Date:  03-24-2025

Number of Hours:  0

Manual Reference:

First flight of my scratch built Long-EZ, VH-XEZ, happened on the 24th of March 2025. 13 years 3 months and 23 days to be exact after starting. My log shows 17,044 hours of work. This is not counting meal breaks, sleeping, time thinking about it or running around doing plane related things. This is just time working on the build in the workshop.

I’m not proud, or ashamed of this enormous number of hours. I started with very high standards and almost no skills. I’d never done fiberglass work, I couldn’t understand the plans and I’d never done anything like this before. I’m not an engineer in any form or have particular skills in the workshop. I did guitar setup work and basic repairs for a long time so at least I had some manual skills. Measuring anything was pretty much something new as I used to do everything more by feel than ‘science’. I had a lot to learn.

The big time soak was that I already had a ‘plans built’ Long-EZ I’d done a few minor things to it but I wanted something a bit different this time.  A few months after starting, my brief changed from the idea of a light weight, high performance Long-EZ to a round the world, very high performance extended flight vehicle.

This meant…..modifications. NO modification goes unpunished in terms of time and expense and this one got out of control. I needed the qualities of DR Who’s TARDIS to fit everything in, a Long-EZ is …small! Unfortunately my skills in compressing spacetime are lacking, so it took a while.

Here’s the first flight video. Its very low resolution. There is a better version on my YouTube channel.

So what was it like to fly this thing I have built for the first time? What happened on the 24 minute flight?

I’m usually nervous before flying. It ranges from almost no nerves if I’m flying several times a week to quite a bit in direct inverse proportion to when I last flew. Once I’m all set and taxing off I have zero nerves for the rest of the flight. The only exception is flight instruction and particularly flight tests, I’m not good at all for those! <grin>. Interestingly I’ve had several emergencies over the past 40 odd years and I’m just ice cold and get the job done every time so far.

First flight nerves just felt like any other flight, relative to the time since when I last flew. Nothing special. If anything it was a bit disappointing to not have the feeling others talk about. I’d already had the canard fly very briefly in a taxi test. That was important as I needed that confirmation before committing to extended full throttle.

Canard rotation was as the taxi test in the 60 knot TAS range. Also as testing there is a slight pull to the right on application of full power on the initial ground roll but its gone in a second, I just needed to be ready for it.  I was more focused on the runway position, how much was left if I have to reject the take-off,  than the ASI and the just focused on feeling the aircraft. I knew there was an issue with the static port position and that IAS was going to be about 10 knots over. I had to use more back stick than expected to get the canard up. I did have the trim with elevator down already but it needed a bit more. Full rotation needed more positive pressure than the last plane. This may be just the trim.

I was pretty quick on the hat top trim adjustment which proved to be incredibly sensitive. That was ‘fun’. I’ve since adjusted it in the G3X and we will see how it is next flight.

Pressures and temperature here were excellent. My concern was that this plane wouldn’t cool in the air, and I’d have to modify the cowls so that was a big one. I’d fixed it for ground taxi with the flaps, flying was unknown. So far we are good. The plane was flying very well and the handling on this initial flight was excellent. It had a super smooth roll. Pitch is very sensitive, partly due to the trim not being perfectly setup yet.

Climb was off the charts, nearly 170 knots at 1000fpm. I had a lot going on. For some reason the second radio was loud and active despite not being selected on the audio panel.  This is weird. I tried changing to to another frequency but there was chatter on that and then a lot of static with another try. Meanwhile fainter, Moorabbin tower was in my ear concerned at my climb. I assume and worried I might bust into Class C above the field. I should have just turned Com 2 down but I wasn’t familiar enough with the interface and didn’t think of it anyway. I can’t reproduce this on the ground so it is a matter of trying again in the air. I need to be ready to get the volume down next time that’s all or just set it to Com1 frequencies.

Meanwhile there was an alarm going off in my ear. This turned out to be the canopy warning when I finally focused on it. The canopy was locked and ‘pinned’ so it must have been the micro switch needing adjustment. I’ve since tweaked that and we will see if it happens next flight.

More alarms were happening. The cowl flaps despite being closed before take-off both upper and lower were showing open. It turns out there was enough pressure in the cowls to blow them open to 1 out of 6 graduations. So just cracked open a little. I have since tightened them. Easy job as it was built into the design just for this issue. I do know that I can open them a little in flight and they wont break off. Unintended test! I had the coolant pressure alarm going off too. That one is just needs a re-calibration of the warnings. I wasn’t concerned about that as the number was still good.

