RV's draw compliments

[Webb]

Have you foks noticed that RV's seem to draw admiration from other pilots?

It never fails that jet pilots on the ramp come over to look and compliment and ask a lot of questions.

I've gotten compliments from ATC like ...."swwwweeeeeeet, nice plane, etc..

I've had a Southwest pilot that was told to look for traffic (my RV7) at 15,000 say "cool".

ATC asked if I built it and then said he was getting ready to put his wings on.

I once was told that a RV was the only experimental that the guy would fly in.

[Tbone]

I too have heard many compliments on the RV's. The only downside to others is that all I hear when we go to OSH or other fly-ins is "Look at all the RV's. I didn't know this was a RV fly-in. Dern cookie cutter airplanes!" I do get tired of that, but I do "remind" him that if he wasn't flying his glass a/c his choice would be flying a RV. He wouldn't deny that.

[Garage Guy]

Some in the last couple of weeks...

1. I fly in to Flabob for lunch at the Silver Wings Cafe. First table just inside the door, a quite elderly woman starting in on her blueberry waffles says: "Was that you in that little blue and white airplane? What a pretty airplane!" A good way to start a conversation! She flew out of Flabob for years with her husband before he died... She knows a pretty plane when she sees one.

2. I'm getting flight following from LA Center. The controller says to me "RV 6 Delta Papa, I'm going to hand you off to approach in a minute, but first I have a few questions." I say, "Go ahead." There follows: "Did you build it?" "Carbureted or injected?" "Constant speed or fixed pitch?" "And finally, before I let you go: Tip-up or slider?" I could hardly believe it, the sector is busy, he's handling a fair bit of traffic, but he took the time to ask about my RV. Then he really did have to hand me off, before I could ask him about what he's building .

3. I've been parked at the Nanaimo BC airport (CYCD) for 5 days, time to depart. I go into the terminal, and ask the first official-looking person I see, "I need to get to my private plane for departure this morning, how can I do that?" She very nicely says, "I can escort you to your aircraft." Then she kind of does a double take and says, "Are you the one with that little blue and white plane with the top that kind of flips up? I noticed that one when it came in." That was 5 days before, mind you.

Etc., etc. It is one of the things that definitely adds to the fun of flying an RV.

--Paul