Submitted by Randy Reimer
N628RS Glastar kit # 5785 had her first flight last Saturday, April 22, 2017. Very nice calm day in Albuquerque, perfect for the first flight. She flew very well for the 0.6 that I flew. No stalls, just gentle stuff. I am the original cheap home builder. I bought a Lycoming O-320-A2B with a 72″ Hartzell constant speed prop that I got off a Glasair RG. It had about 230 hours since overhaul.
My panel came out of an RV-6 that went to glass. Van’s would be so proud. Exhaust was also bought to be put on an RV. Radio is an Icon A200. 10 years old but still in the box. The transponder is a Garmin GTX, also 10 years young. My wife knew a seat guy who had up until this time only did cars and trucks, I was his first airplane, and I’m very happy with his work.
From garage to first flight was 3 years, 6 weeks, and about 3226 hours. I think I bought about 900 sandwiches for the great help that I received from chapter 179, and fellow home-builders. I even got the FAA to come out and give me my airworthiness inspection. Somebody gave me my position lights, my ELT, and my battery. I used auto fuses, and really nice switches that I found on E-Bay. I used real aircraft wire though. My FAA guy said that he looked at a plane that the guys used speaker wire for all of his wiring. What ever, uh.?! I could go on and on I guess, but I won’t.
The only problem I had was in pitch. I had the trim full up, stick in my gut, and still ran out of elevator on landing. Weight and balance is OK. Empty weight came in at 1250, and CG at 97.264.
