Over the years I've read so many reports from folks who have finished and flown their RVs about how much they LOVE their RV, how they have a permanent grin when they fly it, and so forth.
My experience has been different actually, and I wonder if I'm the only one. Sure, I'm glad to be flying, and have no serious complaints about the aircraft. But i have to say I actually feel a little deflated. The first flight was very focussing, and while I did get a sensation of "holy ***, it's flying" shortly after lift-off, I quickly became so sidetracked by high CHTs that I didn't land with a big grin. For the next few hours I was focussed on the temps and trying to figure out whether she was performing as well as she should (I was a little concerned that I wasn't able to match Vans' performance numbers, and to get the speeds others reported I seemed to need higher fuel flow than others report), and so that also kept me from grinning. After a few hours I started to get comfortable that the engine would keep running and so I started to settle-in and enjoy flying it. Around the same time I stopped worrying about performance, and the temps were coming down.
The next 15-20 hours of test flying started to get a little tedious though. I mean one can only grin for so long flying the same route within the 25nm box, with no passengers, over and over again. I finally got my restrictions waived a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend made a flight to Kingston (approx 50nm) to take my uncle for a ride. He's a big of a big guy at about 200lbs, and with us both wearing bulky winter coats, I was a bit disappointed at how snug it was in there, and how akward it was getting us strapped in. The flight was enjoyable, and he kept saying "verry cool". But after dropping him off and flying home, I got to thinking that I'm going to need to find some ways to keep things interesting, or I'll risk getting bored! My plane is a -9A, so aerobatics isn't the answer for me. I am looking forward to being able to fly back to my hometown (Waterloo ON) in about 1.5 hours (vs the 6+ hours to drive), and that will be one of the main trips I do a lot. However this fall has not been very encouraging because the weather has been brutal. To fly to Waterloo, I need a day with good weather right across the province. This fall there have been very few days like that. This week on wed and thurs it's sunny from Ottawa to Toronto, but forecast cloudy and snow west of Toronto towards Waterloo. Frustrating!
Also, my radio has been acting-up, and I'm not sure if my oil consumption is higher than it should be, and this makes me feel like the plane may be one maintenance headache and worry after another.
I was expressing some of my feeling of deflation to my uncle after our flight, and he said "well, anticipating is always better than having". So true!
I don't want to sound like a downer (I apologise if this comes across this way)... I do really like the -9A, but I wonder, have any of you gone through a similar phase after finishing your plane - wondering whether the reality of owning it will really measure up the expectations and all the hype?
My experience has been different actually, and I wonder if I'm the only one. Sure, I'm glad to be flying, and have no serious complaints about the aircraft. But i have to say I actually feel a little deflated. The first flight was very focussing, and while I did get a sensation of "holy ***, it's flying" shortly after lift-off, I quickly became so sidetracked by high CHTs that I didn't land with a big grin. For the next few hours I was focussed on the temps and trying to figure out whether she was performing as well as she should (I was a little concerned that I wasn't able to match Vans' performance numbers, and to get the speeds others reported I seemed to need higher fuel flow than others report), and so that also kept me from grinning. After a few hours I started to get comfortable that the engine would keep running and so I started to settle-in and enjoy flying it. Around the same time I stopped worrying about performance, and the temps were coming down.
The next 15-20 hours of test flying started to get a little tedious though. I mean one can only grin for so long flying the same route within the 25nm box, with no passengers, over and over again. I finally got my restrictions waived a couple of weeks ago, and this weekend made a flight to Kingston (approx 50nm) to take my uncle for a ride. He's a big of a big guy at about 200lbs, and with us both wearing bulky winter coats, I was a bit disappointed at how snug it was in there, and how akward it was getting us strapped in. The flight was enjoyable, and he kept saying "verry cool". But after dropping him off and flying home, I got to thinking that I'm going to need to find some ways to keep things interesting, or I'll risk getting bored! My plane is a -9A, so aerobatics isn't the answer for me. I am looking forward to being able to fly back to my hometown (Waterloo ON) in about 1.5 hours (vs the 6+ hours to drive), and that will be one of the main trips I do a lot. However this fall has not been very encouraging because the weather has been brutal. To fly to Waterloo, I need a day with good weather right across the province. This fall there have been very few days like that. This week on wed and thurs it's sunny from Ottawa to Toronto, but forecast cloudy and snow west of Toronto towards Waterloo. Frustrating!
Also, my radio has been acting-up, and I'm not sure if my oil consumption is higher than it should be, and this makes me feel like the plane may be one maintenance headache and worry after another.
I was expressing some of my feeling of deflation to my uncle after our flight, and he said "well, anticipating is always better than having". So true!
I don't want to sound like a downer (I apologise if this comes across this way)... I do really like the -9A, but I wonder, have any of you gone through a similar phase after finishing your plane - wondering whether the reality of owning it will really measure up the expectations and all the hype?
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