First flight

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
quite a bit of thought I decided to make it short
and circle a few times over the field just under the
STL class B floor. The temptation to leave the pattern
and actually do something was strong, but I stuck to
the plan :-)

Max speed ~140 KIAS, max altitude 1500 ft.

Heavy right wing, and I'll need to put a tab on
the rudder. No _major_ squawks, a few other minor
ones. Other than the rigging it feels fantastic
both in the air and on the ground.

Takeoff was, uh, exhilirating. I knew from the taxi
tests that it would lift off early, and was ready.
I was almost ~1000 ft AGL before the end of the runway.
Pretty good nose-down attitude at 120 KIAS to hold
altitude, too. It feels like it will really move
out when the time comes.

Slowing down for landing was more difficult than
in the -6s I've flown, but once I got it below
flap speed everything felt the same. Slight crosswind,
steady approach speed, a few bounces. I'll take it.
Cockpit video to come.

For those of you still building, keep at it. I can
finally say it was worth every hour and dollar I spent.
It was fun building, now comes the *really* fun part.

Dave 'wired' Hyde

"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
*******.

And what type of aircraft might this be? I'd like to make sure I avoid
building one (no offense).

Daniel wrote:

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
*******.

"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
ink.net...
And what type of aircraft might this be? I'd like to make sure I avoid
building one (no offense).


I deliberately avoided that because all the faults in the construction and
rigging were of my own making, and there were many. I built the craft from
plans without much advice or help, the only advisor I saw during
construction had no familiarity with the craft. There was nobody in my area
that had any familiarity with the plane to help with rigging and I made a
lot of errors. The first was even trying with so little good knowledge or
advice. Sun N Fun the next spring allowed me to meet others with the same
plane and one of the fellows came to my strip and helped out. The craft had
done about 15 hours by then but it required a lot of work, including
replacing and inspecting parts damaged in the first few flights. The
transformation was amazing and really taught me a lot about how I should
have proceeded. In any case it was only the lack of direction and experience
that caused my problems, it would probably not happen with the EAA help
available today. Unless there are other people as stupid as I was when I
started out.

"Dave Hyde" wrote in message
...
I (finally) made the first flight of my RV-4 today.

Congratulations, Dave. They say there are only three things in life worth
remembering:

Your first "time" (You know what).

Your first solo flight.

Your first flight in an airplane you have built.


Now go take a bath. You have the distinct aroma of sweat! ;o)

Rich S.

In article , Dave Hyde writes:


For those of you still building, keep at it. I can
finally say it was worth every hour and dollar I spent.
It was fun building, now comes the *really* fun part.

Dave 'wired' Hyde




FANTASTIC! Congratulations Dave, that is great news.

Now try to wipe that grin off your face before it freezes that way. :-)


Bob Reed
www.kisbuild.r-a-reed-assoc.com (KIS Builders Site)
KIS Cruiser in progress...Slow but steady progress....

"Ladies and Gentlemen, take my advice,
pull down your pants and Slide on the Ice!"
(M.A.S.H. Sidney Freedman)

I (finally) made the first flight of my RV-4 today.
12 years of building, 0.3 hours of flight time g

Congratulations Dave. I remember it well. Great feeling isn't it? Especially
after that first landing.

Dave Tate

From: Dave Hyde
Date: 1/24/2004 1:02 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

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
quite a bit of thought I decided to make it short
and circle a few times over the field just under the
STL class B floor. The temptation to leave the pattern
and actually do something was strong, but I stuck to
the plan :-)

Max speed ~140 KIAS, max altitude 1500 ft.

Heavy right wing, and I'll need to put a tab on
the rudder. No _major_ squawks, a few other minor
ones. Other than the rigging it feels fantastic
both in the air and on the ground.

Takeoff was, uh, exhilirating. I knew from the taxi
tests that it would lift off early, and was ready.
I was almost ~1000 ft AGL before the end of the runway.
Pretty good nose-down attitude at 120 KIAS to hold
altitude, too. It feels like it will really move
out when the time comes.

Slowing down for landing was more difficult than
in the -6s I've flown, but once I got it below
flap speed everything felt the same. Slight crosswind,
steady approach speed, a few bounces. I'll take it.
Cockpit video to come.

For those of you still building, keep at it. I can
finally say it was worth every hour and dollar I spent.
It was fun building, now comes the *really* fun part.

Dave 'wired' Hyde



Gee, Dave, cheer up, willya? g

Congrats. Now make with the pictures.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

B2431 wrote:

Gee, Dave, cheer up, willya? g

Congrats. Now make with the pictures.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

Way to go Dave! Here are some pictures of Dave for Jay's site
http://www.karen.hart.net/psychokats.html Hey Jay, don't forget to
announce the additonal photos, those "save the bandwidth" threads need
feeding. ;-)

Wayne

Dave Hyde wrote in :

I (finally) made the first flight of my RV-4 today.

YAAY Dave!