Hi all.
Yup, I'm home and safe, but flew back by Pitts not VP-1.
Unfortunately on the first take off in the Veep, at about 400' the power dropped suddenly, picked up again and then dropped right down. So sadly I had to put the aircraft down in a field which resulted in a smashed prop, bent u/c legs and a smashed wingtip - the field was a very soft, muddy winter-wheat field.
So quite an interesting (read terrifying) first flight. All in all I'm glad I got down in one piece - the aeroplane can be repaired - for humans it's not quite that easy. Also very proud of myself that in the situation I managed to do what I was trained to do and execute a forced landing - with my very low total time and zilch time in the Veep, as it turned out I don't think it was a bad result considering what happened.
The shock of what actually happened still hasn't totally kicked in - I'm sure it will, and so the next day or so could be interesting.
In time I'll write up more about what happened, but at the moment it's all a bit of a blur.
My infinite thanks to stik for the help before and after the "flight" - from driving to the landing field at warp speed to flying me home in the Pitts later in the day, stik was a mate through and through yesterday - thank you.
tKF