"Dave Hyde" wrote in message
...
I (finally) made the first flight of my RV-4 today.
12 years of building, 0.3 hours of flight time g
Everything was pretty much as expected. After

Oh God, the first flight!!! I damn near died the first flight on my plane.
Everything looked OK. and all I was planning was a VERY short liftoff and
land on the 5000' strip I trailered it to. Just a quick off the ground and
back down, just the least I could do and actually fly!! Well, I pushed the
throttle open, no sweat. IAS at 55; rotate..... OH MY GOD NO!!!!! I was
instantly subjected to the worst series of up and down oscillations ever! If
not for the seatbelts (way too loose) I'd have been thrown out. I hit my
head on the canopy many times, some hard, some not so bad. Finally, I was
back on the ground, I taxiied out the rest of the runway and back to my
start point. On video there was nothing to see, the plane rose, flew a few
hundred feet and landed, looked very "to plan".

I re-rigged the tail to provide less travel, and sat longing for a beer for
while and decided to give it one more try. I really didn't want to, I
seriously considered finding an expert on this plane and letting him have a
go. The secind trip was not fun but was less painful. I called it a day.
After a few of these short trips I had started to gain a sense of control
and have since learned to fly my plane. I have now accumulated over 1000
flights hrs and still love the plane but the first flight was a true
*******.