Well here is what you have all been waiting to hear.

Conditions: Late afternoon, heavy overcast and grey sKies from San Diego Fire smoke, wind 8-10 mph quartering to 90 degrees off the nose.

Two flights, The first landing was in the dirt on the side of the runway. Hey, I was just glad to get her on the ground in one piece. Second landing was a dead stick!

So here are the dirty details. After two weeks of stuff happening and lousy weather I decided we were flying today no matter what. We basically had an 8-10mph crosswind. In a nut shell it had no effect on the plane at all. The engine was brand new. Has been run about 15 minutes on the ground before this first flight.

Take off and flying. The P-51 taxis slowly, very well, with no problems at all. On take-off there is a transition area just before the rudder becomes flyable that is a little tricky and takes a lot of rudder to keep her going straight. However, once the airflow is hitting the rudder she is a dream. The P-51 is beautiful in flight. The DA50 is going to be a great engine. She took off with very little roll. The “Doll” took no aileron or rudder trim at all for balanced flight after takeoff. I did need to put in about 4-5 clicks of down elevator. That was it. She is naturally very fast and smooth. I had zero trim changes at both half and full flaps. That was great, but still trying to figure that one out. The retractable main and tail wheel worked perfectly. I am going to have to put the other tailwheel door back on. The one side I had closed easily. I think because of the wind of flying. I noticed no noticeable trim change when the gear came down. These two flights had nothing more than fly around on the new engine and a few barrel rolls after low passes. With the recommended maximum aileron throws the roll rate was conservative. All I can really say is that she flies beautifully. I can hardly wait until the engine and myself are “broke in”.

Landing. The “Doll” has a very nice sink rate. I did not notice anything that seemed bad in the way she camen down. Just reduce power and she settles right down. She actually will float a little if you let her and the elevator was responsive at slow speed with the engine off. It was getting late, low visibily and scared to death. I missed my lineup on the first landing and actually landed on the side of runway in the dirt. No problem landed fine and taxied backm up on the runway. On my second landing I was coming in to low and almost hit the fence at the end of the runway. When I pulled up and punched it, I killed the engine about 20 feet off the ground and nose high. I just pushed the nose over and flared just before she hit. No problem at all. She never stalled and the nose came up fine, she just set right down on the runway. She is a lot like my DP Ultimate. A dream to land. Not a floater, and not a sinker. Just right.

The Engine. The DA50 is going to be a great engine. She has huge power right now, fresh out of the box. I am having some normal tuning problems due to not being broken in and a really rich mixture. But I can tell already I am going to love this engine. I am having some vibration problems that are causeing the engine mounts to loosen up. But I think that will be resolved after things get a little more broken in and tightened up.

A final comment or two. The aircraft speed does not seem to affect either the landing gear or flap operation or aircraft trim to any great extent. The only other comment is that under the right conditions this plane is VERY HARD to see. With the gear up she is grey all over. The “Doll” is fast and it’s easy for her to get a long way a way before you realize it. I had to watch her like a hawk because it was hard to tell orientation against the grey sky. This bird would be great with Invasion stripes. I’m already thinking about renaming her and putting the stripes on. We’ll have to see about that one.

Two flights, one dead stick - nothing broke, nothing came off, life is good.