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Message
Gentleman,
I can testify that
Randy Hurst will sleep a happier man tonight. Congratulations to him on
the culmination of 2 years of sucking dust and head scratching. His baby
left the surly bonds of earth today in the finest of form.
I knew this morning
that at least I could pick on one gripe after the first flight. However,
after we left last night Randy's painter came out to the hangar and worked into
the wee hours of the morning to finish the paint polishing. As you
can see by the attached photo the paint lacks nothing!
N204RH launched
today just after noon with plenty of on lookers including SWLBF's Joe Mason and
Rick Cathriner. Dick "Polen Special Racer" Keyt loaned us his superior
talents as chase pilot in Lancair 360LH. The "Monster" flight lasted close
to 1 hour with virtually no discrepancies. The primary flight objective of
running at very high power to break in the new motor was achieved.
Numerous other systems were wrung out including the eye watering Chelton's 3
displays, Garmin and it's TCAS display. The cowling was clean and dry
after the flight until the "stupid line boy" (me) dumped a good bit of oil
all around the fill hole.
So.....what's it
like? I can only think back to 50,000 lb cat shots in the Hornet.
The beast takes the runway for no particular reason. There is enough power
to take off sideways on a taxiway. The Legacy was at 200 kts and 2000 ft
before the little red chase plane got the wheels up. What a Thrill!
Airspeed was easily 200 Kts IAS all the way to 6500 ft. I had to
constantly pull power back to let the little red pokey plane catch up for belly
checks. The six cylinder Continental is incredibly smooth. CHT's
were within 20 deg F all day at around 310 deg. Kudos to Lancair for a
very excellent off the shelf baffle kit. Oil temp was also cool around 170
deg F. It's very refreshing to have such a cool installation
on a first flight. Clean, the aircraft handles nicely down to
100 kts. Dirty, it was very controllable down to 82 kts. High speeds
today were kept down to 220 kts. where it flies like a dragon. Further
envelope expansion to come.
After the cowling
analysis and a bite of BBQ we roped Dick into another run. It was equally
fantastic with nothing but excess horsepower to complain about. The air
was smooth and Denton tower allowed us a casual 200+ kt low altitude
break. Big Grins.
The squawks on
N204RH were nil. The little tweaks like adjusting gear door snugness,
LR-3 Voltage and Prop RPM will only serve to help Randy transition
through the upcoming dreaded "builders withdraw syndrome" (BWS as its
often known). It may take a few weeks but soon Randy will
break his habit of sending Spruce and Lancair a $1000 bill every Sunday
night.
Kudos to
Randy. His craft is a gem in which I'm sure he'll enjoy for hundreds
of hours to come. A riotous good time was had
by all.
Larry
Henney
PS: As for me, it's
time to step back and continue my contemplation of the metaphysical universe
entwined in belly button lint. Thanks Scott for providing such a
enlightening past time.
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