Avid Catalina N157AB's first flight out of KRNT, well over 2 years after I first said, "two weeks!"

[cowlove 33]

 

It went pretty smoothly. For being such an unusual plane (high-drag/low-inertia, off-axis thrust, high CG, full length flaperons, blah, blah) she was pretty honest and discoverable.

No real problems or OH-**** moments. (that was saved for flight #3)

I'm glad I ended up doing flight testing out of KRNT- I was going to operate out of a boat launch somewhere else on the lake away from what I thought would be the stress and distraction of controlled airspace. In reality, they've been great and very accommodating.

[dholly 718]

Congrats, looks like you did a great job and that Catalina gets off the water pretty darn quick! If I ever run into a Avid Cat kit around here I think I would mighty tempted to buy it. There are a lot of advantages to a flying hull vs. floats, however, either way opens such a new playground I'm surprised that seaplane pilot #'s are falling faster than SEL GA pilot #'s. You are fortunate to operate out of an airport with a seaplane base ramp, maybe controlled airspace but at least plenty of folks who speak the seaplane lingo. Any other E-AB or LSA seaplanes based there? Oh, and where can we find video footage of Flight #3 hehe?

[marksires 484]

Congrats, and much jealousy )

 

Mark

[dynomike 91]

Nice plane .congratulations on a successful build .

[briankbski 18]

Very VERY COOOOOOL!  Congratulations.  Can't wait to see more videos and read more about your adventures in this very unique bird.  Enjoy and have FUN!.  Thanks for sharing.  

[akflyer 1427]

Nice!  You are running a 582 right?  HMM, this may push me to go talk to  Bob about getting his from him.. I have loved the looks of the plane since I first saw it in the magazine when I was 14 or 15 yrs old.  To me it was the ultimate plane for the flying I wanted to do up here.  Now that I have one of the more ultimate planes in the stable, I just want this one because of the cool nostalgia factor!

 

Post up more vids, I can't get enough of this type of porn!

 

[jjbaker 73]

Oh Woooohooo!

 

Call it theft or call it bliss, but this guy is sharing this...

[cowlove 33]

Video of flight number 3 has been destroyed...  Just kidding.   Nothing major, just got a little surprised by some of the handling characteristics with flaps down.   Stuff that everyone here had been talking/warning about, but guess I just had to see it in person.  Now that I'm aware of it, it's pretty comfortable.  

 

My first attempt at a power-off landing was a little sketchy, too.  I'd planned to make a power-off approach, low pass, and a go-around, but it turned into a pretty hard unplanned water landing.   Learned pretty quickly that under about 65MPH, I don't have enough residual energy for a flare in a dead-stick landing.  

 

Now I'm into the real horrifying stuff- radio interference problems

[cowlove 33]

AFF1- Yes, I have a 582 in it.  For the last two years, I'd been practically planning an immediate motor upgrade, thinking that I would obviously need more power, but it gets right up off the water and climbs 500fpm at 1200#.   Who needs more power?!