Later > > >

I still haven't had the maiden flight yet.  I've ran into a few problems.  The first one being that when I balanced the plane, I had to add 1 lb 4 oz to the nose.  This put the total weight just barely shy of 13 lbs.  With a wing area of 750 square inches, that puts the wing loading at 39.9 oz/sf.  This by itself is scary!  Couple that with the fact that the engines I ordered (OS 4 stroke 40's) are already a bit on the small side . . .I am not convinced it will fly (well).  The reason it is so heavy is mainly from the filling and painting.  I didn't do that great of a job getting the initial shape, so I had to add more filler than I wanted.  The way I put the panel lines on added a bunch of (very unnecessary) weight. 

 

The other problem I am having is that one of the engines that I bought won't run correctly.  I have tried everything I (and a few other guys) can think of to get it to run consistantly.  Finally I took it off and sent it back to the factory to get it looked at.  I haven't got it back yet.

 

This picture is of both of the engines running, and even though the right one wasn't running very well, they sure sounded great!

 

As soon as I get the engine back, I will try to let everyone when the maiden flight will be.

The maiden flight went pretty well.  It was almost completely uneventful.  Jerry Holcomb flew the plane for me and as it turns out it is a good thing that I had him there!  I was really worried about it being so heavy and possibly underpowered.  It seemed to have power to spare.  Jerry flew it at 1/2 throttle for most of the flight, it seemed to handle very well.  He even did a couple of aileron rolls. 

On the last pass before final approach, the left engine died.  Jerry didn't panic (I would have) and brought it around on one engine!  It had a bit of a rough landing but was unharmed.  We wiped a bit of mud off, but that was it!

 

I found out later that I have a bum glow plug and just needed to replace it. 

 

I wanted to thank everyone that came out to watch.  I am going to get a couple of glow plugs and have to give it a go myself!  And yes Dave, I will install the cowls for the next one!