"I wanted to let you know that my DV finally had it's maiden flight this morning. I had been waiting for about 3 weeks for things to dry up and today we finally had a beautiful day for flying...71 degrees, sunny, and most importantly, no wind for a change!
"My DV was built per the plans with dual rudder servos and has an O.S. 91 two-stroke turning a 13x8 prop and a 2 3/4" spinner. The trim scheme is a quasi-thunderbird design. I was going to have a large replica decal made of the thunderbird that is on the bottom of the "real thing", but decided not to as it might have made orientation a bit difficult. Instead, I used five 5" wide dark blue stripes against the white background. It took 6.5 ounces of lead in the tail to balance out at the 22" point.
"Well, enough of the specs...after a thorough pre-flight check of the entire plane (to calm my usual maiden-flight nerves) it was time to fly. I taxiied it out to the end of the runway and handed the controls over to Ray, my trusty test pilot. (Ray is the same person that test flew my V60 a few years ago, and I believe you still have my comments on the V60 page).
"After a nice take-off roll, she just jumped into the air and boy, what a beautiful sight! It only took 2 clicks of elevator and 1 click of aileron to trim it so it was "flying on rails". After a few minutes of "takin it easy", it was time to have some fun with it. It handled all the basic manuevers with ease and then came the "Delta Spin"... what an absolutely fun manuever! I am looking forward to moving the CG back once I get a few more flights out of it, and like you said, with a .91 on it, we didn't even notice the extra weight! When it came time to land, we just pulled the power back, raised the nose, and watched it settle down for one of the softest landings I have ever seen!
"I got four more flights out of it during the day and I would have to say that the DV is my new favorite! I think my V60 is a bit mad at me now...it only had one flight today. Ray even mentioned that once the other guys at the field see it, they will probably want a DV too!
"Lastly, I just want to say thanks again for another outstanding design, top-notch quality kit, and great support you provided during the build!"
