Bryan Wood
Well Known Member
These kinds of stories made my day while working in the garage to finish my airplane so here goes. The word is starting to get out a little now on just how good the 9A is, but when I started mine there was the feeling out there that it was just simply a trainer. Maybe it was because of the way that Van equipted the first one with the 118hp Lycoming, but even then it was far from a trainer. In fact Mooney built airplanes for 20 years before thay came up with something that would outrun a 9A in that configuration. But the stigma was firmly in place and I felt the need to explain to other RVer's that I wasn't building a lessor airplane. I've had the opportunity to fly with several "Spam Cans" in the last year and I am always happy with how it stacks up with this crowd and they are always surprised at the 9A's performance.
The latest was yesterday when my wife and I flew 79nm for lunch besides some friends in the 1978 Turbo Lance that they have had for about 2 months. We have made one other trip with them so I knew that the 9A had a couple of advantages over the Lance for this kind of a trip. On the last trip I went up to take photos of his airplane, but it took a long time to catch him because he held the power in so much. It turns out that he was running 27" and 2400rpm on his 300hp beast because he didn't want to feel like I could outrun it. So here we are, I'm ringing my little 0-320's neck wondering if I'll be able to catch up and take his picture and he is at 27/24 trying to make it hard if not impossable for me. Anyway, I'm sure you all know the story, the ego thing playing into the whole thing. He won't back it off, and I would'nt admit that I needed him to. So about 90 miles or so later I caught him and took some pictures.
Anyway, yesterday he rolled up the the hold line and was cleared for the right runway. I called and was told to cross to the left and cleared. By the time I was on my roll I could see him in the air and wheels up. He was gone and the 9A was going to have to work for this. A common departure for our home field takes you through a low pass at about 2500' that is about 8 miles or so from the departure end of the runway and he was heading for that. Before we got to the pass we were behind about a 1/2 mile but looking way down at him. I continued up to 5500' and leveled off. He was still climbing and I set power and mixture for a nice easy cruise to our lunch destination. (23sq.) Right away I could hardly turn my head enough to see him at my 7 o'clock and down when the thought hit me. You would have to understand the competitive nature of our friendship to understand something this messed up, but it hit me like it was sent from the heavens, or worse, someplace else.
Anyway, I did a big loopy 360 degree turn to the right with that smile mostly seen on bratty little kids. As I rolled out back on the original heading the Lance was level and about a mile in front of me. We now had about 50 miles to try and real him in. On his Garmin 430, or on his MX20, which ever one was selected he saw the whole 360 unfolding with the traffic avoidance he had installed before taking delivery of the Lance. He asked over the radio if we were doing a 360 and I told him yes. Anyway, the race was on. There was no way he was going to let us land first if there was any chance of doing otherwise, especially after this obnoxious 360 to let him lead. His 22gph burn at these power settings and my 7.8gph. I kept asking what his groundspeed was and comparing it to ours. We had him by several knots, but we weren't closing on him. Was he lying to me about his speed? Why that's just plain wrong to lie about these things. Anyway, when it was time to decend we were just starting to overtake him and it was time for him to really slow the big Lance down. We now had enough of a lead that he just fell in behind and followed us to the airport. On the ramp I was sporting the big RV grin all over again. Nothing was said about this over lunch or the rest of the day. He knew!
So, keep building on those trainers! Your going to love them.
Bryan Wood
The latest was yesterday when my wife and I flew 79nm for lunch besides some friends in the 1978 Turbo Lance that they have had for about 2 months. We have made one other trip with them so I knew that the 9A had a couple of advantages over the Lance for this kind of a trip. On the last trip I went up to take photos of his airplane, but it took a long time to catch him because he held the power in so much. It turns out that he was running 27" and 2400rpm on his 300hp beast because he didn't want to feel like I could outrun it. So here we are, I'm ringing my little 0-320's neck wondering if I'll be able to catch up and take his picture and he is at 27/24 trying to make it hard if not impossable for me. Anyway, I'm sure you all know the story, the ego thing playing into the whole thing. He won't back it off, and I would'nt admit that I needed him to. So about 90 miles or so later I caught him and took some pictures.
Anyway, yesterday he rolled up the the hold line and was cleared for the right runway. I called and was told to cross to the left and cleared. By the time I was on my roll I could see him in the air and wheels up. He was gone and the 9A was going to have to work for this. A common departure for our home field takes you through a low pass at about 2500' that is about 8 miles or so from the departure end of the runway and he was heading for that. Before we got to the pass we were behind about a 1/2 mile but looking way down at him. I continued up to 5500' and leveled off. He was still climbing and I set power and mixture for a nice easy cruise to our lunch destination. (23sq.) Right away I could hardly turn my head enough to see him at my 7 o'clock and down when the thought hit me. You would have to understand the competitive nature of our friendship to understand something this messed up, but it hit me like it was sent from the heavens, or worse, someplace else.
Anyway, I did a big loopy 360 degree turn to the right with that smile mostly seen on bratty little kids. As I rolled out back on the original heading the Lance was level and about a mile in front of me. We now had about 50 miles to try and real him in. On his Garmin 430, or on his MX20, which ever one was selected he saw the whole 360 unfolding with the traffic avoidance he had installed before taking delivery of the Lance. He asked over the radio if we were doing a 360 and I told him yes. Anyway, the race was on. There was no way he was going to let us land first if there was any chance of doing otherwise, especially after this obnoxious 360 to let him lead. His 22gph burn at these power settings and my 7.8gph. I kept asking what his groundspeed was and comparing it to ours. We had him by several knots, but we weren't closing on him. Was he lying to me about his speed? Why that's just plain wrong to lie about these things. Anyway, when it was time to decend we were just starting to overtake him and it was time for him to really slow the big Lance down. We now had enough of a lead that he just fell in behind and followed us to the airport. On the ramp I was sporting the big RV grin all over again. Nothing was said about this over lunch or the rest of the day. He knew!
So, keep building on those trainers! Your going to love them.
Bryan Wood
