Thanks, Joe.

I met some buddies at the field on Saturday for the maiden. They were a big help in getting the engine properly tuned and extra eyes on the preflight were welcome.

The wind was blowing pretty strong from the West - We put the plane in at the west entrance to the runway so I could get a feel for it on the ground as I taxied to the East.



I noticed that even with full up elevator the tail wanted to float with every bump.

Takeoff was smooth and I climbed into an RH circuit. Every time I took my thumbs off the sticks, the nose came down and she rolled to the right. I was having trouble with the wind, so one of my spotters did the trim adjustments for me while I flew. The other one - our club CFI - was very helpful in reminding me to breathe!

I did a few circuits and came in for a landing. It hit a little hard and the prop struck the grass. It bounced, then settled.

With the plane back on the table it was obvious that we'd had to dial in a lot of up elevator trim for level flight. A check of the CG at the main wing spar showed it to be a little nose heavy, so I remove 3/4 oz of weight, it balanced, and I set the trim to level again. Unfortunately the wind picked up (25 kmh gusting to 40) so another flight was not in the cards.

I'm looking forward to a calmer day!