Jimmy Miller’s Panther Sport is the 14th Panther to take it’s first flights. Congrats, Jimmy! What a great looking airplane. Jimmy lives in Wilmington, NC and his Panther is powered by a Lycoming O-320 and a 3 blade Catto propeller.
Here is a note and photo from Jimmy:
“Hello all, as I set on my couch unable to fly the Panther 1 because of weather and 2 because I have the carb off to rejet and replace the seal on the spray pump shaft I would like to give my impression on how the Panther flies. After getting it signed off on 8/15 I spent the afternoon going back over it one last time and putting it back together. The next morning the weather was perfect so I pushed her out warmed it up taxied to the end of the runway, did a good run up and took off.
This is my fourth first flight on airplanes that I have built and like the rest I had gone over what I would do if I had a problem at different stages of the flight.
As I started the take off roll the tail came up very quickly with just a touch of forward stick and it tracked down the run way great with just a little right rudder. I can’t tell you it what speed the lift off came as I let the airplane tell me when it’s ready to fly. I climbed to 1500′ and stopped as we under ILM’s control above 1700. Let me say that I had a smile on my face as the Panther was so good and the controls are so light. First impressions on the control reminds me of the RV 7 in roll and the extra 200 in pitch, love it. After 30 minutes I landed to check everything out and found all good so I buttoned it up and flew over to SUT for lunch with friends and show off the Panther.
I did three 30 min, flights the first day and each one was better then the last. On the last 30 min, flight I had to see how it rolled and looped I was not disappointed. I started a left roll at 140 kt, indicated by picking the nose up about 10 degrees and stick all the way to the left , it needed no rudder input until the last 90 degrees of the roll, put in left rudder and stopped with the nose on point. After a few more rolls it was time for a loop,I pulled a little hard as it is very lite in pitch but was no problem to correct on the up line. It flew across the top beautifully. Sorry this post is so long but I wanted to say how happy and impressed I’m with this airplane. Thanks to Rachel and Dan for a great kit and a great flying airplane.”
- Jimmy Miller
You can see more information about his first flights here: Jimmy Miller Write Up on Panther Forum
You can see all 14 (to date) completed Panthers HERE.
