KirkGrovesRV8
Well Known Member
Hi Guys and Gals,
I just wanted to post a little note here about my weekend, I flew the airlines down to Dallas on Friday for weekend of top notch training from Alex DeDominicis.
Alex had to work Saturday morning, so a friend of mine who came down with me also to fly with Alex headed for K52F to see if we could spot any celebrities, and long behold we see none other than Danny King and Beautiful Doll(What a amazing airplane), Danny was very gracious and spent some time talking with us. We also got to see the famous "Flash" looks as good in person as on the net. Also ran into some really nice folks walking around the airport, and had a real nice breakfast at the on field restaurant. Overall a really neat airport, the only bummer was not getting to see Grady at GLO Custom, since he will be painting my 8.
But the whole reason for the trip was to become better prepared for my first flight, so Saturday 6:30pm rolls around and off to Alex's we go... Alex is there and ready for us when we get there, so we mount up and light the fire up front and off we go. Let me start off by saying IMHO Alex is a excellent pilot who really cares that you understand and can fly your RV safely for that first flight. So after only a few screams
from the other seat we head back to the ranch. And after we put the 6 away I said to Alex(ok I might have begged) could we take the 10 up? Alex pulled her out and put my 200+lb butt in the left seat my buddy in the back and he climbs in the right seat, so let me take a guess and say with full fuel we had around 600 to 650lbs of bubba in the plane( no offense to anyone I just want to convey the situation). So we fired her up and Alex did something I will Never Ever forget...........He turned the AC on!!!! , it was 95deg out and we were cool as cucumbers!!! it was like being in your car with the air on.
So we taxi out and do our run up and take the active, about this time a voice from the back says...eh...Alex are we OK with weight??? And we get a reassuring "Yep" from the right seat and Alex takes the 10 off with all of us and full fuel with the AC on!! And the 10 is still off in about 1000-1200' simply amazing. We go up and take her(the 10) for a little work out, some stalls(which are a none event) the 10 is not as quick as the 6 but from a low time pilots point of view it is a mini van with a huge V12 in it. The citabria I have been flying is like driving your uncles tractor in 2' of mud compared to the 10. We cruised over to Mid-Way to do a landing or two, the 10 is a very stable wonderful airplane, and it shows this well in the pattern. The visibility is great especially when compared to the 6, now I know one is a taildragger, but still it beats the heck out of a PA-28 or a C-172. The 10 even made my landings look like I almost knew what I was doing.
So as the sun finally started to set we headed back to the home place, and after 1.1hrs more Sunday morning Alex proclaimed "Your Done" So sorry for all this long winded post but I wanted to just publicly say what a great teacher Alex is and I can say with out a doubt that before this weekend I was 65% confident in my ability to make a safe first flight and now I honestly feel 100% confident in it. Also I wanted to thank Danny King for his time on a hot.. hot.. Saturday to stand around and talk to me and my buddy about RVs and how to fly them.
What a great group......
So I highly recommend Alex and urge anyone with even a little doubt about flying their airplane, spend a little time and money and burn some avgas with Alex or anyone you can find who will allow you to get some stick time(if you read this Thanks Big time Mudfoot, you helped big time)
Sorry for the long post.. you won't have to worry about me posting again for a while I used all my computer time for a while
Kirk........ first flight in sight
I just wanted to post a little note here about my weekend, I flew the airlines down to Dallas on Friday for weekend of top notch training from Alex DeDominicis.
Alex had to work Saturday morning, so a friend of mine who came down with me also to fly with Alex headed for K52F to see if we could spot any celebrities, and long behold we see none other than Danny King and Beautiful Doll(What a amazing airplane), Danny was very gracious and spent some time talking with us. We also got to see the famous "Flash" looks as good in person as on the net. Also ran into some really nice folks walking around the airport, and had a real nice breakfast at the on field restaurant. Overall a really neat airport, the only bummer was not getting to see Grady at GLO Custom, since he will be painting my 8.
But the whole reason for the trip was to become better prepared for my first flight, so Saturday 6:30pm rolls around and off to Alex's we go... Alex is there and ready for us when we get there, so we mount up and light the fire up front and off we go. Let me start off by saying IMHO Alex is a excellent pilot who really cares that you understand and can fly your RV safely for that first flight. So after only a few screams
from the other seat we head back to the ranch. And after we put the 6 away I said to Alex(ok I might have begged) could we take the 10 up? Alex pulled her out and put my 200+lb butt in the left seat my buddy in the back and he climbs in the right seat, so let me take a guess and say with full fuel we had around 600 to 650lbs of bubba in the plane( no offense to anyone I just want to convey the situation). So we fired her up and Alex did something I will Never Ever forget...........He turned the AC on!!!! , it was 95deg out and we were cool as cucumbers!!! it was like being in your car with the air on.So we taxi out and do our run up and take the active, about this time a voice from the back says...eh...Alex are we OK with weight??? And we get a reassuring "Yep" from the right seat and Alex takes the 10 off with all of us and full fuel with the AC on!! And the 10 is still off in about 1000-1200' simply amazing. We go up and take her(the 10) for a little work out, some stalls(which are a none event) the 10 is not as quick as the 6 but from a low time pilots point of view it is a mini van with a huge V12 in it. The citabria I have been flying is like driving your uncles tractor in 2' of mud compared to the 10. We cruised over to Mid-Way to do a landing or two, the 10 is a very stable wonderful airplane, and it shows this well in the pattern. The visibility is great especially when compared to the 6, now I know one is a taildragger, but still it beats the heck out of a PA-28 or a C-172. The 10 even made my landings look like I almost knew what I was doing.
So as the sun finally started to set we headed back to the home place, and after 1.1hrs more Sunday morning Alex proclaimed "Your Done" So sorry for all this long winded post but I wanted to just publicly say what a great teacher Alex is and I can say with out a doubt that before this weekend I was 65% confident in my ability to make a safe first flight and now I honestly feel 100% confident in it. Also I wanted to thank Danny King for his time on a hot.. hot.. Saturday to stand around and talk to me and my buddy about RVs and how to fly them.
What a great group......
So I highly recommend Alex and urge anyone with even a little doubt about flying their airplane, spend a little time and money and burn some avgas with Alex or anyone you can find who will allow you to get some stick time(if you read this Thanks Big time Mudfoot, you helped big time)
Sorry for the long post.. you won't have to worry about me posting again for a while I used all my computer time for a while
Kirk........ first flight in sight
