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The first flight of my new LSA has happened! As always, there is nothing quite like flying something that you have built for the first time! All of you who have flown your projects know what I am talking about! For those who haven’t, it will be well worth it when you get to do it…just hang in there!
Just like the first flights of my two previous Bearhawks (4-place and Patrol) I flew from my 1300 ft grass strip at my home.
Some early first impressions: The LSA is a real sweet aircraft! Very docile and easy to fly! The tail came up almost immediately, and liftoff was couple of hundred feet…would have lifted off sooner I think, but elevator trim or stabilizer angle of incidence was giving me some stronger than usual nose down input…I think I need to adjust the stabilizer some to correct this. The little 0-200 was sounding real good and smooth at 2600 with the Catto 74 X 40 prop…seeing 110 indicated. Got up to 2850 in full power, level flight… Just some early impressions…only flew 30 min. or so. Oil pressure takes some getting used to on the Continentals…40 lbs in cruise… used to seeing 80 on the Lycomings! The oil pressure pickup on the Continentals is at the very end of the oil circuit, thus this is the lowest pressure in the engine. If the oil pressure could be taken at the oil screen I am thinking there would be higher pressure there. Oil temp got up to 180 deg…cylinder temp 312 deg. Flew straight and level, but don’t we all say that on the first flight…lol. Sometimes it takes a while to notice the little things that aren’t just quite right ya know…we’ll see.
Just like the first flights of my two previous Bearhawks (4-place and Patrol) I flew from my 1300 ft grass strip at my home.
Some early first impressions: The LSA is a real sweet aircraft! Very docile and easy to fly! The tail came up almost immediately, and liftoff was couple of hundred feet…would have lifted off sooner I think, but elevator trim or stabilizer angle of incidence was giving me some stronger than usual nose down input…I think I need to adjust the stabilizer some to correct this. The little 0-200 was sounding real good and smooth at 2600 with the Catto 74 X 40 prop…seeing 110 indicated. Got up to 2850 in full power, level flight… Just some early impressions…only flew 30 min. or so. Oil pressure takes some getting used to on the Continentals…40 lbs in cruise… used to seeing 80 on the Lycomings! The oil pressure pickup on the Continentals is at the very end of the oil circuit, thus this is the lowest pressure in the engine. If the oil pressure could be taken at the oil screen I am thinking there would be higher pressure there. Oil temp got up to 180 deg…cylinder temp 312 deg. Flew straight and level, but don’t we all say that on the first flight…lol. Sometimes it takes a while to notice the little things that aren’t just quite right ya know…we’ll see.
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