Rockford Fly-In 1966 - Test Flight

 In July we finished the plane.  The FAA could not schedule time for an inspection to get our Airworthiness Certificate so the plane could be flown before the Rockford Fly-In.  Instead it was loaded on the trailer and the station wagon filled with family and camping gear.  The trip went well except the Illinois Toll Road was closed to tractor-trailers due to high winds blowing trucks off the road.  The police looked at the plane and must have figured, "well, it's a plane it can handle the wind", because they let it through.  It got beat badly but nothing was damaged.  How cool to be at ROCKFORD.
Yes, it's registered on the board after 2 1/2 years building.

 Pete Bowers was there with the original Fly Baby N500F.  We managed to park next to him.  Pete got to looking at our work and decided there wasn't anything wrong with our airplane.  He felt test flying it should be little more than a Production Test Flight (see Sport Aviation April 1967 pages 16 & 17).  He said it should be flown and he'd be happy to do it.  Pete talked with Paul Poberezny and the FAA.  They all agreed the plane could be test flown there at the fly-in.  The FAA arranged to inspect it and issue the Airworthiness Certificate.  Harry Zeisloft looked out for EAA's interests in the inspection.
At the end of the airshow on a beautiful Friday evening Pete took off and flew the plane.  There were no problems, he even made a hands off pass down the flight line.  Happy smiles all around!

 With the plane flown it was time to head home and start flying it ourselves.  Oh yeah, neither of us had our license at that point.  After high school graduation in June I spent the summer working for Jim Narrin at his flight school and learning to fly.  Jim built a Wittman Tailwind in 1957.
We also had to wait a little longer.  We took a week long family vacation to visit my brother David who was in the Air Force at Lowery AFB just outside Denver, Colorado.  The plane stayed at Rockford and we picked it up on the way home.

Painting Colors - June 1966

 We used newspaper to mask everything for painting.  You need to tape any overlaps close to where you're spraying.  The paint you're protecting needs to be dry so you don't get any ink from the paper, but it is cheap.

OK, once in a while you need to take a break and admire your work.

 If you don't want overspray on it, cover it with paper or tape.  It was easier to paint one side of the wing and then flip it to paint the other side.  All the overlapping coats on the leading edge work out OK since there is a lot of wear on the leading just form cleaning off the bugs after flying.

 In 1966 the fed's were big on 12" high numbers.  The regulations on the layout and visibility of the numbers haven't changed but they long ago gave up enforcing them.

Since these are black and white photos, the background is White, the main trim is Blue and the numbers and stripe are Red.
The fabric is all done with dope, which is nice because you can rejuvenate it every 5-10 years.  Synthetic fabrics last much longer than the finish.  Being able to rejuvenate the finish saves recovering the plane just to make it look good.

 With the painting done we needed to put the plane back together and weigh it.

 We weighed it without the cowling in case we needed to move the engine forward to balance the plane.  The plane has to be level and the wind calm to get accurate weights.  We also had some weights to check the accuracy of the scales.

 The weight showed the balance was within limits so the cowl was finished.  The name was suggested because of all the time spent gluing the plane together.  A sign painter friend did the lettering freehand.