BuilderGrrl: First Flight

and now a special report from the Flying Fish:

With a stroke of a pen on Tuesday, the FAA blessed Sportsman N322MX and transformed if from an “assemblage of parts” to a legally certificated aircraft after an in-depth final inspection. Yesterday morning at 8:25 we took to the sky for the first time from runway 34 at Arlington Airport in Arlington WA. The flight lasted 39 minutes and confirmed a straight and true airframe and an engine that runs smooth as a sewing machine. The plane is truly a joy to fly, beautifully balanced and amazingly controllable at low speeds. Received some flattering commentary from the inspector on the quality of construction and I’m thrilled it came out so well.

My heartfelt thanks go to the huge group of talented friends old and new who offered their brains, brawn, and moral support to this at-times overwhelming project; there’s no way I could have done it alone. Special thanks go to my longtime partners in crime, Steve and Scobie, who spent long days and nights in the shop running wire, grinding glass, and brainstorming the coolest possible ways to solve a thousand problems along the way. And of course to my wife, who propped me up with unconditional support and enthusiasm through the most difficult times. Building an airplane in 14 months is not a recipe for a balanced lifestyle and I feel lucky to be surrounded by such an understanding circle of friends willing to forgive countless unanswered calls and emails, not to mention constant rejection of their invitations to come out and play.

Most people don’t have the luxury of a job flexible enough to shoehorn a 1600-hour side project into a year of “fulltime” work. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have such a competent management team running day-to-day operations of the business and allowing me to obsess over this dream in the back of the warehouse. Sandy and Justin have blossomed in their skills and responsibilities at the company, and while it may reflect poorly on my management skills, the business is in a better place than it’s ever been since I stepped sideways and let them make things happen. Thanks and congrats to both of them.

Thanks also to the dedicated and incredibly helpful people who supplied equipment and expertise on the business side of the project. People passionate enough about building airplanes to create businesses around them are a special breed, and I was amazed by the enthusiasm, support and integrity of just about every vendor we worked with. Perhaps we were lucky, but I would choose every one of them again without a moment’s hesitation and recommend them to anyone considering their own build project. In particular, Jason and the gang at Aerotronics, Sue and Bart at Aerosport Power, Bob Archer, Zach at Fibertech Composites, Lou and Brian at Kitplanes Northwest, Jim at North County Bank, and of course Ted Setzer and all the folks at NewGlasair provided a level of service and support that went far beyond what you’d expect from any normal business.

With the big milestone behind us, I’ll be flying off my required 40 hours of flight testing while tweaking and calibrating all the systems. After that, drop me a line and let’s go flying!