Luke

I am overly cautious with my planes. Mostly because they are self designed and scratch built.

The test hops are just to get a feel for the plane before I take it up. By the time I do these hops I am very confident the plane will fly fine, but as I said if anything goes wrong it minimizes the damage. As said earlier things will loosen up as the plane is flown and may need tightining.

It also allows for setting the trim. As you do the hops you will see if the plane needs any trim corrections. I have had only one plane fly off the board without any trim corrections needed. This also gives a chance to see if there are range problems even if the plane has been range checked.

I also had 7200 feet of taxiway ( worked at an airport) so I had plenty of room.

I run the engine (if glow) a few times before I fly to subject the airframe to vibration and see if there any problems.

Being around full size aviation I test my planes very similar to the real things.

Alot depends on the type of plane as well. If its a flat plate foamy toss it and good luck, if it is a 1/4 scale aerobatic I am gonna run through the whole test procedure.

If the plane is a kit and I followed the directions I don't worry about the flying of the plane as much as checking the parts to make sure everything is right as the plane is flown and "broken in".

I live at 6000 feet above sea level so It also tests the tip stalling of the plane, if the plane does tip stall on a small hop the main damage would be at most a broken prop and scrapes to the wingtip.

I am just a cautious flyer and try to minimize problems. I don't like maidening others planes for the fact that I don't want to be held responsible for a plane weather it was my fault or not. I have been flying for 11+ years so I am a fairly proficent flyer and will even practice with similar types of planes on the simulator at the hobby store I work at before flying a new plane. I also maiden my planes when few or no people are around to lessen the stress.

This is just what I do and don't have any problems with someone just going up and flying thier new plane.

Hope this helps people and a checklist and having another person look over the plane is a good way to find problems before they cause a crash.

Matt