I flew myself the Sopwith for the first time todayafter all the upgrade mods, and now I am kicked back having a Woodchuck cider.
Without going into the intensely emotional aspect of it all, which was there, here are a few first impressions. As the sun began setting in the west on a calm Castroville evening, she powered up to 1700 prop rpm ( 2550 engine rpm on the Rotec R-3600) on runway 15 and tail came up in 50 feet, and the plane lifted off in what was described by observers as 200 feet. She looked to come off about 45 - 50 mph IAS, then rapidly accellerated to 80 IAS in the climb, which I did not push at all and seemed 600+ fpm. Much like flying accounts I have read of Camels, she was sensitive fore and aft, and a little heavy on the ailerons, but very little movement was needed for the gentle first flight maneuvering. She seemed a bit left wing heavy, but that could be almost anything from rig to torque to me not really expert on this rudder bar thingee - it will require some practice. The wing heaviness did vary a bit with rpm, so maybe it thinks it has a rotary.
I think she will be faster than I expected, at LESS than 1/2 throttle I was indicating over 80 mph at 1600 prop rpm. The prop is a Culver 90 x 48. Another interesting unexpected impression was that with the deep cockpit of the Camel, it was fairly comfortable and not very breezy as expected - and the engine was relatively quiet. In fact, the whole thing was quieter than the inside of a 100hp Champ at cruise, even being open cockpit. Oil temp was good, mid range on the tank sensor.
A side note is that the Clarity Aloft headset works FANTASTIC under a leather helmet in an open cockpit.
Landing was much easier than expected, she trundled in at 70 mph, cut the power over the end of the runway. The over the nose visibility on final was also surprisingly excellent (considering), but as moved to the 3pt attitude it became all peripheral cues. A little bump (I hit a bit tailwheel first I think) and she was down. Qnce going in one direction, she did not want to change that direction much, which may be to the camber/toe as previously discussed.
Many thanks as always to Robert and the Airdrome folks and Family of builders - and to so many folks here that helped make a dream come true.
Well, I'll think it's time for another cider, for tomorrow at dawn I go on patrol for the wiley Hun....
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