On Sunday May 6th, RV-8 N8281V took to the skies for the first time. With Mark Merrell, its builder, at the controls it flew for an hour.
Mark reports that the flight was uneventful. The engine was new and needed the hour to aid in the break-in. The flight circled the Parker County airport at 4500 ft. The autopilot flew part of the flight and worked well.
“I’ve done my speed tests and am happy with the results.” He noted.
As of last weekend, Mark has put ten hours on the RV-8 and has done the first oil change. We will get more reports as the phase one testing continues.
Mark has experience ferrying planes for Van Bortel in Arlington. So climbing into an unfamiliar plane isn’t unfamiliar to him. Although you can’t be any more familiar with an airplane that you built yourself, the flying qualities are however a new experience.
I became familiar with this RV-8 when it spent some construction time at Grand Prairie Airport. I would see Mark’s hangar door open, and I couldn’t resit seeing what he was working on. He had most of the airframe finished and was installing systems and avionics. I was interested in the electronic system controls of the VPX system. Designed by Vertical Power Systems, it replaces circuit breakers, relays, switches and displays the status of the entire electrical system on his EFIS display screen. It uses Electronic circuit breakers in place of mechanical ones. It also has functions that control the flaps and indicate their position as well as trim relays and their position. Built in is a
wig-wag function for the lights. External switches connect to the box, but electrical loads can also be switched using the display screen interface. That box does a some of neat stuff.
N8281V is IFR capable, which is not easy to accomplish in the limited space of an RV-8 panel. For his panel Mark chose Garmin radios and intercom, Advanced Flight Systems EFIS and autopilot, and a Dynon D-10 as redundant flight instrumentation. His panel is very clean and well done.
Mark has a bit more finishing to do before paint, but this is a very nice RV-8.
Congratulations Mark!
