robjohnson
Well Known Member
Ok, so I have been too swamped lately to give a summary of my transition training activities, but I found a small window to share the experience with all of you --
I posted about a month ago asking about RV transition training in the Midwest. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options out there. The responses I received were to be prepared to travel to Texas or Oregon for training. I was cool with that until I received a PM on the forum telling me to contact Dave Lammers (a CFII with over 40 years of experience) in Cedar Rapids, IA.
I contacted Dave and we got something set up for last weekend.
We started the training out on the ground. Dave has some really great concepts that help you to become familiar with the responsiveness of these little planes through all flight attitudes and speeds. Another key piece that I really appreciated was flying practice patterns at altitude to get the sight picture correct for landing. We had gone through these several times prior to me flying the pattern the first time, and it ended up being a no brainer.
We hit 10 different airports in 2 days with a total transition training time of 10 hours. On Friday, the weather was junk, and Dave actually filed to get out of KCID and we flew VFR on top until we got better weather. It was a pretty cool experience to fly in some actual IMC and to shoot an ILS at the end of the day. Dave's plane (an RV-6) is nicely equiped for IFR flight and includes a 2-axis autopilot (of course).
The second day showed beautiful weather, and we set out across the IA countryside. We ended up in Lone Rock, WI for lunch and then headed back to Ames, IA. Pretty quick trip for approx. 180 nm.
I feel incredibly comfortable (but vigilant, to quote our President)in the RV now -- 3 pointers and wheel landings were all squeakers. Overall, it was a GREAT experience. Dave is a fantastic guy, and he has a lot of stories from his aerobatic flying days.
The only bad news is that his -6 is for sale, and he has some bites on it. He has a -10 underway, and it sounds like he may be a bit less low-key with -10 training.
I posted about a month ago asking about RV transition training in the Midwest. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of options out there. The responses I received were to be prepared to travel to Texas or Oregon for training. I was cool with that until I received a PM on the forum telling me to contact Dave Lammers (a CFII with over 40 years of experience) in Cedar Rapids, IA.
I contacted Dave and we got something set up for last weekend.
We started the training out on the ground. Dave has some really great concepts that help you to become familiar with the responsiveness of these little planes through all flight attitudes and speeds. Another key piece that I really appreciated was flying practice patterns at altitude to get the sight picture correct for landing. We had gone through these several times prior to me flying the pattern the first time, and it ended up being a no brainer.
We hit 10 different airports in 2 days with a total transition training time of 10 hours. On Friday, the weather was junk, and Dave actually filed to get out of KCID and we flew VFR on top until we got better weather. It was a pretty cool experience to fly in some actual IMC and to shoot an ILS at the end of the day. Dave's plane (an RV-6) is nicely equiped for IFR flight and includes a 2-axis autopilot (of course).
The second day showed beautiful weather, and we set out across the IA countryside. We ended up in Lone Rock, WI for lunch and then headed back to Ames, IA. Pretty quick trip for approx. 180 nm.
I feel incredibly comfortable (but vigilant, to quote our President)in the RV now -- 3 pointers and wheel landings were all squeakers. Overall, it was a GREAT experience. Dave is a fantastic guy, and he has a lot of stories from his aerobatic flying days.
The only bad news is that his -6 is for sale, and he has some bites on it. He has a -10 underway, and it sounds like he may be a bit less low-key with -10 training.