Despite selecting gear up on my early climb out, the nose gear was down. You can just make it out in the picture. That was unexpected as it causes a lot of drag which I didn’t even notice. The cockpit video shows the selector is up but the gear has an auto extend, and that was operating. I tried cycling the switch but that did nothing. Better down than stuck up! This one is still to be sorted out. I think it might be either the laser needs calibrating for 100meters auto-extend or a micro switch is not actuating or both.

By now I saw some EGT warning showing they were high. Opps, I was still at full throttle. This would explain the insane speed in the climb. So we know that coolant and oil temperatures are OK in this condition. I reduced throttle and the exhaust temperatures dropped quickly.

By now, which is less than 5 minutes I’ve got the throttle back, ensured I’m under 2500′ and at least silenced the canopy warning. The radio is still annoying. The gear is still down, flaps showing open, pressures and temperatures are good. I tested rolling gently left and right. It takes more stick forces than I’m used to but it is very stable. I tried steeper rolls and was all good. Yaw is fine as well. Pitch is sensitive due to the trim speed challenge so I didn’t try to get to hands free. I just ensured it would be safe for controlling a landing.

By now I’ve switched to cockpit static and IAS is probably near enough to TAS now so I don’t have to subtract 10 knots from what I am seeing on the glass panel. That’s a bit different too as the old steam gauges are so big and easy to see instantly. I’m still learning where to look in a glance as a part of my scan inside and out.  I slowed the plane to 60 knots indicated and still no stall. This is enough for now I have the data I need for a safe, controlled landing.

The canopy and vision out the side windows as well as a slightly higher sitting position make the cockpit worth the effort I put in to the modifications. Outstanding result on that one. There is no spot for elbows in strakes however but I didn’t notice this as an issue. I know I’m going to miss cockpit storage that I could easily have added. I did plan on it but just forgot! Well, next lifetime. I don’t have another plane in me.

You can see I just hung around the airport. I did stray a bit more to the east than I planned but at 2500′ AGL, well above circuit height and ATC didn’t seem too upset about anything.

After a bit under 20 minutes I called up tower to come in. I might have given them an ops normal but I don’t think they cared. You can assume if there was a problem I would tell them. I was told to join downwind for 17R. I had a bit of height to loose and managed this OK while keeping the speed under control.

Landing was like all the other times I’ve landed a Long-EZ over 18 years. The difference was that I’m a little higher in the cockpit now, visibility is even better and for this first one I knew there was a phone video running so it had better be a good! I just set it all up, looked up down the end of the runway at the right time and just waited, holding the nose. If you watch the video you can see it worked out OK.

The taxi back to the hangar should be a time of elation, satisfaction a great sense of achievement, the greatest day of my life? Naaaaa nothing. Sorry. This has been so long coming that it was just something to get done so I could move on. Its about 3 years after when I though it would happen. Covid and engine delays were not my friend. Not to mention the huge job the ground cooling was needed when I though I was nearly ready. That added a  good 4 months at 70 hours work a week to find a solution.

Overall I’ve built a plane, it flies. There will be a few more weeks work to rectify some ‘squawks’. Then one more Moorabbin local flight to check the rectifications. If all is well, the next flight is leaving my home at Moorabbin for the new base and the next chapter in this adventure.

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I will tell you one thing that has happened over the course of the build. I didn’t know much when I started and now I know more than I used to.

I couldn’t visualise mechanical things in my mind’s eye. Now I can think of the details of a modification and see possibilities and various angles, I can rotate an idea in my mind. My thinking on everything I approach in life has refined. I look at problems differently. I can see solutions to things I never saw before. There is a new focus. I have adopted a more ‘scientific’ approach to situations that come before me. I can see how to make things like I never could, devise methods for a repair or a part that I never saw before. I have a rare confidence that if I need to make something, I will just figure it out as I go along and not worry at all that it won’t happen.

I know that if I persevere, eventually, the solution will feel right and that’s the one that will work. I can go into something like the flap design and just push and push until it works out. I have a large box of prototypes on that to prove it. I might not see how at first, but the answer reveals itself, I just have to keep going.

Aeroplane building might surprise you with what the process it teaches. I now have to apply this to IFR flying and all my concerns and fears about not being able to succeed in the round the world task, the big airports, the pressures in the air, the procedures, the physical dangers.  Yet I don’t care about self doubt, that lives on a shelf I no longer look at. Plane building without skills just teaches I only need to get on with it.

Have a goal, make a start and the magic happens in-between.