Please stop
by often to check on the new adventures and
people we get to meet...maybe you are a part of
one!
FLORIDA
TRIP
No sooner that I had been
home from my trip to North Dakota (Unfrozen North
tour) that I received a phone call from one of
William Wynne's (See Flycorvair.com)
customers down in Florida. Charles Leonard
was a Zenith 601 XL builder that had just finished
building his Corvair powered airplane.
The DAR had just been to the airport and given the
601 its certification to begine test flying.
Charles is a retired Pharmacist and had been
working on his airplane for some years.
Although he had a hundred or more hours he
wastn't comfortable enough to test the airplane
himself,, so he called me to ask me to come to
Punta Gorda, FL, to do the test flight. I'm
sure that his wife was in agreement as well.
N41768 and I flew down on Friday afternoon,
leaving Valdosta about 3 pm and arriving about
5. It was a nice flight with some
small thundershowers
around. Upon
arrival, I found Charles and his white and green
601 ready for business. Test flying a new
ariplane is not something I take
lightly. I spent the next few hours
doing a thourough inspection of the airplane,
engine, wiring, and systems. One aspect of
the inspection was making sure that the owner had
a good understanding of how his various systems
function and how they operate in various
conditions of flight. Knowing and having
thought about various emergency procedures and how
to react properly were discussed during this
time. We also talked about his testing
area and how he would tackle the 40 hour phase one
testing. Maintenance and inspection
procedures were also discussed. This
was a time to not only inspect the airworthiness
of the airplane but the airworthiness of the pilot
as well. I fear that many builders
never fly their new airplanes because they are not
prepared for the first flight and sell their
project just short of completion. A little
help to overcome the fear and gain confidence is
important during this
phase. I
finished the inspection on Saturday and then
proceded with the test flying phase.
After a good run-up on the engine and tesing all
the controls, N920EL took to the air. The
airplane flew quite well and all the engine
information was within limits. It was
slightly left wing heavy and had to be adjusted
and trimmed once I was on the ground. After
a couple test flight and adjustments N920EL was
ready for its owner.
Sunday morning
we finished up the flying with a little bit of
dual and getting Charles comfortable with his new
bird. He was a little rusty and needed a
confidence boost, so after a few good landings he
finally felt that he was up to breaking in his
airplane. We visited a little bit with
the local EAA chapter and then I packed up and
headed home. It was a very busy and
interesting weekend but much was
accomplished. So, if
you run into Charles Leonard or are on the corvair
list, congratulate him as one of the new pilot
owners of a Corvair powered
airplane. He deserves
it! "Way to go
Charles!"
