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1. 02:36 PM - First Flight (mike macleod)
2. 06:42 PM - Re: First Flight (Gary K)
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--> Pelican-List message posted by: mike macleod <macleod@eagle.ca>
Gary:
Great news!! Hope to see you up here soon. How long did you stay up? How
did you find the landing performance? Do you have the same restriction re:
keeping within 25 miles of the base airport for the first 25 hours?
My plane is in the shop at Kitchener to have a clutch put on the prop reduction
gear and to have the gears replaced. The gears had chips after 80 hours of
service so I am hoping that Rotax will pay the bill.
Mike
Message 2
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| Subject: | Re: First Flight |
--> Pelican-List message posted by: "Gary K" <flyink@efortress.com>
I had another Pelican owner do the first flights, he's got more experience
than I could possibly get in the next 20 years and did a great job of laying
out a plan and checking it out for me. I can't say enough about how
professional he is and how much it helped me. He did three flights, the
first was just once around then a landing because the subaru oil temp was
climbing. It turned out to be within reason so he went up again and spent
about 40 minutes going around the pattern. We checked the plane over and he
went up to do some stalls and came back after about 30 minutes. It stalled
straight on at about 36 knots and it looked impressive as he slipped it with
full flaps and stopped at the beginning of the huge 8,000' runway. The left
wing was a bit heavy but we tweaked the rear wing eccentric and got that
straightened out between the first couple flights, and the nosewheel shimmy
was still present but I've since found that it was the front tire that was
originally balanced but was out (probably from sitting for 2 years!). I
replaced the tire tonight because the local A&P had so many problems with
these tires that they won't buy them anymore. Anyway, I took it up by
myself for the fourth flight and just did circuits for about 20 minutes and
landed just fine (far from perfect, but ok). Having the plane checked out
first gave me enough confidence as a low-time pilot to stay much calmer and
relaxed. The last time I flew a Pelican or anything close was about three
years ago. I've been flying fairly regularly but only Cessna's and
Cherokee's. I forgot how responsive the Pelican is and had a bit of pitch
oscillation on takeoff and the landing was more like 3-axis oscillations
plus throttle oscillations but nothing too bad. I'm glad it wasn't captured
on video but I doubt it looked too wild. I used full flaps and it's slow
enough and controllable enough that I wasn't worried, just not very smooth
yet. I think it's going to be a fun plane. I just flew with someone in
their Kitfox and it seems very close to that.
Yes, I have a 25 NM radius for 40 hours. They allow 25 hours for certified
engine/prop combinations but with the subaru I got 40 hours. I'll just stay
in the pattern for the first ten hours and if there are no problems, I can
venture out a bit and start enjoying owning a plane. I think I'll put quite
a few hours on before I head out over the ocean to the islands, but I'm only
a stone's throw from Block Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket so I hope
those will be regular flights.
My hangar partner is almost done with a Zenith 701 with a Rotax 912S - what
a nice engine. He also removed his gearbox to have the clutch installed.
Turns out it was already in there. I'm very impressed with that engine and
wish I got one but the subaru is very smooth and hasn't skipped a beat yet.
It seems like about 125mph cruise but I have a ways to go before getting
good performance data. I didn't even try a good climbout yet so I don't
know whether the prop is more of a cruise or climb. It's supposed to be
nice for the next few days so I hope I can get at least 10 hours and get
some good data.
I'll report back soon. Thanks for the note.
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "mike macleod" <macleod@eagle.ca>
Subject: Pelican-List: First Flight
> --> Pelican-List message posted by: mike macleod <macleod@eagle.ca>
>
> Gary:
>
> Great news!! Hope to see you up here soon. How long did you stay up?
How
> did you find the landing performance? Do you have the same restriction
re:
> keeping within 25 miles of the base airport for the first 25 hours?
>
> My plane is in the shop at Kitchener to have a clutch put on the prop
reduction
> gear and to have the gears replaced. The gears had chips after 80 hours
of
> service so I am hoping that Rotax will pay the bill.
>
> Mike
>
>
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