A couple weeks ago, I got to watch my hangar mate, Bill, do his first engine start on his RV8. We have been racing each other to see who will do their first flight...first. Although, he did his engine start before me...we are still pretty neck and neck as of this writing. Its the usual bet between friends...a cold beer!
It was the first time I had witnessed a first engine start. Two things came to mind watching it. One, it was pretty anti-climatic...I kept thinking, isn't there more to it? He only did a very conservative one minute run so it didn't last long either. Beyond that, if you dig deeper however, to a guy like me (about to do my own)...and Bill, it was pretty gosh damn glorious! It marks the first time this expensive pile of aluminum and inanimate parts comes to life after many hours of building...that's pretty cool. Seeing him got me fired up to get mine done! Congrats to my hangar mate.
Lastly, we were all pretty surprised at how fast that puppy came to life. It really was only about two blades before she perked right up. It stumbled slightly as Bill fed in the mixture, but ran fine for the one minute. Hopefully mine will go just as well this weekend.
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