Yesterday was probably the best day flying I've ever had. With the temperature in the upper 80's and an ideal breeze straight out of the south (with occasional shifts to the SE to come off of Lake Michigan) I decided to take my Avistar (with it's rebuilt 0-dihedral wing)
and my brand new Tiger 2 out to the field. When I got there, there were 2 others just leaving.

I wasn't about to try to maiden the T2 by myself, but I was confident I could handle the initial (re)flight of the Avistar. So I fueled it and checked the needle and taxied it out. I throttled up and it lifted off the deck smoothly. I found that without any dihedral, the Avistar was a LOT more sensative on the ailerons than with the stock wing. It didn't really roll any faster, but it was a lot "twitchier".
So I finished the flight and brought it in. I added 15% expo on the aileron and that helped quite a bit. By the time I finished my 3rd flight, a couple more seasoned veterans had arrived at the field. So I felt a lot more comfortable with th idea of maidening the Tiger.

I was a little apprehensive about risking my first build by doing the maiden flight myself, but part of me really wanted to see it through to the end. I had a few apprehensions with my first flight on a low-wing tail-dragger (much less on a maiden flight), but my instructor encouraged me - saying to just taxi it around and get a feel for it that it's not really different than any other plane and once it's in the air, you can't tell where the wheels are anyway!. So I checked it out, fueld up and headed out to the flight line. After a couple of passes, I was really impressed at how stable the ground handling felt. So I brought her back, lined up into the wind, and eased on the throttle. Very little rudder input was needed to keep tracking straight. The takeoff run felt a lot longer than the Avistar, but eventually it just floated off the ground and stayed stayed pretty level. So I climed up and banked left and brought it back around into the wind. 1 click of left aileron and hands-off flight was straight and level at just above half throttle. A few more passes quickly proved that this is one very stable plane! Now comes the challenge of landing. So I eased off the throttle on the downwind leg, banked aroundleveld off into the final approach. I probably could have bled off a little more speed, but she settled right down on the mains and shortly thereafter the tail stuck right to the ground.

The whole time, I'm thinking to myself, "RCKen was right - there's absolutely nothing like the thrill of maidening your first kit and watching it fly!" I took it up one more time and checked out the control throws and responsiveness. On low rates, there wasn't enough elevator throw to comfortably loop over the top, but high rates looped pretty nicely. Ailerons on low provided a nice, smooth roll a little faster than the Avistar. On high rates, the rolls are fast enough to feel really stable and only required a blip of down elevator to be pretty axial. This plane really flies like a dream. If I had known that, I would have had her up a lot sooner. I can't wait to get her back up.

So for anyone afraid to maiden your first kit, I say - Keep a good pilot close by and

GO FOR IT!!!!!!

Krossk,
Great!!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't I tell you?? You thought I was kidding. Now all we got to do is explain to everybody why you are walking around with that silly little grin on your face!!

Only one thing left to do know, pick the next kit to build!!

Ken

Congrats Ross! Sure is a good feeling, isn't it?

That silly grin is my normal state after flying - it's just sillier than usual today[sm=biggrin.gif][sm=biggrin.gif] I would have probably been content to let someone else do the honors. But thanks to your encouragement of others to maiden (specifically MountaineerFan), I decided I wanted to see it through to the end. It was worth every bit of anxiety - THANKS!
You been napping on kiswa's build? [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3297091]Mine's[/link] getting close to the covering stage. And you can bet I'll maiden that one too!

No tiggers "checking six" this time, right?

Right - they were both grinning as much as I was!

Krossk,

congrats on the maiden. i have to admit im still a bit nervous to try my own maiden flights have done it twice but dont like to but im sure with time i will get less nervous about it .

BTW i see your just down the highway from me. i still make it down there once in awhile to do some salmon fishing but mostly go to sheboygan now. ports a good little town and FUN .


bassman

I'm nervous as can be doing a maiden (did my second a couple weeks ago).

But after seeing an "expert" at my club tear apart another person's labor of two years on the maiden flight, I'd rather blame myself if something goes wrong.

Congratulations! The T2 is a great airplane and even after you progress further down the line, keep it! I really love this airplane. I didn't maiden my T2 but I did maiden my H9 P-51 (Miss America). I didn't want to do it but my instructor sort of gave me the choice of "I'll either stand behind you as you fly it or I'll stay back out of your way"
It definitely is a rush and something everyone needs to learn to do (trim practice hehe)

I don't know how many planes I've done the "honors" on, mine and others, and I still get wobbly knees just before takeoff. I guess it goes with the territory.

Scary... I can picture that.

Ya know, the funny thing is that I felt more comfortable on the T2 maiden than I did on any of the 3 prior flights on the Avistar. To me, it always feels like I'm responding to the Avistar, where as I feelt more like the T2 was responding to my commands. It just seemed to be a lot more responsive and had more direct control than the trainer does. I was *really* impressed by the fact that it started rolling when I did, and stopped the instant I stopped. Stall turns are a lot more fun and the down-lines are really straight. It leads to a lot more confidence when the plane listens to what it's told. (Kind of like kids and parenting[sm=rolleyes.gif]) Barring my own stupidity and over-confidence, I'm sure I'll enjoy this one for some time.

Hmm - right you are. Let me know if you get down this way - we've got a nice place to fly at Hwy 32 & I-43 (right between Port and Grafton) We also host a nice annual fun-fly on the first Saturday in August to benefit Special Olympics - come on down!

I was a little nervous, but not like I expected to be. Maybe "it was time". In hindsight, it really was a lot of fun. I'm already looking forward to finishing and flying my Somethin' Extra next spring.

I dunno - I think as long as you're careful about setting it up (I followed the mfg's specs to the letter), checking it out, and researching the model's tendancies, there isn't really that much to be afraid of. Now obviously, something like a war-bird is going to have a lot more "pucker-factor" than my Tiger. But obviously one wouldn't attempt to fly something like that until one's experience and recovery skills are compatible with the model.

I still get wobbly knees... even on trainers.
You never know what they're going to do until they're in the air. I've had several go crazy and needed huge trims for some reason, even though they check out perfect on the ground, even knowing the flight characteristics from manufacturer/previous experience. I've also maidened a few "pieces of s***" that flew perfectly, needing nothing. Ya never know.

Warbirds aren't a big deal, just keep the speed up.

Congrats on the maiden! [8D]
The Tiger 2 is a great flying plane......enjoy it!