'Tis a dark and stormy night...

However, this morning was gorgeous!! Made a quick stop by the LHS to pick up some props. Got to the field, reamed out a new prop and modified the spinner to fit over it. Got her all fixed up, checked the controls. Had to do some tweaking there. Also turned out to have all three flight controls reversed!! Once those were fixed, I ran a tank of fuel through the engine at full throttle, moving the mixture back and forth somewhat like OS recommends for breaking in a new engine. Filled her back up, put her on the ground and taxied out.

Wind direction was variable, but typically straight down the runway from left to right, and speed varied from dead calm to maybe five MPH. Slow enough to pretty much be negligible. I taxied down to the right end of the runway, turned her around and chopped the throttle. Taking a few seconds to build up my nerves, I then advanced the throttle. She rolled straight down the runway with very little rudder correction. Maybe a hundred feet, bounced a time or two, then gradually leaving the ground behind, a nice straight, level climb!

I took her on up to altitude and played around for a while. A few loops, some rolls, even a bit of inverted flight. Then realized I hadn't even tried trimming anything yet. I did have to use quite a bit of back stick to keep the nose up. So, I started clicking in up elevator, finally winding up with level flight at about eighteen clicks. Absolutely no rudder, nor aileron, trim was required!!

Brought her back around and made a landing approach. She came in pretty hot, but one of the sweetest landings I've ever made. Taxied over to the side of the field and hit the throttle kill switch and she went silent.

Best maiden flight I've ever made! And followed by four more flights just like it. Did a lot of inverted and a lot of straight up. Once the engine is broken in and peaked out, I might actually get unlimited climb out of her! I tried to get her to stall and she wouldn't. She'd just idle across the sky as happy as could be. Based upon that and the hot landings, I'll probably take a click or two out of the throttle.

All told, I'm extremely happy with her. I've now named her "My Colors" because of the stars and stripes theme, and being the patriotic guy I am, I enjoy flying "my colors".



Tom