N941WR
Legacy Member
Attending our small church is a large number of pilots, I’m not exactly sure why, but I seem to be the only private pilot and the rest fly corporate jets, airliners, or air ambulance. During the build and subsequent engine replacement on my -9, each week they would ask for a status update or want to know where we had taken the plane. After many years of promising them all rides, I was finally able to get one of them up on Saturday afternoon.
Tony picked me up at my house and during the drive to the airport we talked about the aircraft he flew, the ups and downs of his career, and the challenges of flying the Citation (Here is Tony in the right seat of the Citation).
When we got to the airport another corporate pilot friend of Tony’s met us at the hangar. Going over the plane they were both surprised that the RV had an ADHARS unit and when I turned on the panel, they looked at the Dynon’s and said in unison, “It has tapes, we can fly tapes!”
After we climbed out Tony took the controls and flew us 20 minutes to a nice private grass strip just north of Charlotte where we did a low pass to make sure there were no deer on the runway. As we climbed back to pattern altitude Tony looked over at me and said, “Are you sure it is OK for us to land there? Some guys came out waving their arms at us.”
As we rolled out Tony commented on a really nice cabin WACO sitting in a hangar. Parking next to the WACO’s open hangar, he again asked if it was OK that we landed there as the guys who were waving at us walked up to the plane to greet us as did a couple on a golf cart and a few other airpark residents.
After deplaning and introducing Tony, we spent a few hours talking planes, hangars; the usual aircraft stuff. Oh, and Tony got a tour of the WACO and was all smiles when he emerged.
Tony did the flying on the short trip back to our home airport, after I did the takeoff. Once down at pattern altitude, Tony was struggling slowing the RV down to flap speed, so I took over, got the speed down, deployed the flaps and trimmed for 65 MPH. It was then that I realized he was really unnerved by the slow speeds.
Somehow I managed to pull off a perfect wheel landing and shortly we had the plane tucked in the hangar.
On the drive home, Tony reviled that the flight was full of firsts for him. It was the first time he had been in a single engine or reciprocating aircraft in over 15 years. The first time in an Experimental. The first time in a taildragger. The first time flying with a stick. (He kept commenting how natural it felt and how nice the RV flew.) The first time landing and taking off from grass. And finally, the first time he had ever flown for pleasure.
What? I had to ask him to repeat that last one.
It turns out all he has ever wanted to be was a pilot so after high school he started flight training, then hauling checks and car parts, working his way up to his first corporate flight department. Apparently there was never time or money available to rent a plane and just go out for a $100 hamburger.
He was really impressed by the RV but more so by the people he met as a result of the RV. After all, aren’t the people we meet the real the reason we fly?
Needless to say, he is looking forward to his next ride.
Tony picked me up at my house and during the drive to the airport we talked about the aircraft he flew, the ups and downs of his career, and the challenges of flying the Citation (Here is Tony in the right seat of the Citation).
When we got to the airport another corporate pilot friend of Tony’s met us at the hangar. Going over the plane they were both surprised that the RV had an ADHARS unit and when I turned on the panel, they looked at the Dynon’s and said in unison, “It has tapes, we can fly tapes!”
After we climbed out Tony took the controls and flew us 20 minutes to a nice private grass strip just north of Charlotte where we did a low pass to make sure there were no deer on the runway. As we climbed back to pattern altitude Tony looked over at me and said, “Are you sure it is OK for us to land there? Some guys came out waving their arms at us.”
As we rolled out Tony commented on a really nice cabin WACO sitting in a hangar. Parking next to the WACO’s open hangar, he again asked if it was OK that we landed there as the guys who were waving at us walked up to the plane to greet us as did a couple on a golf cart and a few other airpark residents.
After deplaning and introducing Tony, we spent a few hours talking planes, hangars; the usual aircraft stuff. Oh, and Tony got a tour of the WACO and was all smiles when he emerged.
Tony did the flying on the short trip back to our home airport, after I did the takeoff. Once down at pattern altitude, Tony was struggling slowing the RV down to flap speed, so I took over, got the speed down, deployed the flaps and trimmed for 65 MPH. It was then that I realized he was really unnerved by the slow speeds.
Somehow I managed to pull off a perfect wheel landing and shortly we had the plane tucked in the hangar.
On the drive home, Tony reviled that the flight was full of firsts for him. It was the first time he had been in a single engine or reciprocating aircraft in over 15 years. The first time in an Experimental. The first time in a taildragger. The first time flying with a stick. (He kept commenting how natural it felt and how nice the RV flew.) The first time landing and taking off from grass. And finally, the first time he had ever flown for pleasure.
What? I had to ask him to repeat that last one.
It turns out all he has ever wanted to be was a pilot so after high school he started flight training, then hauling checks and car parts, working his way up to his first corporate flight department. Apparently there was never time or money available to rent a plane and just go out for a $100 hamburger.
He was really impressed by the RV but more so by the people he met as a result of the RV. After all, aren’t the people we meet the real the reason we fly?
Needless to say, he is looking forward to his next ride.
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