First flight, 6/30/2009

After a day of messing around with the electronic ignition, I twisted
Mitch's arm and he consented to doing a first flight. All I can say is
it's everything I was hoping for and THEN some. Can't wait to really
put it through it's paces... I think Mitch's comments were
"sweetheart" and "a real mountain goat". Prop seems to work well,
static RPM is where it needs to be, but the biggest item now is the
D180 engine stuff, specifically getting it calibrated and working
properly, reading fuel flows, having the correct temp arcs, alarms,
etc..

Photos from last entry

...that for some reason won't show up properly.

Aircraft CERTIFIED!!!

Picked up my DAR from his home base in Hillsboro, OR, brought him out to the airport, and after the cert process, took him home. Lots of questions, walking around with flashlight, going through checklists... Now it's done. We are down to a small list of items on the checklist, and if all goes well, we will deliver it next week back to it's home base, Driggs, ID.

Finished product!

 

On the flight from Hillsboro to Yakima

 

Certification Paperwork Complete!

 

Frank Sneed, our DAR

 

Engine runup and ground check... 

Almost done...

Prop is on and finally properly attached. Weighed in at 954 pounds. Will get with DAR this week...

Week of May 18th

Busy week, again, sleeping in hangar... gotta love those air
mattresses, at least they keep you from wanting to stay in bed. This
is the week to finish up the VGs, open the inspection ports on the
bottom of said wings, mount landing gear front and back, mount door,
build and install seat... and last but not least, mount the engine!!

...and, oh yeah - I registered the N-number and attached it to this
aircraft with the FAA form 8050-88. Starting on the paperwork for the
rest of the cert work this week.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

(what else can I say??)

Log update 5.16.09

I've been working and sleeping in the airport... a little obsessive,
but if we're going to be ready for Oshkosh, which seems like a 50/50
proposition at best, it's going to take some serious heavy hauling to
get this much work done. So, I'll just list out the milestones and let
the pictures do most of the talking... Since internet coverage is more
than spotty here, I have to batch the log updates, so this covers
everything since the last update.

The only other comment I want to interject is that the quality of this
kit and it's parts is without question, the best I've seen, however,
the availability of the right parts is the other side of the coin -
about 20% of the parts are either wrong or missing, and I know it's
not going to be the case for the next kits, as I am helping correct
these growing pains and mistakes, but I just have to say... Arghh!!

Well, enough whining. Here are the progress pictures:

1. Rudder installed
2. wing cap panels installed, but not wired completely
3. landing gear prepped for install
4. all interior panels fit and installed - fit without much prep!
5. windshield installed