Do you remember your first RV CFI?

[JonJay]

Originally Posted by n5lp

My first RV instructor was a guy named Mike Seager. I flew to Fort Worth, Texas to meet him. We flew for an action packed hour and he covered it all. Probably the best one hour of dual I have ever had.

Same here, and I had about 800 hours tailwheel at that time. I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to learn from the best. And yes, it was the best hour of dual I ever had.

In regard to "transition training", perhaps another thread should be started.
I always have taken advantage of learning from someone when the opportunity was there. A guy with 10000 RV hours can probably teach me a thing or two. Flying the airplane is easy, and sure, I could have just jumped right in. Same with my Bucker, but when the original owner and I took a long cross country sharing flying duties I noticed some subtle things he was doing that I picked up on. I had been flying the Bucker for about a year. I flew it better after our time together.

[Allan Stern]

My first CFI was Pierre who gave me the training for my 6A. Ted was the first guy to fly my 6A after it had received its pink slip and has helped me with my BFR's. I flew my 8A as first pilot.

RV 8A "Little Miss Kitty"
108 hour

[jjconstant]

Reuven Silberman out of Gillespie field in San Diego did mine. It was a great time! I was granted a sabbatical that I intended to use to finish my plane (hope springs eternal, and prematurely) and the sabbatical started immediately after our southern California tour ended in Palm Springs. It would have taken a minimum of 3 hours in a rental car to get from there to where Reuven was and I was emailing him about the plan when he wrote that it was just a hop, skip and jump for him to pick me up in his RV and would could start the training immediately out of Palm Desert and work some of the airports up there and then work our way back down to San Diego.

Reuven was a great instructor, calm but insistent and consistent and we did touch and taxi-backs at a BUNCH of airports. It was great in terms of getting the all the various attitude sight pictures down and making sure taxiing the nose gear was done with care. I was always climbing like mad in turns, due to the fantastic visibility over the nose in the RV and because my muscle memory from spam cans was always turn and pull! He was very experienced, patient and relaxed and gave a great sight-seeing tour of the San Diego area and airspace while teaching it all to me on the way to a different airport practically every 10 minutes. I especially liked one time when travelling south bound he had me looking for a specific airport and I could see two possibilities, relatively close. He said it was the nearer one and that the bigger one a little further would be a problem if we landed there, because it was Mexico

It took me much longer than expected to finish the airplane so I did a brush up with Reuven a year later. Still a great instructor!

[RV Wannabe]

Originally Posted by Jaypratt

No CFI.
I self taught (tail wheel),in the RV6 I built in 1995 / 1996. I had about 3 hours taxi time before first flight. Also only a few landings in a Citabria proir to first flight.
I was profecient in Bonanza, Cheorkee Six, and C 172, at the time I had 1500 TT in my log book with Single & Multi Engine Instrument land plane licence.
Since then I have built and flown a Exp Super Cub and three more tail wheel RVs, All of them were easy to fly. Also owned a C140, a C180J, and a RV4

Based on the date you were probably grandfathered to the tailwheel endorsement that became required after April 15, 1991, or got it in the citabria and didn't mention it. If not, well that's your business.....

I have no intention to get in your business. I just wanted to point out to today's brand new to tailwheel folks reading this that a few landings and self teaching is no longer a viable option. The "conventional" gear is no longer conventional and requires a logbook endorsement as per 61.31.

Self teaching the RV after the endorsement in something else; perfectly legal.

Mark

[GLPalinkas]

Originally Posted by n5lp

My first RV instructor was a guy named Mike Seager. I flew to Fort Worth, Texas to meet him. We flew for an action packed hour and he covered it all. Probably the best one hour of dual I have ever had.

Ditto on Mike Seager. Definitely the best dual I have ever had, and I have lots.

I haven't landed this good since.....

[N546RV]

My first RV CFI was also my first CFI period. Before we went for my discovery flight, he showed me photos of his -7A build, and after the flight, we walked over to his hangar so I could check it out.

My second, or maybe third lesson had to be cancelled because somebody blew a tire on the trainer up in Dahlonega. Scott said, "well, let's take my plane up there and check it out." Thus did I have my first in-flight RV experience.

I'd already been kind of idly looking at kitbuilding as a path to ownership, and flying that -7A cemented it.