Well today’s the day for G-MLSY to take to the air for the first time. The LAA has approved Robin May as test pilot and Maypole was approved as the test site. As it was a bit short notice only a few people were able to attend but it was great to have the support of Dave, Nic, my Grandson Elliott, cousin Anne and her husband Charles and of course Karen whose idea it was for me to buy the Bristell in the first place.

The day started early with me ensuring that the plane was ready for it’s maiden flight. Everything had bee checked and double checked. The fuel tanks were drained and 15 litres added to enable the first flight to be carried out with minimum weight.

When Rob arrived we agreed the fight test approach and schedule and I briefed him fully on the instruments, prop and engine controls.

Then it was time to go but unfortunately things didn’t go quite to plan. Basically there were three issues that cropped up during the day.

• The harnesses that are supplied by Bristell UK don’t seem to be supplied by Bristell and need to be modified. When we tried to use them, but in practice they didn’t tighten as they should so they needed to be modified.
• The left hand wing has a supply and return line that according to a technical drawing on the Bristell UK site are supposed to be crossed when connected to the fuselage pipes. Apparently this was changed in 2016 so there is no crossover now. Unfortunately the technical drawing wasn’t withdrawn so I followed it and included the crossover. All the previous fuel flow tests were carried out successfully however it’s now apparent that the fuel was being supplied from the top pipeline as the tanks were full after completing the fuel level calibrations. Earlier, when I drained the tank and added 15 litres per side for the first flight it uncovered the problem. This resulted in the engine stopping due to fuel starvation during the warm up. There was much scratching of heads as according to the diagram the pipes were connected properly. We ran a test on the right tank and the engine ran with no sign of fuel starvation. I took a punt and uncrossed the lines and repeated the test with a long taxi run and full power tests. After 10 minutes of testing it was quite obvious that the problem had been fixed so the first flight took place.
• The canopy unlatched on its own. It seems that in the absence of any instructions for fitting and adjusting I had taken out all the slack in the mechanism. Whilst it meant that the canopy unlatched easily when the button was pressed it also meant that if there was any twist in the fuselage it would activate the mechanism and unlatch the canopy – a bit like a ‘hair trigger’.

I think the items above demonstrate the downside of the Bristell. Whilst the aircraft is first class the lack of a comprehensive manual that covers details like those above means that you’re always filling in the gaps. Of course you are building an aircraft so you need to be able to work things out but when there are critical items that need to be done exactly as designed by the manufacturer then they should be documented in detail. I expected an inventory and build manual when I took delivery but never received either.

After resolving the issues that we found Rob carried out 2 flights during the day. The videos below are the takeoff and landing of the last flight of the day.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au02Zz1cs6-RgbccF7-ZF7eT6XPyLw

And landing

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Au02Zz1cs6-Rgbcu1aoFqIiNHEcyTg

The day ended well and Rob and I retired for a steak and a beer to discuss the day and work out roughly what the second day of testing would consist of and I am looking forward to my first flight in G-MLSY as observer.