This morning Nora and I loaded up her trucklet aka CR-V with airplane tools, wheel pants, gear leg fairings, and Torque the wonder dog and headed out to the airport.
The day was spent putting a wrench on bolts all over the engine and accessories just to make sure everything was tight, which they were. The prop was pulled, inspected, and reinstalled. Gear leg fairings, upper intersection fairings, and wheel pants were put on and with all the little chores done it was time to go for a "test flight".
Nora couldn't go because she was starting to come down with "the crud" so I had to go it alone, I couldn't even take Torque, although
he does enjoy flying. (Don't flame me, this picture was taken on his first and only flight, the Mutt Muffs are on order.)
So, with everything buttoned up, off I went. With just an hour and a half before sunset and cheep gas ($3.85/Gal) just 20 minutes away off I went. OATs were around 65 and the -9 jumped off the runway and climbed like crazy all the way up to 2,500'. The air was smooth as could be and the visibility was 30+ miles. With the sun heading towards the horizon off my left wing, all was right with the world.
A quick frequency change found that there was only one airplane in the pattern at my destination and he was on a downwind departure, not a factor.
The air was so smooth I trimmed the -9 for 65 MPH abeam the numbers after putting in all the flaps and left it there until touch down. One of these days I'm going to learn it is ok not to touchdown at the threshold of 5,000 foot runway when the fuel tanks are at the other end. It sure makes for a long taxi.
A quick 18.1 gallons in the tanks along with a fuel sump check and I was ready to fly back home.
The liftoff was uneventful and all I could think about was how much right rudder was needed for this little O-290 to keep One Whiskey Romeo on the centerline.
Before I knew it, I was back at my cruising altitude of 2,500 heading home.
Again, not even a bump in the sky, clear weather, and even the UNICOM frequency was quiet.
Descend down to 1500' pattern altitude, make a radio call, slow down to 90, dump all the flaps in, and trim for 65 again, make another radio call, take another look, no one out there anywhere, clear smooth skies. Bummer Nora is down there waiting for me, she should be up here enjoying this wonderful flight! Heck, the rest of the world should be up here enjoying this perfect flying weather!
An acceptable three point landing on the first 200' of runway, pin the tail down, keep it straight. Man, this -9 is really spoiling me, so easy to land.
We roll all the way to the other end of the 2300' runway where my hangar is w/o touching the breaks, spin it around, drop the tail off the runway and shut it down.
What a great world we live in that allows some guy like me to build and enjoy such a great toy as this RV!
One of those days
You must know that there are some of us that ARE NOT flying yet and there you go braggin' and all about all that wonderful RV flyin' you're doin'. 
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