Bob Watzllavick’s RV-10 | Azle, TX RV-10 #42284

Bob Watzllavick’s RV-10 flew for the first time. Here’s more on the build and first flight:

After four-and-a-half years and 3,200 hours of building, N284MA had its first flight yesterday! Other than the oil door popping open on takeoff and high CHT on Cylinder 1, it was a good flight. Flew for 30 min at 4,500 ft to assist with break in, did some slow flight to check handling, then came back to land. I did my transition training last year with Alex De Dominicis and the last bit of landing practice last Friday really helped.

First, I want to thank my wife Melissa who believed in me, helped me with hundreds of hours of riveting, and encouraged me to keep going when I got frustrated. I also want to thank my friend Kurt Rutkowski who was at the hangar almost every day the past few months as I finished up the build and prepped for flight. His experience was invaluable.

The airplane flew great, no trim or rigging issues that I can tell so far. There are a few squawks I need to address before the next flight: 1) Stiffen up the oil door (I used two of the Cessna style latches), 2) re-check the nose breakout torque as there was a bit of shimmy at high speeds, and 3) consider cutting down the dam in front of CHT 1 to see if I can improve the temperatures.