Roger Halstead wrote:

Just don't try to imitate the Emmeraud here at 3BS.

Whew, I have no intention of that. I had intended
to do a few medium speed runs, raising the tail each time,
then pull the cowl and check things over. I'm not cruising
around with the tail up, it's just power up, tail up, power
back and stop. Second run I could feel it getting light on the
gear. Third run I guess I didn't get as much forward stick as
before, so the attitude was a little more nose-high, and it rotated
on the mains and popped off the ground. Airspeed was out of
my scan at that point, but it must've been around 45 knots or so,
so I wasn't going to horse it into the air and take it around.
I had plenty of runway, so I throttled back, held the attitude, and
let it settle. I wasn't 100% sure I was airborne until the tires
chirped on touchdown. Next comment (on tape), "I guess I know
it flies now."

Observations:
Acceleration is faster than I expected - I've never flown an RV
solo. I'd planned on good accel, but it was more than I expected.
Tail comes up sooner than expected too. See above.
Takes longer than I expected to slow to taxi speed...although
time compression may have something to do with that g
Everything felt great control-wise. No gross trim problems
noted.

By the way, I was doing this prepared for a flight if something
like this happened. Flight-ready airplane, parachute, gas,
preflight/runup, etc., so if it turned into a first flight I could
minimize the surprises and not get caught in something too ugly.

Dave 'taxi stand' Hyde