Time to Commit Aviation

Strapping in in picture one, then taxing out, flight, taxing back, and the incredible first flight grin. I have now had that grin twice and it is amazing.

The first flight profile was right from the Lycoming manual and went perfectly. I climbed to 3500 feet and kept the engine at 75% power. I circled the airport for about 15 minutes.  Since the engine was working flawlessly I headed over toward the Kankakee airport which is about 20 miles away and wondered around over there for awhile. Then I headed back to C56, my base airport and did a little more circling. I headed out to Pontiac airport which is about 40 miles away and wondered about the western area of my flight test area.

A note about my test area. Since C56 is about 35 miles south of Chicago, all the area south of it is mostly corn and bean fields. When I requested my test flight area I asked for ‘within 25nm of a line from Kankakee KIKK to Pontiac KPNT’. This gives me a lot more room to stretch the legs of this airplane. The FAA examiner had no problem with the extra size because it is mostly all rural and doesn’t conflict with any of the airspace around Chicago. My most northern edge is just short of the KORD mode C veil.

After about an hour I throttled back to 65% power and then swapped back and forth between those setting twice. The flight lasted just over two hours with a modestly good landing.  She is an airplane and she flies great.