Hello all!

I want to give my Ultra Sport 40 + it's second "maiden" flight tomorrow. I want to do the flight myself, this is my second airplane, my first taildragger and my first low-wing.

Does anyone have any things that I should watch out for and what do you usually do on a maiden flight? I know you want to trim the plane out, but what else?

Keep the throws on low, take it up high and just get a feel for the plane. Get to know the high and low speed response to controls. LEARN THE STALL SPEED AT SAFE ALTITUDES BEFORE IT BITES YOU IN THE BUTT AT LOW ALTITUDE! (seen several planes go in on final during "maiden" flight.)
Make sure you land before you burn up all the fuel.

Be prepared to use the rudder on takeoff. Remember low wing planes don't float in like high wing trainers.

Other than that make sure all connectors are secure and everything remains tight after each flight.
Have fun and good luck!

Hello David, CHassan gave some good advice. I would like to add one thing. Don't pick a marginal day just because you get too anxious. I like to make sure I am "comfortable". (not only excessive wind, but also, too many people flying, etc). I am sure some people just go for it.... and that's OK for some people. If you are on the cautious side like I am..... don't pressure yourself, or be teased into doing something you don't feel comfortable with. Now after saying that: I did something kind of dumb this spring....... but I just had that "comfortable feeling" for this maiden (even though most times I would NOT have flown). I built 2 kits this winter... a 4*120 and and LT-25. I took up the LT-25 on it's maiden flight as my FIRST flight in 2003. Cobwebs on my thumbs and all!! Not only that..... but the wind was gusting 10 to 15 mph, mostly quartering or crosswind. It was a shakey flight but I got it down without damage. It was not a pretty flight. Good luck..lownslo.

Bob

I agree with the above advice. I admire your resolve to fly the plane yourself (I have ALWAYS performed the initial flights on my planes.)

What I have to add is: Get a spotter.

In other words, have an experience pilot stand with you when you fly. They can give you advice and offer help if you get into trouble. It is VERY nice to have an extra set of eyes on your plane, especially if problems start.

I've been flying for six years now. I am self taught. I flew over 400 flights last year. 300 on giant scale. I fly aggressively, low 3D, IMAC, pattern, you name it. I didn't have a serious crash all of last year other than one or two hard landings that tweaked my gear a little. I'll keep tooting my horn, I am probably the best pilot in my club of 150+ members. Why am I tooting my horn? To make this point... I still use a spotter for maiden flights.

Cheers

I have rules for building my planes and rules for flying them that I never veer from.
Our runway is a North/South direction 700ft long. Now I fly patterns both ways obviously depending on the winds but on a Maiden I only will takeoff to the north since it is my more favorite direction. I also do not much wind on a Maiden. it cantake weeks for me to get oe up. I usually bring out the plane along with some others that I fly regularly and if things are right, up it goes, if not, I fly something else.
I have had planes that are no problem and others that hung a hard left turn as soon as the wheels left the ground. I recovered and turned out to be a great plane but darn near left a load in my pants.

One other thing about waiting for a "good" day to fly a maiden. I have trouble separating what the plane is doing itself from what the wind/weather is making it do. You never know if it is the plane or some other force. A nice calm day allows for the plane to show you how it really flies. (Just my opinion)

One thing not mentioned in any of the above is if you are flying off from a hard surface hold enough up elevator in to keep tail wheel in firm contact with the ground, when near flying speed let off the up until the plane is on two wheels when flying speed is reached rotate,

The reason for the up elevator during the roll out is to make the rudder less sensitive (without the elevator you could be all over the place).

Thanks for all the tips guys!

As other suggested, having a spotter is a good idea, and making sure you are comfortable with conditions is important.

Depending on how comfortable you feel, it might not be a bad idea to let somoene else look over the plane and do a second pre-flight check just to make sure you didn't forget or miss anything.

Once in the air, here are a few things I do with a new plane in the first few flights (depending on how things progress (and not always in this order)):

- first, trim for mid-throttle, hands off straight flight.

- full throttle, does the pitch trim change? More importantly, do you pick up any roll (wing warps)

- inverted straight flight. Note how much down elevator is required to keep it level.

- low speed flight up high, up to and including a few stalls, paying particular attention if it drops one wing most of the time.

- snap roll left and right, does it snap, and how violently

- power dives, prefereably with no other plane in the air. Start with a fairly flat dive, getting steaper and faster. Listen for any signs of surface flutter. In steapest (vertical, if I get that far this early in testing, usually not) dives note if plane has a tendancy to pull out or tuck.

Depending on the type of airplane, there are a handful of other things I might do, and I might leave some of those off, but that's a start (but far from "complete") for a typical sport-acrobatic plane. There's a whole art to trimming an acrobatic plane that I personally don't usually bother with, but doing some of those things can make a sport plane fly better. I don't fly pattern or SA, the guys who do will know more about the finer points of trimming. I fly combat, fine adjustments aren't nearly as worthwhile (and I left out the combat-specific testing and trimming I do).