Wednesday, January 24th, 2017 at high noon, N25SR, a Murphy Super Rebel SR2500, took to the skies for approximately 45 minutes. I bought the kit in 1995, took delivery in 2000 due to overseas USAF moves, finally retired and began construction in 2011.
I finished a Cygnet, built a hangar, designed, built and began marketing the Pedal RV, restored another Cygnet, and then, after 7 years and 4000 hours, it all came together. Empty weight is 1650 lb, max gross weight is 3000 lb. It carries 80 gallons of fuel in a wet wing, and is powered by a Lycoming O-540 (250-hp version) with a two-blade Hartzell constant speed prop. The avionics are second-generation King and the EMS is a VM1000C. The panel is traditional round dial with all electric instruments.
The flight was relatively uneventful with only a few minor discrepancies. Notably, the airplane was really fast and I wasn’t able to get it up to the 75% power range for adequate engine break in procedures. It broke ground within the first 600 feet and was almost immediately into the yellow range of airspeed. We had cloud cover at 2500 ft limiting my ability to climb. Consequently, it wanted to go too fast and I had to throttle back more than I wanted for the chrome cylinders. I’ll wait for clear skies on future flights. No adverse handling characteristics and I’ll pat myself on the back–awesome landing. It’s going to be a real performer.
Thanks to all the support from my friends at EAA Chapter 1387 in Troy, Missouri, the Murphy Aircraft Builders site, and the Vans Aircraft Forum site.
Now THAT’s an AIRPLANE! Just needs to get rid of the aircraft engine.
Could you tell me the difference between a super rebel and a moose