What a GREAT plane!
Radomir, thanks for posting those pictures and thanks to the rest of you for the congratulations.
To keep from repeating myself,
check out the bottom of this page for pictures and some videos. (Caution, the videos are LARGE.)
It is hard to describe the first flight. Let me start by saying that since it is my plane, it is the BEST flying RV in the UNIVERSE!
I have had the opportunity to fly an RV-4 (Thanks Claudio T. and his Purple Passion), and RV-6, RV-6A, RV-7A, RV-8, and now the RV-9. Each RV is a good plane in its own right but when pressed to describe how the -9 flies, I'm at loss.
It is responsive w/o being quick, yet it is very stable.
The climb surprised me. In preparation for this first flight I had been flying with a friend in his 180 hp w/ CS prop RV-6. With 1/2 fuel, only myself on board, and an OAT around 80, I was off in what I can only guess was less than 300 feet. (Is that even possible?) The -9 just wants to climb and climb and climb.
My power off, flaps down stall occurred somewhere just north of 40 MPH. I couldn't believe it was that slow.
I flew final at 65 MPH and could probably have slowed it down to 60. (I'll try that later in the test program.)
N941WR flies straight and level, hands (and feet) off. No heavy wing, no turning, just straight ahead.
As for the tail dragger thing, I have never flown such an easy tail wheel airplane in my life! Landings and takeoffs where a non-event, it made me wonder what I was so concerned about. Still, since I had not flown a tail dragger in a year and a half, it was good to get the four hours in that RV-6.
Least you think all was perfect, I did have an issue with one of my P-mags. I will post the results of my findings on that forum page.
Other than that issue, it was a great day and I look forward to flying off the test time!
