I finally maidened my Phantom last week in Waco. I spent most of the day Wednesday trying to figure out why the left tank was filling (and draining) slower than the right tank. After rebuilding my tank fittings several times I finally figured out the restriction was actually in the clunk. I ran the appropriate sized drill bit through it and solved the issue. Thursday I ran the engine for the first time and checked the CG using the fingertip method. The CG was sitting at about 330mm without adding any extra weight, I was shooting for 320mm but judging by what I have read from other people in this thread I figured 330 was just fine. The sky was full overcast all day, and the same color as my F4, so I opted to wait another day. Friday we re-checked the CG using the electronic scales and found that the CG was actually at 333mm which is still just fine. We also found out that it weighs 32.75 lbs (tanks dry, UAT full) which is much lighter than I expected. Should be about 42-43 lbs at takeoff.
First flight went very well. I forgot to set takeoff flaps, but it still lifted off smoothly after about a 350' roll. It climbed out with good authority and the gear tucked into the wheel wells and all the doors closed. It needed about 17 clicks of right aileron trim, and about 5 clicks of up elevator. There seemed to be no pitch change with throttle, so I'm sure putting the stock Skymaster pipe in upside down was the correct call. With flaps down it was climbing just a tiny little bit, I had set the elevator/flap mix using the pics and measurements from JDjetjock in this thread and I guess I put in just a little bit too much up elevator (easy fix though). The first approach was hot, high, and sloppy. It floated halfway down the runway and came down to about 8' before I decided to abort and go around. It took what felt like and eternity for the power to come up (not in reality though) and I nursed the elevator to maintain airspeed until it did, then it again climbed away with authority. The second approach was nearly perfect and she settled in for a nice slightly nose high power on decent. Over the numbers I cut the power and let it settle toward the runway, flared out perfectly, the mains kissed the runway and rolled out about 20' then the nosewheel touched down. As I applied the brakes I also began breathing again. lol
For the second flight I bolted on the drop tanks and the AIM7 missiles, and remembered to use takeoff flaps. It lifted off in about 300' and flew beautifully. Trim was perfect and I didn't notice any difference in the flight characteristics with the tanks on. I changed the flap/elevator mix a little and there was no pitch change at all with flaps down. The approach was a little high again, but I was still able to get a decent landing, touching down about 1/3 down the runway.
The third flight the nosegear did not retract, so after cycling the gear several times I decided to leave the gear down for the entire flight, and I will use that as the excuse for the sloppy approach and porpoising before touchdown. lol Luckily I was able to get everything settled down before touchdown, and the gear was solidly down and locked.
Later I found that one of the gear door air lines under the turbine had come out of it's holder and gotten too close to the engine, so the nosegear had hung up on the nose door, and that was what was keeping it from retracting. Easy fix.
Bottom line, I LOVE this airplane!!!!!!
My friend Pat Fernandez got some amazing pics of it in the air.
Here are a few!
