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At 1:11 PM today, Sonex 1629 took to the skies on its maiden flight! After about 0.8 hours of ground running and minimal tuning I decided today was as good a day as any to conduct the first flight. AeroVee engine ran smooth and pulled the airframe into the skies without trouble. CHT's were higher than expected and after establish a safe climb out at 80-85 mph and gaining 500' of altitude I lowered the nose to increase cooling. After reaching pattern altitude I throttled back to around 2500 RPM's and leveled off around 95-100 mph to let the temps fall back below 400. Did two quick circuits around the pattern and came in for an uneventful landing with a direct crosswind around 6 mph. Total flight time recorded was only 0.2 hours, but everything worked as planned. Controls were responsive and it "flew like a Sonex"

Thanks again to all on the forum who had provided support and answered questions over the years. Special thanks to Mike Farley for his many hours spent answering questions and providing assistance in person when asked. Also want to thank Robbie Culver and Mike for establishing the Sonex Builders and Pilots Foundtion, and to Sonex Aircraft for a great kit, and Joe Norris for conducting my T-Flight transition training back in March of this year.

Now only 39.8 hours to go in Phase 1...









After landing the FBO lineman (Eric) drove over to the hangar and hand me an ice cold adult beverage to enjoy the moment with! Thanks!

Awesome Scott! Congrats!

Congratulations Scott !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here, here! Great accomplishment!

Congratulations!

Super cool - the best sort of post. Congrats!

Way to go Scott! Congratulations!


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Congratulations.

Scott,

Congratulations on your first flight. I am so happy for you! I am glad you saw this through to completion. Enjoy your next flight!

Jake

Thanks for the replies guys!

My wife Michelle said to me last night, "I'm glad you didn't tell me when you were conducting the first flight..." (she was worried about the engine/airframe performance). She is relieved now that the airplane works as advertised.

Small list of squaks from first flight:

- High CHT's - going to richen the mixture up by a quarter turn and do more ground testing before 2nd flight

- Idle was set too high (over corrected from idle being too low)

- Mag switch is not shutting off magnetos. Need to confirm switch operation and wiring again.

- 1-hour oil change.

- Retourque propellor.

- Finish configuring the Stratux PI Rasberry computer