Thanks Everyone for the compliments. THis is one of those planes I have always wanted! Turned out just like planned!
Well ok.. I would call this a 98% successful Maiden flight!
I was doing some Taxi tests with my P-51 and it was going great. I was a little nervous and then I got a lot nervous. So I had my friend Rob step in and test fly it. He wanted me to do it , but I psyched myself out. It taxi'd awesome. Straight and true and the tail came up so nice. . But alas I handed over the controls and he took it off. Way cool! Well except I left a tire on the ground... Well we can deal with that later. It flew perfect. She rotated about 1/2 throttle and flew fine about 3/4. I am using a Tower .46 with a 11/6 prop. Not one single trim adjustment. Rob was going to land it, but I figured that if the tire came off, fly it some. Might as well fly it before I have to fix it. I went and got my camera and took a few pics. I was so stoked I wasn’t paying attention really. So I only got a few with my Canon DLS. Just about then the engine sounded a little rough. Later we found out that the muffler came lose. I should have used lock tight. Oh well, time to make a decision about the landing. Rob wanted to land on the runway with the gear down. Hmmm I figured stubby would do more of a stick rather than a drag, so I opted for the gear up grass. Rob did perfect. Not a scratch on it. I thought we bent up the muffler but it coming lose was a bit of a blessing in disguise. No damage. So, my conclusion is.. what a great plane! I can hardly wait until Monday to fly it some more. Here are some shots. I will try and take some video on Monday too.