I wanted to let the chapter know that Kitfox IV-1200 Speedster N728KF achieved first flight on Tuesday, May 4th .

The flight lasted about 20 minutes and was followed by a pretty darned good landing, if I do say so myself. My small ground crew drew the attention of the local airport bums and soon there was quite a group on hand. As I taxied off the runway, the ground controller congratulated me on a successful first flight and asked if the crowd belonged to me. I thought for sure that someone had called the tower and told them this was its first flight, but I guess having watched me taxi around the ramp each evening for a week clued them in.

N728KF is powered by a 100 HP Rotax 912 ULS engine turning a 3-bladed Ivo medium prop. Empty weight is 660 lbs against a maximum gross weight of 1232 lbs and the empty CG is 11.57 inches. As of this writing, it has flown a total of 3.5 hours and there are 6 hours on the engine. On Saturday I explored the flight envelope out to 115 KIAS/132 MPH but was reluctant to open it up all the way due to the bumpy summer air that Phoenix is already experiencing. Based on its performance so far, it looks like it will be able to exceed Vne in level flight (122 KIAS/140 MPH). More testing on the slow end is needed but for now it touches down very nicely around 40 KIAS/46 MPH with full flaps. As those of you who have finished an airplane know, they are never really finished. Still to come are wheel pants, prop spinner, radiator scoop, the side panels under the horizontal stabilizer, and a glareshield cover.