here is a video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPhcde83SKI

What a great day and milestone, especially for an old guy.

Jim

[SkyPirate]

Congrats Jim !! Thumbs up!

[Dorsal]

Way to go :D:D
My fuel pressure used to do similar things, turned out to be a sender issue.

[AirFox]

Congradulations Jim! All that work and time was worth it!

Scott

[jdmcbean]

Congrats Jim !!!

Your efforts paid off in spades... Hope your butterflies are back in formation!

[Tom T]

Jim,
Congratulations! Great to hear you are airborne.

[Av8r3400]

Great job Jim! Now the fun begins!

[HansLab]

Way to go! Unforgettable moment, I'm sure....
Specially because I'm going for the maiden flight tomorrow!!

[DesertFox4]

You did it Jim. Congratulations on building and flying your own aircraft. Even in this day and age it is still a relatively exclusive club. Orville and Wilbur would be proud although a bit jealous I'd expect. Your first one flies better than their first one did.;) Great looking Kitfox. Have fun.

[jiott]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments.

Hans, I'll be pulling for you tomorrow. There are lots of butterflies before the flight, but after you get in the airplane you are so busy and your prior training takes over, the butterflies quickly "get back in formation" as John says.

Jim

[Dick B in KY]

Congratulations!!!! Having just done the same thing recently I know your feeling of excitement. Something you will not forget and a remarkable achievement. Welcome to the club.

Dick B

[Pilot4Life]

What an accomplishment indeed..."old guy" is a relative term...aged and wise perhaps! Congrats!

Hans...best wishes for tomorrow! We'll anxiously await photos and/or video from you as well.

[HighWing]

Jim,
Tango Tango looks geat Congratulations. I am interested in the heavy left wing. I still haven't trimmed mine out completely, but it is the same wing. Regarding the low fuel pressure, Most of us out there only have the round gauges so my suspecion is that if it flies, it is OK.

Hans, will be waiting for the report.

[Chewie]

Whoo Hoo!!! Beautiful, Jim! Good way to take advantage of this nice weather spell too.

Mark

[Danh]

Congratulations

[Floog]

Congrats, Jim! Who will be your first pax? Thanks for sharing that great landing.

Doug
SS7 almost ready for paint...

[jiott]

All the credit for the good landing goes to Stick & Rudder in Boise, in particular my instructor Preston Riley. I highly recommend them for your Kitfox transition training, or a complete Sport Pilot course as I did. When I got into my own Kitfox for the maiden flight it felt and flew just like the one I trained in at Boise. It is lighter and wants to descend and float somewhat longer without the instructor in the right seat. The full flap position on my kit is more aggressive than the SLSA at Boise which will take a little getting used to, but other than these few items they both fly the same. It took a huge amount of stress off the first flight.
Thanks again to Paul and Preston at Stick & Rudder.

Jim

[JohnB]

Congrats Jim! You give inspiration to those of us still building.
Your grass strip is beautiful, how long is it?

[jiott]

My strip is Sandy River, 03S, 2100' long with trees on on side and on both ends, but set back from the thresholds so they are not too intimidating. I admit not the best place for a maiden flight, but thats where I was. I did have an easy option of landing at another more wide open strip nearby, but everything felt so good that after two practice approaches and go-arounds I went ahead a landed at my own strip.

My ground crew buddy just posted another video on youtube of the maiden takeoff:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA55teheEss

Jim

[jiott]

Today I readjusted the trim ballscrew to give about 1/2" more nose up travel at the leading edge of the horiz stab. Also I backed out the right lift strut rod end 1 full turn at the trailing edge to help bring down the right wing which wanted to ride a little high. I'll see how these two adjustments pan out on the next test flight. Will keep you posted, however the weather is getting dicy again.
This is really interesting and fun to be a test pilot and aircraft mechanic, to try to tweak an already good performing airplane to be even more perfect. I will be following the FAA AC 90-89A Phase I flight testing advisory circular for my test flights. In some ways it is too conservative for a well proven design like the Kitfox, but hey you need something to do while you're doing circles in your local area for 40 hours, and it makes you feel like a Chuck Yeager or something wringing out a brand new prototype Super X-1000 Mega Fighter.

Jim

[n85ae]

Climbing through 3000 feet in N85AE on test flight four, I reduced power to
level out, and the engine went "woof" and it was really quiet. Good fortune
and a tailwind got me back to the airport. Don't be too Chuck Yeager.

Regards,
Jeff



Today I readjusted the trim ballscrew to give about 1/2" more nose up travel at the leading edge of the horiz stab. Also I backed out the right lift strut rod end 1 full turn at the trailing edge to help bring down the right wing which wanted to ride a little high. I'll see how these two adjustments pan out on the next test flight. Will keep you posted, however the weather is getting dicy again.
This is really interesting and fun to be a test pilot and aircraft mechanic, to try to tweak an already good performing airplane to be even more perfect. I will be following the FAA AC 90-89A Phase I flight testing advisory circular for my test flights. In some ways it is too conservative for a well proven design like the Kitfox, but hey you need something to do while you're doing circles in your local area for 40 hours, and it makes you feel like a Chuck Yeager or something wringing out a brand new prototype Super X-1000 Mega Fighter.

Jim

[SkySteve]

Jeff, we're hanging at 3,000 ft with you. What happened?