Today was the first flight for 075.. I have done several hours of taxi tests and tuning of the engine.. I had the preflight done last night. This morning was too good to pass up. I started the takeoff roll slowly in case of something in the steering wrong (PILOT input problems) indicated about 40 mph then added the rest of the throttle, the plane just left the ground. I decided to circle the airport and if all was stable go to another airport with a larger strip.. this field is 30 ft wide.. I was not comfortable with the water temp so I elected to do a straight in and call it a great flight. The landing was very easy. I have not logged tail wheel time for a while and wasn't sure what to expect.. The Bearhawk was absolutely straight on landing and rollout. The pilot bounced a little but overall was very happy with the first flight.. taxi and flight was .4 hours.

Now to get the temps where I want them and fly again.

Hope everyone has a great day

UPDATE-
As of July 8, 2003 N416TY is flying again with a Bob Barrows built O-360 Lycoming:

I just uploaded a few pics of my bird with its new paint and Bobs O- 360-exp engine. I am feeling much better with not worrying about anything I may have done with the ford conversion that was in it. The look of the plane is much better with this cowl also.. I am having some problems with my static RPM and need to get the prop stops changed but want the prop shop to do it which requires me to fly over the big hill.. even with the low static the plane gets off the ground very quickly from a 3 point. I am anticipating the results of a good static runup..