Almost a first flight

So it was a Kitfox and not an RV, but that has little to do with the story...

Five of us met bright and early, briefed, and did all that good pre-first flight stuff, and the chase plane pilot and I hopped into his plane. I'm an EAA Flight Advisor, had a copy of the first flight test cards with me, and we were going up to watch for traffic, take notes, and do whatever reminding might be required.

Before takeoff, we called approach control at the big airport 11 miles away (Class C airspace), told them what we were up to, got a discrete squawk code, and told them that we would not be contacting them as we would be otherwise occupied. Another crewmember called EMS, just to let them know what we were up to, just in case.

Surface winds at neighboring airports were reported as 0 - 7 mph from the west. But, by the time everything was ready, winds had picked up slightly and there were a few clouds blowing in, maybe at 1500 feet, maybe lower. Uh, oh.

So we hopped in the chase plane to go do a quick weather check while the Kitfox Rotax engine warmed up. Didn't make it into the air because of a 300 RPM mag drop. And when we could see farther west, we could see that clouds were covering ever more of the sky.

Nobody likes to make this kind of decision, no matter how obvious it is, but once it was articulated, nobody questioned it and everybody relaxed a little. And as we taxied back in from the failed runup, a tree off to the side of the runway waved at us as a gust hit it.

Bad news: no first flight. Good news: no problems encountered, and we had a very realistic dress rehearsal.

We'll try again later this week...

Congratulations on great planning and making the right decision to postpone for a better day! As much as everyone wanted to go fly, recognizing that the weather wasn’t good and overriding the “get there itis” was a difficult but safe decision.

Go arounds are free, and there is no such thing as an emergency takeoff in peacetime. Good decision making.

Oddly enough, I did a Kitfox first flight yesterday, and two subsequent flights.

Little different perspective here. No go decisions (all decisions really) are easier without a crowd. I don't invite helpers and spectators. Yesterday was one guy on the ground, and Ms. Patti, because I can't tell her no. I don't want a chase plane. It's just another distraction, and I'm not going away from the airport. Prepped the airplane earlier, in the cool AM, so there was nothing to do when it was time to fly. With it all done, I could wear long pants, long sleeves, gloves, etc because I wasn't gonna get hot with a last minute trash. Didn't call approach until the second flight (it's a TRSA). Didn't even bother with unicom for the first one, as the ground guy had a handheld.

Bottom line? When you're as dumb as me, better to have just two things in mind; fly, and monitor the engine instruments.

BTW, per tradition, the first landing was great, the second sucked, and the third was perfect

Dan

Dan,

Right on. Fly and check gauges. Good advice.
I have a number of first flights and that is my way too.