Viking Aircraft Engines October 22, 2018

AV84ALL First Flight and the Journey to North Carolina in the Zenith 750 Superduty

Viking Aircraft Engines found out about the generous donation of a Zenith CruZer airframe kit to help John Robinson of AV84ALL realize his dream of flight for those that would need special flight controls to do so.

Shortly after, it was decided that Viking would help the project by donating a Viking 130 engine together with a complete firewall forward package. The package was sent to NC and the predominant builders of the project, Tom Neal and Lewis Brown did a fantastic installation of it. Tom, Lewis and John completed the build but also had others help earlier on.

After the 5 hr flight and a great sleepover and breakfast at Tom and Jo's house, the big moment was finally here. The first cold morning of the year, Jan and Tom flew the SD to Rowen County airport in Salisbury from Tom's beautiful fly-in community house where he houses his Viking CH-650 powered aircraft. Alissa and Jo drove by car.

John Robinson also greeted the Viking team and showed his sincere gratitude, stating the aircraft would never be possible if it was not for the help of everyone involved.  It is important to realize the enormous undertaking this project was. Not only did they build the aircraft, they also had to design special flight controls, install these controls and rework them until they found something practical and usable.

The time finally arrived for the first flight. John at AV84ALL asked Viking designer, Jan Eggenfellner and Zenith demo pilot Roger Dubbert if either would be willing to do the first flight. Being that Roger had other commitments, Jan and Alissa from Viking flew the Viking 180hp Zenith SD from Florida to NC to do the honors.

Upon arrival, Lewis Brown was one of the first to also arrive, but this time by car. Lewis would normally fly his Viking 130 powered Rans S-20 but his private field did not allow for the strong x-wind departure this morning.

An inspection of the beautifully built aircraft took place next, followed by Jan completing an engine run-up and taxi to the main runway. The first flight went without a glitch and only a few items will need slight corrections before the airplane will continue to be a huge success, allowing John and others, needing customized controls, to fly.

On the way up to North Carolina, we made a stop to stretch our legs and were greeted by a pair of pups and some really wonderful people on the Jekyll Island Airport and we said if we had time on the way back we would be sure to stop in, and we did exactly that. We took a buggy around the island for a short bit to enjoy lunch at a little Irish Pub on the Island, we can't wait to go back and if you get an opportunity to stop at their local private airport (09J) we definitely encourage it. It was a very successful and great trip.

A huge congratulations to all from AV84ALL from Jan and Alissa here at Viking Aircraft Engines. We are excited to see your continued success.

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