Thanks
Thanks for everyones' response. After we leaned it 3-4 times on the ground we got it to about a 130-140 drop; and after landing and taking off 4 hours later it was a 130 drop from the start. My instructor and A&P want to check the timing on it, but I don't think that's a problem as mentioned by some folks. BTW, below is a response from another pilot of an RV-9A I received via email. Thanks again.
Blue skies, Tim
"So you should go out to this link (it's the online manual for your EI):
http://lightspeedengineering.com/Manuals/CdiManual_PlasmaII_II+_III.htm
and do some reading.
If you search on your browser in the link above for "mag drop" you will
see well into the document under run up that the expected mag drop running
on the mag alone is "A large RPM drop will be noticed when the electronic
ignition is turned off."
I called Klaus Savier (the owner of the company) and he said that drops as
large as 200 rpm could be seen.
Since this is not a production aircraft, the specs are not as ridgid as
you would see on, say, a cessna. If your concerned about this, please
give Klaus a call, he can field your questions better than I can.
At the end of the day, you just need to make sure that when it's on mag
alone that it's running smoothly. If it's popping and missing, you
probably need to get the mag overhauled or timed. Once you give it a
chance to warm up (again running on mag alone) you can just retard the
throttle back to idol and get a pretty good impression of the state of the
mag. Remember that the more you run the mag, the better it will perform."