First flight of my experimental was Sept 19th and I finished my 40 hour fly off yesterday! Now I can leave my restricted area and legally carry passengers. The DAR gave me a pretty large area for the testing but I was getting pretty bored with the same 5 airports. Now the gateway to really explore is open! I'm pretty excited about logging 40 hours in 4 months especially through the winter months. As a renter I dont' think I logged 40 hours in the past 3 years Glad that stage of my flying is over!

Congratulations!!!

We'll see you at the BCP Fly In this summer??

A guy in a Rans and I are going to try to make the trip.

Great going finishing your fly off hours!

Excellent! I had to fly off most of my hours last winter and into the thaw too. Good thing it was last winter and not this one. Pushing the snow to keep a spot open this winter has been impossible. The township sent the first snow plow down our road yesterday. Most of us just open everything here ourselves with farm loaders and put that off too until it becomes impassable. I heard the mailman finally got stuck (4X4 pickup) and complained so they sent the plow through. It will block deeper from now on with the deep ridge he left both sides of the 15' wide road.
I'm looking forward to my first trip too, something with less urgency than meeting the parts man at an abandoned airport with some part I need to keep the combine going. My goal will be Caveman Ranch in April before corn planting. I'm still working on the insurance requirement. Don't have any yet. Congratulations.

Wow, That brings back some good/bad memories! I flew the 40 hours, and did all the flight testing for my exp in 26 days. I was determined to get to OshKosh, and recieved airworthiness in late June. I had previously logged 71 hours in my highest YEAR. That was very draining. My family was very supportive though, and it was well worth it. (we made OshKosh, b'gosh!) I am JEALOUS of your plan to get to the BCP fly in. Life keeps limiting my distance travel, but I will get to the mountains someday. I'll have to keep things simple, but get there I will.
Congratulations on winning your freedom!

KB

Congrats Joey. Let me know when your headed my way. Let's plan a fun day trip HERE

Congratulations on the milestone. My DAR gave me a 20 mile leash and no leaving the state of Wyoming.....

So that made my 40 hours all to and from the Jackson Hole airport.. Boy, do I know this valley real well now.

Ben

How big was your area? I am getting close to finishing my RV-8 and was talking to my DAR the other day. He mentioned a 25nm distance, I was hoping for a little more than that. I shouold have the area pretty well scouted out by the time I get my 40 off

Wow, 25 nm for Portland, ND. I know that this varies from FDO to FDO but Portland, ND can't be any more populated than my area at Conde, SD and an RV-8 is covering more ground faster than my Tundra. I had to pay a DAR from the Iowa district to drive up to do my inspection because Rapid City District Office could not fit me in for months. He said in his 30 years in Iowa he never wrote off an experimental for more than 50 miles or crossing a state line for that FDO but after talking with mine at Rapid City, they ok'd 75 miles for me. He said they considered the speed and construction of the aircraft and the sparsity of population. It gave me three airports with services.

Congrats! You need to start your own photo gallery on here so we can see pictures of your plane out and about!

Ya, I thought the 25 was a little small also. I have a friend who finished his RV3 about 3 or 4 years ago, and he got 50 miles. I will ask him about it again when I see him next. I know the Fargo FSDO is pretty sticky to deal with, and he said they watch him pretty close. At 200 mph cruise, I should be able to go 15 minutes in a strait line

Oh well, It will be fun to fly it either way

I was actually really lucky. Mine was a skinny rectangle. It was only about 30NM wide but it extended from Lodi, CA all the way to Red Bluff. Never plotted it but probably about 130NM North South. It had about 12 airports in it. He basically gave me a copy of a sectional with big red lines as the boundries. I was rather surprised. I'm only cruising at 85 so it was a pretty huge area. With the new baby I flew off that 40 pretty much an hour at a time though. I just didn't have the time to take off all day and go fly. One Sunday I logged 3.0 on the hobbs flying up to Nancy's in Willows and back, but the majority of all the other flights were an hour or less quickees after work.