First Start

Time to maneuver the airplane out of the workshop. I found that the width of the main gears is just a bit wider than the doors. So I had to find a way to ‘slide’ the plane out.

Without engine I could lift and sideways hoist the airplane. With the weight of the engine, I could no longer lift it with my hands. Placing a dolly under the wheels, I can move the airplane sideways.

Even with the gear through the doors, we still need the dollies to maneuver the plane. Although the tail can easily move, with the tail still inside the workshop the steering is limited.

We are going to locate the RV next to the workshop and tie the tail to a big beam.

Now we can carefully remove the dollies from the wheels and place chocks before the wheels.

The tailwheel is tied and I placed a sandbag on the tail, to prevent the tail going up. Since the wings are not attached I connected a jerrycan to the fuel lines (also the return line).

To get everything on video, I use different camera’s and angles.

With the engine running I check all the gauges on my EFIS, EMS and also on a separate laptop that I connected to the ECU. The sound of the 6-cylinder ULPower is gorgeous.

I found the whole engine start a big success, but we had to stop, because the weather got worse. We lifted the RV back on the dollies and dragged the airplane back to the workshop.

I’m really excited that both my parents were here when we started the engine.

Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-23)
Time: 5 Hours, Rivets: 14/2  (2021-05-24)
Time: 4 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-26)
Time: 7 Hours, Rivets:  0/0  (2021-05-30)

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