Alexander Cole’s RV-14A | Oviedo, Florida RV-14A #140509

Alexander wrote in to let us know about the first flight of his RV-14A:

N14YZ had her first flight on April 13, 2021 – she flew almost perfectly and I could trim for hands-off flight. Thankfully, the day was uneventful, but likely because of all the preparation and planning that went into it.  First, I’ll have to thank my wife, who has put up with a 2 year and 9 month project and all the time and resources that it took to see this to completion.  She had a hand in thousands of back-riveted rivets, and is a main reason some of the skins look so nice.  A huge thanks goes to Ken B. who has not only been my Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor for my entire build including the first start and the first flight, but he has become a very close friend.  You meet some great people through aviation (especially the Van’s community), and along with Ken, I have to thank my other new friends in the RV-14(A) world:  Glenn M., Mark A., Shane B., and Dan R.  All of us have or are building RV-14s and are at different stages of the journey; we support (and chide) each other on almost a daily basis. Thanks, “Gang of 5,” for all your support!

Vic Syracuse flew down to perform the Airworthiness Condition Inspection; I was very pleased that he agreed, since he literally wrote the book on how to maintain Van’s aircraft and I wanted the best to inspect my airplane. I took 3 days of transition training in the company RV-14A with Mike Seager in Vernonia, OR, and can highly recommend him and the experience – it was essential to making my first flight, and especially the first landing, a non-event.

A few pictures are attached, and a couple thousand others can be found on my detailed builder’s log, including a video of the first flight.