Mark Goldberg's is First Quick-Build to Fly

A few minutes ago word came down that mid-afternoon Thursday, Mark Goldberg's AviPro Bearhawk flew for the first time at Lakeway Airport in Austin, Texas.

Jim Clevenger came in from the Builder's Assistance Center in Kissimmee, Florida to do the test flights and said, "It was totally uneventful, if you don't count using very little runway on takeoff."

During engine test runs the temperatures had run high and there was concern that would be a problem, but Clevenger said the heads were running about 375 degrees and the oil about 190. This was on a 60 degree day.

"I think Mark's airspeed is off a little because I was showing 155 mph at 23/2300 and it's just hard to believe the airplane would be that fast. Tomorrow, I'll get the GPS up get some better numbers."

As to how the airplane handled he says, "Remember this is the first flight so my primary concern was keeping the thing running and getting it back on the ground. However, the ailerons were about as pleasant as you'll find on any airplane. The rudder is extremely powerful and it takes almost no pressure so at first I had to concentrate for coordinated turns but that disappeared in a couple minutes. The trim is sensitive and tomorrow we're going to reduce the ratio back at the trim tabs and slow them down.

"I had more than enough trim to fly a 65 mph final, but I was probably going slower than that."

Mark received his kit (production number 001) in August of 2001 so it was almost exactly 15 months, start to finish. His airplane uses a factory new 0-540 swinging an 84" Hartzell.

Over the next couple of days as they do more test flights, I'll keep everyone in the loop. We may have some pix tomorrow too.

Very cool, huh?

bd

N303AP - Built by Mark Goldberg (photos by Kevin and Donna at Oshkosh 2004)