It's a bird it's a plane, another Zodiac 601XL leaving the ground

After many obstacles, 417SX departed U76 this afternoon, I should have
waited until tomorrow morning, it was warm today, 91. I decided to do a
high speed taxi to see if the Airspeed Indicator was alive, it was, and
figured that a short flight to test my FWF had come. Taxied back and I
was airborne quickly, remembered to keep the nose down in a cruise
climb, 500 fpm, Airspeed was indicating 120mph and the GPS was giving a
similar reading with the engine turning at 2900 rpm.

Circled the airport to get a feel for the airplane, temps were running high, but below redline. Decided it was time to go home. It's been 3 years since I've flown a Zodiac and my recent landings in a Cherokee were a bit hard, but I redeemed myself and made a fairly nice landing, kept the nose down and let it settle onto the runway. I can only hope that the next one will be as good :-)

I managed to hit another heat wave, it will be in the low 90's the next few days, but 50 in the mornings. Hope to get in 3-4 hours per day before I leave on Wednesday. The goal is to make it to 10 hours, torque the head bolts and come back when it's cooler and fly off the remaining 30 hours, another 5 days right ;-)

Thanks to all of you that offered first flight advice, it was very helpful.

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Comment by Jerry Latimer on September 26, 2010 at 10:30am
Congratulations on your successful first flight.
Jerry
Comment by James Roberts on September 26, 2010 at 9:35am
Good stuff Jake....I echo Phil's comments on no video...what were you thinking leaving! ;0)
Comment by Phill Barnes on September 26, 2010 at 6:25am
Ye-hah. Well done Jake. A pat on the back for the first flight and a slap on the wrist for NO VIDEO !!!
Not to worry, we all know you had more important things on your mind and I can only imagine the level of excitment you were feeling. I bet it's an even bigger buzz than our first solo flight when in training. Congratulations mate and I hope that every flight presents itself as the new best flight. Keep up the good work and publish some more numbers when you can.

Regards
Phill
Comment by Stephen R. Smith on September 25, 2010 at 11:01pm
Jake,

You did it. Excellent! Let the fun begin!

Steve

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