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Well, following closely on the heels of Pat Weston, it is with great
pride and pleasure that I report the maiden voyage of N540ES today in San
Diego. My Lycoming powered ES lifted off just before noon with Orin Riddell
at the controls for a quick checkout. Other than the engine needing a bit
of fine tuning, everything went well. Orin reported that the plane handled
well and provided no surprises.
The flight was the culmination of over 28 months and 5,000 hours of work
(including bodywork) at Jake Ore's builder assist shop at Gillespie Field.
The thrill of watching the liftoff was indescribable, though I'm sure that a
great many of the LML subscribers know the feeling well.
This list provided me an untold number of tips, sources and guidance and
for that I am most grateful to Marv for providing such a resource. While I
could never hope to thank all of the individuals on this list who provided
me input, I would like to thank two in particular: first Ed Rosiak, who was
so willing to share every detail of his ES project with me and was a huge
supporter of my efforts. The second is someone who I'm sure must have
considered me a constant nuisance in the beginning, as I called him
incessantly to pick his brain and continued to seek out throughout my
project from time to time. He always gave me what I needed and tought me
more in his posts to this list than I could ever begin to repay. So Brent
Regan, I'd like to publicly thank you for all you did. It may not have
seemed like much to you, but it sure was to me.
Next (after Phase I) I'll be prepping for interior finishing, then
hopefully paint by year's end. Can anyone out there tell me when the work
stops??
Skip Slater
N540ES
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