Successful Test Flight

 

We finally have a day with the wind out of the south at about 7 knots on a warm comfortable day.  I wanted to use runway 23 (to the southwest) for the best emergency landing fields, and the runway is uphill in that direction if an abort was needed, much better than going down hill.

One more thorough preflight inspection just incase I've missed something.  

The plan was to do the normal run up checks then on take-off check that the plane is not wildly out of rig, if yes abort take off.  If that's fine climb in the pattern to 3,000 feet and stay over the airport getting familiar with the plane in normal and slow flight.  The slow flight was intended to understand the airplane and see what the airspeed indicator reads for landing.  There was no plan to do stalls at this point though.

The motor is running and it's time to get started.

Everything checked ok during run-up so were ready to fly.

I was a little jerky on the rudder pedals just before take off and I considered aborting but by then I was off the ground.  The plane flew nice with a light grip on the stick.  The rigging was good so on with the flight.

By the time I was at pattern altitude the cylinder head temperature was at 450 degrees F.  I throttled back to 2,300 RPM and the temp. dropped back down a few degrees and stabilized.  I decided to stay in the pattern at 1,000 feet AGL.  In this picture I'm in the up-wind.  

Any change in speed or power caused the temp. to go up so I decided to come on around and land without any slow flight practice.

In this picture I'm in the down-wind to land back on 23.  I'm sure the Airspeed Indicator has an issue because at one point I was up to 100 MPH, in the downwind.  This Fly Baby has never gone that fast before.  We'll check it out more on the next flight.

On short final the plane started settling very fast and I was slow getting the throttle up enough, One Good Bounce For Mankind.  I got the throttle in on the bounce and with almost all the runway left decided to land.  This time I made a much better landing.  Yay!!!

I discovered another small problem when I got back to the hangar.  The ignition switch wouldn't shut the mags off.  It worked fine every time I taxied the plane.  I shut off the gas and waited a minute or 2 for it to shut down.  We seem to have a weak ground from the switch so I'll probably replace the switch.  

I have some ideas where I may have cooling air leaks so we'll see how that works out.

A good productive day all around!

1976 - Flying The Bi-Baby

 With the airplane back at Dalton Airport and signed off it's time to fly the plane.  Bud Banks made the first flight after work one evening in July.  While we waited for him to get out of work there was time for some of that hangar talk which is what flying is all about.  L-R Bob Voto (sitting), Willis Free (airport mechanic), Dennis.  Bob's Keheler Lark is parked in the entrance to the hangar.

Bud was flying a Luscombe which Pete Bowers always said was the closest to flying the Fly Baby so a good choice for a test pilot.

He's off the ground.  It's now officially an airplane again.  It's also signed off to switch between the Biplane and Monoplane wings.

Some speck-in-the-sky fly over passes and it's back to the tie down.

Ernie got to fly the Bi Baby for the first time July 12th.

On July 14th Ed Dalton held his annual Dawn Patrol (pancake breakfast charity fund raiser).  The Bi Baby and Dennis' hang glider were moved up front to a place of high visibility.  Hang Gliding is just great fun.

Dennis' sons Beau (R) and Wade (L) escaped Mom and Grandma for a little cockpit time.

With the show over it was time to return the plane to the tie down for the afternoon.

Ernie was back that evening for another hour of flying.  The next 2 weeks were busy with flying about every other day to get the hours flown off before Oshkosh.

Bud Banks got another chance to fly and help fly off the 20 hour restrictions.

Bud taking off and landing.

This is Ernie at Price's Airport south of Flint (at Linden) enjoying his freedom.

On July 26th the FAA signed off the restrictions in time for a trip to Oshkosh.  AC Spark Plug, where Dennis was working as an Engineer, was still sponsoring the Flight Rally from Flint to Oshkosh.

On the flight line at Bishop Airport Ernie patiently waits for his takeoff time.  Slow planes took off first.  The Rally was a handicapped race to Oshkosh.  The idea was the pilot who came the closest to his planned flight time and fuel consumption won.  Mostly it was a good excuse to go flying.  The route in 1976 was from Flint - Mishawaka, In. - Morris, Ill. - Waukesha, Wi. - Oshkosh

I seem to have misplaced the pictures at Oshkosh.  I'll add them when I find them.

Ernie was able to make 2 flights at Oshkosh.  That was when they still had regular Fly By's for people to show off their planes.  He returned to Dalton airport via Waukesha, Lewis Lockport, Michigan City and Brooks.

More from 1966

 I found some color pictures which I missed earlier.

Here is the plane ready to fly but with the cowl off.  The pictures are at Dalton Airport in July of 1966.  It looks like Ernie in the cockpit.

Looks good.

 These were taken at Bishop Airport before leaving for Rockford.

 This is Pete Bowers ready to make the first flight.

Taxiing out with N500F as the chase plane.

 Pete followed by N500F making a fly by.

These pictures were taken from N500F.

In the lower one Pete is flying hands off (hands raised).

 Pete taxiing back in after the first flight.

Congratulations and smiles all around, Pete, Ernie and; Dennis.

 After returning from the fly-in neither Ernie nor Dennis had their license so some fellow Chapter 77 members got to fly it for the rest of 1966 to help fly off the restrictions.  Thanks to Dwayne Trovillion and Ray Shelby.

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.