Met Scott (N339A) at FTG this morning. That's one gorgeous airplane; it's obvious that he took a great deal of care in its planning and construction.
The Warrior that I fly now is a ground-lover. It's slow to get rolling and slow to reach rotation and Vx. Once it's off the ground, it flies OK. Scott's -9A, though... oh my. Even at 5500MSL and 72F, it gave me that funny tug in the pit of my stomach. We were off the ground and up to pattern altitude by midfield.
Once we were clear of FTG's airspace, Scott turned the controls over to me. Being used to Skyhawks and Cherokees, I overcontrolled quite a bit at first. Eventually I started to get the feel: think about it, and the airplane does it. Once I realized how to talk to the airplane, the grin started.
We made some turns, a few stalls (which I botched pretty badly, nosing over way too fast), straight/level, and climbs/descents. Scott demonstrated some of the GPS 496's features (98NM to Goodland, ETE 35 minutes? I LOLed) and the Digitrak AP. Sweeeet.
As we were coming down final to 26, a departing biplane gave us a wave. The landing itself was a complete non-event, just a squeak and hold the nose off.
Total time: 1:04. And oh yeah, I've got the grin.
The Warrior that I fly now is a ground-lover. It's slow to get rolling and slow to reach rotation and Vx. Once it's off the ground, it flies OK. Scott's -9A, though... oh my. Even at 5500MSL and 72F, it gave me that funny tug in the pit of my stomach. We were off the ground and up to pattern altitude by midfield.
Once we were clear of FTG's airspace, Scott turned the controls over to me. Being used to Skyhawks and Cherokees, I overcontrolled quite a bit at first. Eventually I started to get the feel: think about it, and the airplane does it. Once I realized how to talk to the airplane, the grin started.
We made some turns, a few stalls (which I botched pretty badly, nosing over way too fast), straight/level, and climbs/descents. Scott demonstrated some of the GPS 496's features (98NM to Goodland, ETE 35 minutes? I LOLed) and the Digitrak AP. Sweeeet.
As we were coming down final to 26, a departing biplane gave us a wave. The landing itself was a complete non-event, just a squeak and hold the nose off.
Total time: 1:04. And oh yeah, I've got the grin.
