The flight took place Saturday afternoon. Friday I was 99% sure I would not fly her due to the field conditions. The likelihood of a nose-over from the nose digging into the ground was so high that I just did not want to risk it. Saturday morning I walked the entire runway looking for the best spot and found that the east end was the best place. I knew that the sun would be out to dry things up a bit more and the overlap on the fabric was in the correct way for the prevailing winds for the day.
In the morning, Ben and I shot a great FT episode on the Baby that I really look forward to seeing. I had fully committed to flying mine later in the day by that point as I had brought the airplane to share with everyone. Any damage I knew I could fix and I really wanted this "people's airplane" to be seen in its true element, going fast with the air over its wings.
I was shocked that Stephan shut down the flight line for me. After a brief intro, I lined up the airplane to fly on the runway. The bumps on the tarp caused the nose to go over two times. Then Josh Bixler walked right over and held the tail while I throttled up and he gave a nice push to send her off. She pulled up perfectly with no pucker factor when she left terra firma. Gear up and pour on the coals. She flew so much better than before with the CG forward. I made a few fast passes with a couple that were great for getting some photos. TJ was on the sticks with a race quad and he shortly gave up trying to keep up as she was very very fast. The SOUND! I could not have asked for it to be better. It was exactly what I was after and she performed great.
It was getting time to try and bring her down and I tried to get the gear down. I had the right side stick. I thought this may be a problem. The high humidity with all the rain had caused the balsa to swell enough to cause this issue in the pitts. After about half a dozen cycles of the gear I got them both down with cheers from the crowd. It was time to line up the landing.
I knew that the prevailing wind was at a 45-degree angle relative to the runway so my last leg was going to need me to be on the sticks. The wing stalls all at once so the probability was high for a stall on that turn as I would be in a tail-wind attitude. Two hairy stalls later I put on the throttle and made another go-around. Lots of "OOOOHHHHH" from the crowd. The next line up was good and I put her in very close to the runway. Big cheers from the crowd and I was off to get her safely unplugged.
Post-flight showed another broken prop, which was expected. This time it was one blade on the rear prop. Also, the landing gear spar had buckled a bit from the terrible field conditions. Really not a big deal. I'll repair with some gorilla glue in the small crack and re-glass the surface. Shockingly surprized at the minimal damage.
It was only at the time that I went out to get the airplane that the entire length of the field was lined with onlookers. I hope the quick flight was enough of a reward for the community in your support of this project. Thank you all, so very much!