Wow, news sure travels fast on this list. I just got home from the
airport and the news is already posted.
Yes, I flew my Lancair ES - 20B today and she flies
beautifully! My first flight took place Sunday at 9:30 a.m. I was
close to doing it the previous day, but the winds were directly across the
runway at 10-15, and there was lots of traffic in the pattern, so I
waited. This morning was much better, except for the fog, which burned
off about 9:00 revealing a beautiful August morning. I guess I just got
tired of doing fast taxis. She flew like I was hoping she would,
actually better than I had hoped. I only did one lap around the pattern,
but the only thing I had to adjust was elevator trim. I landed with 20*
flaps and did the best landing of my life (I'm going to love this
airplane). It was very difficult not to go for another lap, but I wanted
to get the cowl off and look things over real well. Three sets of
eyes didn't find anything amiss.
The engine has plenty of power for sure. I was especially impressed
by the smoothness of the rotary engine. Really amazing after flying the
certified stuff for years. It was a little loud, but that is partially
due to not having a door seal, and the ANR headsets took care of most of that.
I'll know more about how well my cooling system is working after a few
more flights. It appears that oil cooling may need a little tweaking,
but then it was 90* at 9:30 a.m. H2O seemed to be within limits, from
what I could tell from my brief flight.
First flight also revealed some tuning issues, but
I'm confident that we will get that sorted out shortly as
well.
Head still in the clouds and looking forward to the next flight.
Mark S.
Lancair ES/20B
N208TX