After eleven hours of pure blissful flying I'm happy to report that all is well. There are a few squawks but nothing major that cant be fixed. I flew over to Peachtree City (FFC) for the first time the other day, which was a milestone for us because thats where the Falcon squadron is and we have made some very good friends with the group since we began our journey. It was anti-climatic at first because I didnt call anyone to tell them I was coming so naturally I wouldnt expect anyone to be sitting at the hangar when I showed up at 10am on a Wednesday. Well, luck would have it that Robbin saw me at Aircraft Spruce, where I was picking up a couple things, and said to come over to the other Falcon squadron hangar. To my delight, John and Jerry were there and later Waldo showed up! They congratulated me and we checked out our plane and everyone was very complimentary of our accomplishment. It was nice to be able to show off our bird and I really look forward to some of the adventurous trips that Brandi and I will get to take part in soon.

I'm day dreaming about flying the plane and my mind wanders. I was chatting with Brandi as seen below, which turned into me doodling a comic. The crazy things I think up to keep my mind occupied until first flight... ;)

Brian: I was sitting here thinking - hmm on Sat if I did my first flight.. if I had the choice would I eat BBQ lunch first as a 'last meal' or would I say , "no! I dont get bbq until I make it back safely" so then my lol moment was out loud I said Barrrbbeeequeeeeee as I imagined that would be my 'battlecry' as I took off on my first takeoff. Tower would just be like? ?

Brandi: LOL

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Our airplane is officially certified to fly the skies now! We used Vic Syracuse as our DAR (FAA representative to do the air worthiness inspection) and he was excellent. Better than excellent. You couldnt pick a better person to look over your build unless it was Van himself! Vic has built 7 or so planes, including two RV-10s. He did a very thorough inspection and pointed out some things we had to fix and some things that were recommendations. We didnt have anything majorly wrong except I had the trim hooked up backwards! That was an easy fix but OOPS! I feel shame. The elevator trim should go the opposite direction of the elevator. For example, nose up trim should deflect the trim tab down. What a nasty one to have to have found out in flight, whew. What a relief to have that part out of the way. Now we look forward to first flight. Our good friend Pierre who is an Agricultural pilot (crop duster) and also owns a 10 offered to do our first flight. Since I'm a low time pilot it is wise for me to take him up on that offer despite the fact that I miss the symbolic first flight in a sense. I will still get my own first flight and I know its going to be amazing!

A BIG thanks to Keith for staying super late to help Brandi and I do one more look over of the plane from nose to tail in preparation for our inspection. Also thanks to Glynnis, his wife, for putting up with him :) 

We performed our initial flight weight and balance thanks to the help of David and Keith over at EAA chapter 268. They were nice enough to loan us some scales. We came in at 1541 lbs empty weight, which is pretty good I think. We'll pickup probably 50 more lbs as we add the rest of Brandi's interior panels down the road and then paint. So we'll have to redo the W&B then but for now we're in great shape. If we stay around 1600 when its all said and done then we'll have an 1100 lb useful load. As advertised this is enough for 4 people, fuel, and some baggage. Sweet!

We moved the big metal baby to the hangar yesterday! It was very exciting and everything went smoothly. Thanks to all of those who helped!