Built by Jack Phillips - 2004

Pietenpol Air Camper

 
Construction


First Flight


Forced landing


Brodhead/Oshkosh trip

The first flight was made on October 5, 2004, just after dawn. Claude Burkhead
flew his 1946 Ercoupe as the chase plane, with Tom Rudisill alongside as observer. The ground crew consisted of Karen DeBord taking still photos, Scott Smith
shooting video, and John Cargill handling the radio.

Once the runup was complete, I taxied onto the 6,000' runway at Sanford regional Airport and gave it full throttle. When the airspeed indicator began to move I raised the tail and then rotated as the airspeed passed 45 mph. The plane flew very well, with no changes to the rigging required except to cahnge the incidence of the horizontal stabilizer slightly to counteract a slight nose up tendency.

I circled the field several times, climbing to 3,000' with Claude off my right wing. I performed a couple of power off stalls, demonstrating that the plane behaved as expected. Then I entered the pattern, made a low pass over the runway, circled around again and landed. The landing was firm but acceptable.
I flew it 3 more times at Sanford before taking it to its permanent home at Cox Field in Apex, NC. I flew it to Cox early one Saturday morning, when we were having an EAA Chpater 1114 meeting. I made a pass over the field, then entered the pattern and landed on runway 09 - right into the sun. I was totally blind until I flared and the nose came up to block the sun from my eyes. Fortunately, I was able to keep it straight and taxied it up to the flight line, where it was cheered by the crowd.