FIRST FLIGHT N279AF

[C5Engineer 1170]

Today was the big day! After a small hop last night in ground effect I was fully confident that it was going to fly straight. It was 0700 at Rio Vista, CA 088. Winds were calm, temp 18C, Altimeter 29.88. Takeoff was about what I expected...less than 10 seconds. Climb was way more brisk than in the old Cessna 172. I felt comfortable right away in it. I climbed to 2000msl and did some maneuvers and a couple of power off stalls. It broke straight ahead very mildly at somewhere around 40 indicated. I flew one approach and then did a sort of flyby which is what you see on the video. Approach to landing was fairly uneventful. My roll out got a little squirrley but nothing too bad. The end of the video pretty much sums up how the flight went. I'm pretty sure this trumps my first solo. Total flight time was 0.4. I wanted to go back up because the conditions were perfect but I knew the wind was coming so I put it away. Found one cowl fastener loose but no leaks or anything. The only issue I had is I had lots of nose down trim using the flap lever but zero nose up. I had to hold back pressure the whole time. It was not excessive but enough to be annoying. I set my flaperons at -3 and I have the newer bellcranks. Should I set them -5 to alleviate some of that back pressure?

Here is the video. This is my first attempt at windows movie maker so don't laugh. What a rush!

[akflyer 1427]

SAAAAAA FN WEEEEEET  looked pretty damn good for a first flight!  I can say that my first flight in my Avid after the rebuild was WAY more of a rush than my first solo..   Now get out there and fly those hours off so you can take the wife and kids up, they both sound like they are ready and willing.  My kids love flying with me, but the wife does not do too good.  If there is any bumps at all she goes into panic mode, and then start looking for the sic sac.  Takes the fun outa it right there I tell ya!

Again, congrats on the great first flight!

[akflyer 1427]

Shot of John Stoners 15.00 elevator trim system.  And it works damn nice!

[C5Engineer 1170]

Thanks! I want to explore that spring set up that I saw a while back that uses the same principle and a tension knob to adjust the spring pressure

[Bandit 286]

Congrads on your first flight. Quite a rush isnt it. Look back in the archives I have a picture of my trim using just a spring.

[dholly 718]

Way to go joey. Nice video to keep for posterity too, thanks for sharing. Loved the Howard Dean scream 'eehaw' at the end!

[C5Engineer 1170]

There was some eee haws going on while I was airborne too 

[Av8r3400 1179]

That's awesome, Joey!!

Congratulations!