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| First Flight - on the roll |
Cozy Photo Page
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| First Flight - on the roll |
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| First Landing | Marc, Nadine, and Larry Lombard (The Test Pilot) |
| On Saturday, September 18, at about 11:10 am, Cozy Mark IV serial
number 425, registration N20MN, took to the air for its maiden flight.
The pilot was our very good friend Larry Lombard of FeatherLite fame.
The first flight was only about 30 minutes, but to us it felt like a couple
of hours. Construction took 4 years and 5 months from start
to the first flight. The FAA gave us a 40 hour test flight time with
a 65 mile radius from our home airport (Gnoss field).
The flight - Larry initially did three fast taxi's down the runway, then told us that the next one was going up. There is no describing the feeling of seeing something that has been your main focus for so long finally become a reality. Lift off was at about 1000 feet. Larry climbed to pattern altitude and circled the airport and then went higher to feel the plane out. Avemco - Even with over 700 hours flying experience, Avemco would not insure us for the first 10 hours of flight if Marc flew it unless he had at least 10 hours of time in type. Special thanks to Larry for helping us out with the first flight and
his continued help with the initial flight testing, to his wife Janet for
enduring the whole event, and to all the other Cozy pilots who sent out
first flight emails. There were times when we thought the project
would never end and support from our friends and those emails kept us going.
We had a lot of help
Thanks to Nat for designing a wonderful airplane. Now the new adventure begins! Marc and Nadine Parmelee |