First Test Flight!

My, my, it has definitely been too long since my last post.  As a quick update I finally got the Kawasaki trike into the air.  After coming back from Hawaii, I had a variety of things to do to make it happen.  I did some rejetting on the engine, put on a new tiny tach, replaced the old re-drive belt, etc.

The first flight was on Sunday the 28th of July, fairly early in the morning.  I like the early morning hours at Creswell Airport as there is little wind and little air traffic as well.  The video was taken by my friend Mark who happened to be at the airport at the time.

I started the trike up and gave it a good warm up.  I had just changed the re-drive belt and found that I was not getting full rpm's at full throttle.  Instead of 6200-6500, I was only getting around 5900.  Instead of re-pitching immediately I decided to go ahead and fly it.  I knew at least that I could not over-rev the engine.

I spent plenty of time warming up the engine, took several taxi runs.....and then finally gave her full throttle and took off!  The first flight on a new setup is definitely exciting.  I would describe it somewhere between "heightened awareness" and full on "terror". 

I flew up to about 500' over and then immediately went on a down wind and base to final approach.  The first approach was not set up quite right, so I did a fly by to go around.  The second approach was set up better and I landed.

My first impressions were that the take off roll took too long, and I did not have as much flare authority on landing as I would like.  I have concluded that this was due to the reduced available rpm's and also the hang position.

I have now re-pitched the prop and have adjusted the hang position slightly for the next flight, which should hopefully be tomorrow morning.