billy's plans built sonex 1735

[Matt541]

Congrats Billy!

[RCfly46]

Congrats Billy, way to go!

Joe
YX 181

[Rofomoto]

[WaiexN143NM]

hi all, billy!!
congrats to your first flight.! and to your gal test pilot. is she a cfi? now a little dual......

WaiexN143NM
Michael

[Sonex1517]

Congratulations Billy! Just fantastic!

[Rofomoto]

Thanx to all for the help over the years !

hi all, billy!!
congrats to your first flight.! and to your gal test pilot. is she a cfi? now a little dual......

WaiexN143NM
Michael

She is a cfi. 6300 hrs. 1400 tailwheel. 50 in sonex. Has flown single engine planes from here to Russia by herself. She was absolutely great. Sarah Rovner!!!

[WesRagle]

Awesome!!! Way to go. Another box checked.

Wes

[Rofomoto]

I flew with Sonex for the first time today . I had a test pilot do the first flight. Scariest thing I’ve ever done. I’m definitely not ready for this. Got it down but not pretty. I’m thinking I’m a builder not a flyer. Might have to have someone fly off the 40 hrs and decide if I can handle it.

[WesRagle]

Hey Billy,

Yeah!! Congratulations!! You are now among the one in a million, literally, that have built and flown their own plane.

Is the plane reusable? If so, you did a fine job.

Understand this, you built a high performance airplane. It will take some getting used to. Things happen faster than with the Cessnas you are probably used to. So talk/think about it. What'd you do right? What'd you do wrong? What scared you?

If you don't feel ready get some dual. Just keep flying/fixing the plane. Go ahead and get you a new set of tires and wear those out with patter work. You'll look up after a few hours and realize you're having fun.

I was in much the same situation as you, as far as hours and currency, for my first flight of the Onex. The next few times out I had to force myself to the airport, into the plane, and into the air. Since I couldn't get dual, I would have to critique myself after each flight trying to get better. The critiques weren't/aren't very flattering :-)

Funny (but true) story: On the second successful landing on the day of my first flight I noticed that the stick was wiggling. I glanced down to see what had come loose. It was then that I realized it was my hand shaking the stick, not the other way around.

I now have 15 hours on the plane and look forward to each flight. Just like old times :-)

Hang in There,

Wes

[pilotyoung]

Unlike most of you guys, I bought my Onex already flying. I have been flying an RV-12 for the past 2 1/2 years and have flown it 300 hours in that time. So I think I am about as current in a light sport airplane with light wing loading as one can get. The difference with the Onex is that it is a tail dragger. I did have about 60 hours of tail wheel time but I had not flown one in 15 years. The insurance company at first insisted that I get 2 hours of instruction in a tail wheel Sonex with a CFI. There is no where in American where you can accomplish that feat. So I proprosed getting 2 hours with a CFI in a Piper Cub, which I could do at my airport, and the insurance company accepted that. So I bought the Onex, went to Kentucky on a Friday to fly it and planned to fly it home Saturday morning. I flew it about an hour on that Friday night. I took off, climbed to altitude, did some slow flight, some steep turns, one stall, and just flew it around for about 30 minutes. I then headed back to the airport to land and it was awful. I bounded on the landing, immediately gave it full power to help straighten it, but wound up going accross the runway and getting airborn at an angle to the centerline and edge of the runway. Fortunately, I cleared the lights on the runway. So I flew around the pattern and came back and tried again. It was not pretty, but I got it on the ground staight but with a higher descent rate than I like. So I put it back in the hangar, decided to stay in KY another day and went to the hotel. Saturday morning I was up early and flew it about an hour again, all landings. Some were borderlne acceptable, some were good, but none were great. Saturday evening I flew another hour doing all landings and they were better.

So Sunday morning I flew it home. I stopped for gas at Crossville, TN and bounced the landing so I went around. AT my home airport, Shelby County, AL I bounced the first landing and went around, on the second landing it did just not look right to me so I went around without touching the runway, and on the third try I did an acceptable landing. That was two weeks ago.

Since then I have flown it four or five times and have not done a bad landing and it has been about 20 landings. I have also flown the Onex to two different airports for a fly in lunch on Saturday. AT both of those airports with many people watching, I did acceptable landings.

So the purpose it to encourage the builder of Billy's Plans Build Sonex. After the first flight on Friday night, I was asking myself what was I doing. I bought this airplane to become a tail wheel pilot and I was really questioning the wisdom of my decision. But I stuck with it and I have improved greatly in two or three weeks. I am not there yet, where I want to be. I want to be able to land it as good as I land my RV-12 on a consistent basis. I don't know how long that will take, but I am going to keep working at it. Right now I have a personal 5 kt wind limit. It the wind is higher than 5 kts, I don't fly the Onex. I hope to increase that soon, but I am not ready yet.

So keep your head up, work hard at landing it, take a experienced tail wheel CFI with you for a few flights, and you will improve and get it soon. As Wes said, us Onex owners don't have the privilege of taking an instructor with us. We just have to figure it on our own.

Hang your high and go after mastering the landings and you will get it. Do set reasonable limits for winds, visibility, and ceilings as you seek to conquer the Onex.