Gary:
CONGRATULATIONS! ! ! On your first flight Gary,
Oh, and your plane and instrument panel look great too!
Bill Fisher
N838BF
Now located at Glendale, AZ (GEU)
with about 90 hours
----- Original Message -----
From: GARY PENNINGTON<mailto:pennington@q.com>
To: lightning-list<mailto:lightning-list@matronics.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2008 4:07 PM
Subject: N 34 YZ Airworthiness
Good afternoon everyone
Yesterday was the end of my Lightning build process. She was certified
"Airworthy" by the local DAR. Yeah!!!! At long last.
Now, a new era begins....working out the bugs.
First thing this morning, I completed another thorough inspection and
then performed taxi tests. All was good...except the warning messages
from the EFIS. I am having difficulty programming the EIS, EFIS and the
other black boxes. I'm not really computer challenged, but you wouldn't
know now. Nothing seems to be communicating with the EFIS. I guess I'm
going to have to bother Ben again. Sorry Ben.
After a few tweaks, I lined up on the active runway and applied
throttle. With lots of right rudder and a whole lot of anxiety, I zoomed
down the pavement. The first startling thing I noticed was the horrible
oscillations in the gear legs beginning at about 20 mph. I remembered
that other builders experienced the same thing but were able to
eliminate it with balancing. So, I continued accelerating. At around 55,
I rotated and climbed. The engine turned around 2700 rpms but had a
slight vibration. I backed off to about 2600 rpms and it smoothed out.
Weird. Warning messages from the EFIS continued squawking but all the
temps and pressures were very good.
After turning downwind, I backed off the throttle to approx. 1800 rpm
to slow down and apply flaps. I discovered that I need to move my right
leg as far down as possible to allow stick clearance for aileron
authority. Also, the ailerons don't feel to be balanced. I'll call Mark
or Nick for advice.
After turning final, I pulled the throttle off for a nice decent. As
it turned out, the idle was too low and the engine died. There was a
certain amount of "Pucker Factor" involved at that moment but I was over
the threshold and lots of runway ahead, so, I just set it down and
rolled out. The transition training I received from Arion was life
saving. Thanks guys.
I spent the next several hours adjusting and tweaking. Afterward, I
took off again and did five touch and gos. As I said in the beginning, I
have bugs to work out but my girl flys! I have attached two photos for
interested parties.
Have a great day to all.
Gary Pennington
