More details - Long / multi-part
Hi again (much longer thoughts on the last week),
Well the dust is beginning to settle and I'm getting my feet closer to the ground, words don't really work for explaining it all, but I'll try to give a flavour......
Tuesday last week was the CAA inspection, basically we were ready the previous week but life meant that I had wait a week, which meant I got to relax, take a breather and compose myself - all in all a good thing. The actually inspection took a couple of hours, Tony gave everything a good looking over, confirmed how / what we were doing and provided the sheet of yellow A5 and stamped the log books. Home in time for a beer.
Thursday (I've been joking for 4 years that first flight will be "Thursday") was the big day, we planned for a late start at the hanger. I spent the morning doing final research - confirming T & Ps in degree F and C, making knee board printouts for simple check lists and basic flight plan. Mike Stewarts flight test plan, coupled with the FAA AC90-89A gave a good structure, but the conclusion was go up, try to keep the temps in the right ball park, orbit, land and not try to over think things too much.
We arrived at the hanger around 3:30pm, Mum, Dad and I - Mum relaxed and read a book with Dad and I focusing on the last few bits. Stick boot covers were still an outstanding squawk on the list and I made those the day before, so impact glue onto the metal 'rings' and installation was my first job.
Dad started going round checking / pre-flighting, pumped the tires up (35 for mains, 38 for nose), drained, dipped and checked fuel (39 & 41 litres) and oil (7 qts). Then a thorough pre flight especially checking the basics / key stuff, control surface attachments, control movement etc.
I independently did another complete pre-flight, drained, dipped etc everything and checked all the access panels / screws as needed. Then a cup of tea (we are Brit's after all) and we compared values for fuel etc.
By 5:30pm the airfield was starting to calm down a bit, some of the helicopter flight training had finished, the sky divers had slowed a little and the OAT was coming down a bit: 27C (82F). The high that was moving across the south island was really stable, 1017mb and the winds very light (< 5 kts) and variable. I would have liked a little more of a breeze, but it was CAVOK and I had run out of things to 'do' on the plane.
I was REALLY nervous - excited, apprehensive, pumped up but pretty focused. Gave Mum a good hug and got myself comfortable and settled in the cockpit. Dad was setup on both the airfield freq and a 'chat' freq and we cross checked where needed. Engine start / idle was all fine and I let all the temps start to move on the instruments, I wanted 40C on the Oil before power checks and 100C on the CHTs before takeoff.
Power checks at 2000 rpm, < 20 drop each side (FADEC doing it's thing) got myself lined up, radio call and went for it.
Lift off was very quick, probably less than 4 seconds from roll to 'blue sky' filling the forward view. It was scampering off up and I just held it steady and let it climb. A slow right turn kept me somewhere near the airfield.
CHT and Oil Temps were climbing steadily and I could see they were going to be a limiting factor, I probably didn't get the power back soon enough, but I wanted height
. Once up to 4000' (3K AGL) I relaxed a little bit, I had already been round the other end of the race track pattern and was into the turn for the return leg by this point!
Gentle turns (mainly to the right) all seemed to be in tune, ball was centered around 110 kts feet off. Slow right bank if I released the stick, but like 20 degrees over 10 seconds - to be investigated further, later.
CHT were just about stable, Oil T still climbing a bit much, throttle back, RPM back (20”, 2000 RPM, 34 lph, 120kts was my initial notes). Oil T came back a bit, CHT stabilised back to 190C ish then a climb to 6K MSL, (23", 2300 RPM, 100kts, 600 fpm).
Fuel pump back on and tank change followed by some slow speed work. 70 kts seemed to come / stabilise pretty quickly and the handling continued to be everything I could have hoped for - smooth, precise, accurate, balanced, 'gentle'.
The jump aircraft was still dropping so I moved further North out of the way (looking back this was TOO far away from the runway - as was most of the flight) and then did some 25% and 50% flap work. Flaps went down smoothly - nothing unexpected, back pressure being held and then trimmed. I probably used 75% of my available nose up trim which was more than I expected and I still had 'positive' back pressure on the stick. Thinking more about it afterwards: with one up, half tanks, no baggage, the CofG is about as far forward as it will ever be, so makes kinda sense now.
70 kts was fine, turns were 'softer' and needed more than just a 'thought' but all still smooth and balanced. The AoA started showing some yellow dots - not important, but seems to be in the ball park - it came pre-calibrated but you never know.
Then it was speed back up a little, descend and join back for landing. I kept it nice and stable, gentle arcing approach, I was concerned about the flare, but in the end it was one of my better ones although I was probably a little flatter than I'll aim for in the future. Roll out was just straight down the runway - I didn't rush for the brakes. Turned off and lined up at the pumps for more fuel, powered down, stopped all the recording devices and grinned......
Lots of things go through your mind during the first test flight, did I build it right, is the design really THAT good / foolproof, can I do the piloting thing to the standard required, but looking back I'm really glad I did do it. Everyone's risk assessment is rightly different, family, dependants, personal attitude, experience, location, weather, depth of research etc all play their part - in the end my nervous fear was probably more about letting myself down - the plane I had confidence in the build and the design. I'll add right here that I currently don't trust VII further than I can drag her at the moment, but in time I'm sure will develop a level of trust and understanding.
We re-fuelled, noted the totaliser and dipped levels again, taxi'd back and left everything for the next day. Home for a couple of beers......
