John,

I am the owner/pilot of a Lancair Legacy, which is by most accounts easier to fly than a IV.  For my first flight after an engine overhaul, I hired a test pilot.

1)      Although I have 1,500 hours total time of which about 300 hours is in the Legacy, I do not consider myself a “pro” - i.e. there are better pilots out there than me.   Perhaps you fit in the same category.

2)      3,000 feet is my minimum runway length for landing my plane.  Come in too fast or too long and you could get in trouble.

3)      Much of the work in doing a first flight is the pre-flight inspection.  It would probably be nice to have another experienced set of eyes looking at all the details – perhaps you missed something.

Here are two possibilities (of a number) for someone to do the test flight for you:

Dave McRae of RDD - david.mcrae@rddent.com

Bob Jeffrey of  Elite Pilot Services - http://www.elitepilotservices.com/services/lancair-testing/

Good luck, stay safe.

D. Brunner

My Lancair IVP after 55 hours of total flight time is having an engine overhaul (it was a “new engine” to start with from Performance Engines – I’ll tell that story later) and I expect to get the engine back from Barrett in Tulsa in January or early February.  It will take a while to get the engine back on – all the other upgrades and fixes completed, taxi tests etc etc and so I expect to be ready to get airborne again in the spring or early summer.

I have about 60 hours of personal IVP time – 50 of them in my airplane.  I am hangared at 0S9, Port Townsend International Airport in Washington State. 

The advice I’m looking for centers around the fact that our runway is 3,000 feet long, certainly more than adequate for this airplane but not by a lot.  The first flight after reinstallation will be a test flight with several different concerns. 

1.       Although I have much confidence in my decision to have Barrett overhaul the engine, it’s still a break in flight and carries more risk than normal for that first takeoff.

2.       Because I am still a low time LIV driver and I will have had almost 6 months of rust developing in my IVP skills, that will be a factor

3.       Because the airport environment is not conducive to emergency landing after takeoff (trees and salt water at both ends) engine problems during this takeoff would be problematic.

Port Angeles is about 6 or 7 minutes away in the IVP and has a nice long and wide runway, so the plan is to head directly there and perform engine break in over head that airport followed by several landings there prior to returning to home field.  There is another runway at Sequim midway between that is 4,000 ft long -  it’s narrow but could be a satisfactory emergency strip if necessary.

Is there advice other than hiring another test pilot and/or buying time in someone else’s IVP that I should be planning for to lower risks in this upcoming event?  Any other concerns I should be thinking about I haven’t mentioned?

Regards,

John Barrett, CEO

Leading Edge Composites

PO Box 428

Port Hadlock, WA 98339

www.carbinge.com