Wish this was in our Community Hall also.
Lots of good stuff, photos and all.
We all kinda keep an eye on Dart, and this has become a real 'Adventure' many of us are monitoring.
Hope you don't mind I put a link to this, in my post in your Community Hall thread.

I just think...."People want to know"...

The "soup to peanuts" thread showing the plane being built from a pile of tubing to now is here:

http://eaaforums.org/showthread.php?612-Building-a-Nieuport-11

Some of it is eye roll worthy narcissism, but mostly it's the parts where I had problems and how I worked around them.

Are you making a comparison to this photo ?

Those goggles look tacky on you OG.
Also, the color is all washed out in that photo.
Darts plane looks a bit worn, odd, in a way I can't put my finger on.........

I am simply amazed sir. Congrats!

Yep, that looks like 50% of my Nieuport takeoffs for sure!

A double to both Dart and oldgrognard. It looks like we get to keep Dart around for awhile longer!

That's really cool that OG flew up to check out your bird and hang out and help. That's SimHQ for ya.
I'm so glad you've taken the time to document this journey. It's been a blast, and now, it's just beginning.

I know that building and flying RC model aircraft gave me a lot of pleasure, but building a model you can actually sit in and fly must give you a great sense of achievement. It has been with great interest that I have followed your build, congratulations Dart!

May you have many happy hours of flying your Nieuport.

Now, your next mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a two seater so your wife can have your back

While I've been bitten and infected with the flying bug since I was a kid, my wife has naturally occurring anti-bodies for it.

I've taken her up twice in a Champ, and she said it was "It's okay. I can see what you like about it."

Flying is officially My Thing, something that she fully respects and encourages, but has almost no desire to be involved with.

I understand Dart. My wife doesn't find joy in flying either. She will fly to go places, but isn't one to just go up and fly. But she does appreciate the speed and ease in going places. Makes it much more convenient to see friends and family.

She does show some vanity when she tells people that I'm a pilot and we own an airplane.

She delights in having me take people for flights and always encourages young friends who haven't flown to go. I've taken many teenagers for a flight for their birthday present.

Well done, Dart! That last flight video looked great! Take of tracked nice and straight!

I have to ask, did you intentionally touch down short of the runway in the grass? That caught me off guard!

Um, sure. Totally intentional. Absolutely.

So, Dart... did you already try to take off from Runway 13?

"It's not very long but incredibly wide!"

Hahahaha - you have no idea just what a ghost town my little airport is or how much the two employees just do not give a flip about anything but cutting the grass or running the fuel truck...as long as nothing gets broken I don't think they care what I do.

But I think I could take off and land on the taxiways to the runway no problem!

I imagine that is convenient for your flight testing, since you don't have to deal with an air traffic controller getting their underwear in a wad. On the flip side, that may mean you get help less rapidly if something goes wrong...

Today's flight was remarkable only in that it was unremarkable.



Takeoff was what should be normal - no hysterics - and I just flew around for a little less than an hour to monitor temps and pressures, as well as bringing along a little tablet to see what my ground speed was versus indicated.

Zero wind, and the GPS was indicating around 55 mph at cruise (about half throttle, straight and level with no adjustments required to keep it there) while the ASI read 70. It's not the static line, so either it's the crimp in the pitot tube or a bad ASI. Gonna replace the pitot tube next time up the airport.

What surprised me was oil temperatures. It only got up to 180 and stayed pegged there at cruise, dropping when I throttled back to get into the pattern. I guess my baffling and huge oil cooler are doing their jobs (ambient temp was 85 degrees).

On the ground the oil temp sensor is out of the oil, so naturally it went to zero pretty quickly.

Landing was gloriously uneventful. I floated her long down the runway, let the mains kiss the pavement, pulled the throttle back and let the tail come down naturally.

I'm going to validate the weather forecast for tomorrow and maybe commit some more aviation - she's such a forgiving aircraft and a honey to fly!

[edit]

No video, as I moved the camera to face the instrument panel. Nothing exciting about that!

All good news. I am beginning to think I was a bad luck charm.

Nope, you're an amazing good luck charm.

You kept the crashies away when they were trying to climb all over me with your positive aura and imposing stare - from 1,000 feet away.

Lol a little late but you had me rolling with the first unintended takeoff. Glad to hear things are progressing fairly smoothly now.

Enjoyed the commentary on takeoff two's video but what would have happened if you had aborted as soon as you left the runway? From the video anyway, there looked to be plenty of room to stop before you had committed yourself to aviation.


Wheels