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RV-14A N196 First Flight!

bkervaski

Hellloooooooo!
Testing
First flight! Went great and uneventful, here's a video - https://vimeo.com/277339586

Thank you Vans, VAF, SteinAir, Vic Syracuse, Dan Horton, and most of all my co-builder Phoenix. What a wonderful airplane!
 
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Outstanding and congratulations!! Can’t wait to see the video. (Low bandwidth connection at the moment).
 
Totally uneventful first flight! Kudos to Bill and Phoenix for a very well-built airplane. :)

Vic
 
Very nice happy Phase One! Was following your progress. Outstanding! Wondering what's your first long x-country would be :)
 
the unspoken word: respect

Donald Rumsfeld: We know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns ? the ones we don't know we don't know.
 
Congratulations, Bill. Nice job. Hoping to see her in North Alabama (Decatur, Cullman or Moontown) some time...after the Phase 1, of course.
 
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Congrats, I happened to be thinking about my first flight, which was a year ago today, when I read your post.

You will really enjoy flying the 14. Well done.
 
I'm years out

Really exciting to see! Keeps the dream alive.
I think Steve's comment "respect" was well stated.
Larry
 
Very cool - congratulations! :D

How many hours did it take you to build? I?m curious since I think you said you utilized the QB kits.
 
How many hours did it take you to build?

It's really hard to say on the hours, but it was 14 months first rivet to first flight, best guess 20-25 hours per week on average, two people.

It helps to have that second person organizing, finding parts (and tools :D) and bucking rivets.

Also, doing as much as possible in your shop/garage at home is the trick, those 2-3 hours of work in the evening really add up where otherwise you wouldn't be inclined to drive the the hangar.

Oh, and I don't even want to know what I've spent on next day and two-day shipping. There are many $10 parts we paid $20 to ship to avoid being held up for 3-4 days.
 
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Congratulations on your first flight of a very nice RV-14A!

Btw, I placed an order for the RV-14A empennage kit on the same day as your first flight. Looking forward to joining you in the air ... in 3-5 years.
 
Bill,

Sincerest congrats!! I hope you'll continue to post updated information and to add your two cents on a regular basis. Enjoy reading your posts.

Fred
 
Congrats!!

There are few better feelings in aviation than the sense of pride and accomplishment one enjoys following the successful first flight of a homebuilt.

I remember that feeling well from the first flight of my -8 in 2002 and am looking forward to earning it again when I fly my -14A - hopefully late next year.
 
Second flight went without any issues, although very short due to the morning burn-off hanging around creating a solid layer, didn't want to risk loosing the field so I landed.

The few squawks I had from the first flight were easy to fix:

Ammeter shunt wired backwards - fixed
Magnetometer wouldn't calibrate - replaced, bad unit
Manifold pressure restrictor installed to stabilized the readout (used the stainless 0.004 inline restrictor from McMaster Carr)

After I started the battery voltage didn't jump to indicate alternator charging and the ammeter still read zero. I thought I had an alternator problem. Nope. Reached over and turned on the alternator field :p Checklists are good :D

Fast airplane, easy to fly, easy to land. Much more relaxed second flight.
 
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Bill, congrats on your fast and amazing build. Do you mind sharing your weight and balance numbers?
 
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