Page 1 of 1

First Flight of N957BH RV-6... CHECK!

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 8:27 am
by captain_john
Hey All,

Here at Hangar #5 Unlimited we have tremendous news. Bill Higgins has been working diligently on completing his flawless RV-6 for the past decade. It was last night around 6pm Eastern Time that I had the honor of taking it into the wind for the first time.

Image

Here is a picture of Bill leveling the fuse to calibrate the tanks.

The ship has an O-360 and a Sterba prop.

Image

I just love the way it looks from the turtledeck! It was a very uneventful evening from an onlooker's perspective. I departed runway 6 and climbed to 3,000 feet to test the control surface inputs. I checked ailerons, rudder and flaps. I knew elevator control was good or I likely wouldn't have made it to altitude!

After the controls checked out the engine was next. It worked smoothly throughout the powerband. It is a factory Lycoming so no shocker there.

A total of 0.8 was spent aloft with absolutely NO SQUAWKS! Today we will take the cowling, emp fairing and inspection panels off to doublecheck everything another time. If we get it all back together and the weather is suitable... we may fly again.

We have the entire takeoff and landing on camcorder. Let me see about uploading some of that.

Congratulations Bill! You have made a wonderful aircraft there! It was a pleasure flying it!

:) CJ

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:29 am
by Mike Balzer
A big congratulations too you John. I wish I could finish mine sooner,


Mike Balzer

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 10:33 am
by hydroguy2
Hooray! to Bill and yourself. Special day for sure

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:46 pm
by Brantel
Great job CJ!!! Another one in the air!!!

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 1:48 pm
by Wicked Stick
Way to Go John, and Congrats Bill !!!
Hopefully I'm not too far behind ya... hope to be flying myself in August.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 7:32 pm
by Bob Barrett
Congratulations Bill!! :) :) Glad to see that there are still RV-6's being built. Mine was #2338 on Van's RV-6 Hobbs. There have been a number added since then. Beautiful job!

Awesome Bill!

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2010 9:40 pm
by Noah
Fantastic Bill, you do some awesome work - I can't wait to see the finished product. Just got my avionics harness Monday so I am wiring now!

Congrats on your first flight too John!

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 9:33 am
by dons
Congrats to Bill for building a trouble free first flight 6, an excellent achievement. Must be quite the feeling to get to fly first flight on such a plane. :good job:

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2010 10:05 am
by captain_john
All,

Bill and I say thank you for all your fine compliments!

It really is beyond words.

The design is just incredible and the experiment works!!!

I need to get mine done now. Everyone needs one of these things!!!

:) CJ