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First Flight 7/25/2007
Dateline: Wednesday, July 25, 2007, Olympia, Washington Hi Ted/Dave! Linda and I had the plane ready to fly last Saturday. But the rain just wouldn't quit. 1,500' ceilings and drizzly rain were not the stuff for first flights. Yesterday was a great improvement, but didn't really clear adequately until very late in the day, too late to start this adventure. This morning? Marine fog covered the entire Olympia area, but by 10:00 AM it was mostly clear bright blue sky at just the right temperatures. I had a meeting in Bellevue today, and I gotta say, it was EXTREMELY tough to think about business! I worked longer yesterday so I could trade a bit of time this afternoon and get a head start. So today I did the first flight in GlaStar Sportsman N122SK! Except for a few excited pilot induced oscillations on take off, it went great! Yep, I was excited indeed!! And my trusty ground crew, Linda (who, for the rest of you, at 5'-2" and 120 lbs soaking wet, for the first time in her life ran a rivet gun, band saw, drill and other dangerous tools, and had fun after all setting rivets in my very expensive cowling!) was there to help make sure things went well. Well, after the calibration work on the EFIS last week, I thought there was still enough juice to start the airplane. WRONG! So 15 minutes to charge the battery (THANKS to Alan for the inside the cockpit tip, worked great) and there was enough juice. Then proceeded to flood it. Finally on the fourth try I settled down and it started kinda slow but finally spooled up and ran smooth. At 17:45 (5:45 PM for the rest of you) I finally lifted off the ground. Excitement was still there so managed to drag the brakes and make one of the worst takeoffs I've done in the last 10 years, but got it in the air under control otherwise very nicely. It was ready to fly in the advertised 300' or so (nice sea level day at 76 degrees F here at OLM today) but I managed to drag it out to about 700'. Temps were on the high side, but not excessive. Nice shallow climb kept everything under control and ran through the Lycoming recommended break-in first flight, with all systems go. 75% power at 5,500', leaned to 75 deg rich, burns 12.5 if the totalizer is correct with cruise speed indicated on the EFIS at about 130 knots (really need someone to help time and record stuff! Too bad the insurance company doesn't understand that.) At 65%, burns 9.7 at around 115 knots. There are a few items I need to review and tweak, but other than a "heavy" right wing, and a tweak needed on the rudder, the engine performance and airframe performance was essentially what I've come to expect from the Sportsman. I will need to talk with AFS about a few EFIS items (like the magnetometer calibration that didn't work, and the VOR indication that shows on the Garmin, but not on the EFIS), and will give you guys a call about flying tweaks. All said and done though, it is going to be a GREAT back country machine! Pics include an intent pilot getting ready to commit air-i-cide; and a very happy and relieved pilot when I got it back on the ground, and in reusable condition!!! :-) Al King, CFI -- And Very Happy Sportsman Owner!Sportsman N122SK
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