N941WR

Legacy Member
This morning Nora and I loaded up her trucklet aka CR-V with airplane tools, wheel pants, gear leg fairings, and Torque the wonder dog and headed out to the airport.

The day was spent putting a wrench on bolts all over the engine and accessories just to make sure everything was tight, which they were. The prop was pulled, inspected, and reinstalled. Gear leg fairings, upper intersection fairings, and wheel pants were put on and with all the little chores done it was time to go for a "test flight".

Nora couldn't go because she was starting to come down with "the crud" so I had to go it alone, I couldn't even take Torque, although he does enjoy flying. (Don't flame me, this picture was taken on his first and only flight, the Mutt Muffs are on order.)

So, with everything buttoned up, off I went. With just an hour and a half before sunset and cheep gas ($3.85/Gal) just 20 minutes away off I went. OATs were around 65 and the -9 jumped off the runway and climbed like crazy all the way up to 2,500'. The air was smooth as could be and the visibility was 30+ miles. With the sun heading towards the horizon off my left wing, all was right with the world.

A quick frequency change found that there was only one airplane in the pattern at my destination and he was on a downwind departure, not a factor.

The air was so smooth I trimmed the -9 for 65 MPH abeam the numbers after putting in all the flaps and left it there until touch down. One of these days I'm going to learn it is ok not to touchdown at the threshold of 5,000 foot runway when the fuel tanks are at the other end. It sure makes for a long taxi.

A quick 18.1 gallons in the tanks along with a fuel sump check and I was ready to fly back home.

The liftoff was uneventful and all I could think about was how much right rudder was needed for this little O-290 to keep One Whiskey Romeo on the centerline.

Before I knew it, I was back at my cruising altitude of 2,500 heading home.

Again, not even a bump in the sky, clear weather, and even the UNICOM frequency was quiet.

Descend down to 1500' pattern altitude, make a radio call, slow down to 90, dump all the flaps in, and trim for 65 again, make another radio call, take another look, no one out there anywhere, clear smooth skies. Bummer Nora is down there waiting for me, she should be up here enjoying this wonderful flight! Heck, the rest of the world should be up here enjoying this perfect flying weather!

An acceptable three point landing on the first 200' of runway, pin the tail down, keep it straight. Man, this -9 is really spoiling me, so easy to land.

We roll all the way to the other end of the 2300' runway where my hangar is w/o touching the breaks, spin it around, drop the tail off the runway and shut it down.

What a great world we live in that allows some guy like me to build and enjoy such a great toy as this RV!
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you had a lot of fun! I spent the day installing the strobe system. Getting closer!
 
I'm with you Bill. I've been having the same kinds of experiences lately. I found myself just flying around after work this week with a big fat smile on my face. No reason at all, except for the amazing experience of flying my 9(A) with spectacular performance. I'm just under 100 hrs, and still haven't gotten over the wow factor.
 
Speed

Hi Bill,
Kindly tell us what speed increase and rate of climb increase you found with all the fairings installed.

Thanks,
 
Hi Bill,
Kindly tell us what speed increase and rate of climb increase you found with all the fairings installed.

Thanks,

Yeah Bill! How inconsiderate of you.:D You must know that there are some of us that ARE NOT flying yet and there you go braggin' and all about all that wonderful RV flyin' you're doin'. :D

Oh, yeah, I would be interested in the stats as well.
 
Hi Bill,
Kindly tell us what speed increase and rate of climb increase you found with all the fairings installed.

Thanks,

I would be interested in the stats as well.
Pierre and Robert,

I would be more than willing to tell you but the truth is, I don't really know yet.

I tried to cheat and use -7 intersection fairings and they aren't working out so now I need to go back and align the leg fairings and make my own intersection fairings. It looks like that will happen in January, if I'm lucky.

BTW, with the -7 fairings temporarily installed, besides a new right turning tendency, I can turn my prop up to 2860 RPM at 8500 DA. Needless to say, I'm a bit under pitched. Still, it will climb at 1400+ FPM w/ full fuel and two adults on board. Not bad for only 135 HP.
 
Slow down Bill

Bill

You need to stop working on the plane, you may embarrass us with 0320's in our RV9's.

For my lower intersection fairings I used the Van's 9A fairings. After I glassed them to the wheel pants, I ground 100% of them off and made my own. The uppers from Fairings Ect. are RV7 uppers and they work OK. The intersection part was good but I had to reglass the part that touches the gear leg fairing.

Now back to the original post: Most of my flights are 20 minutes long and right after sun rise, so I know what you mean about perfect flying weather. It makes the rest of the day totally irrelevant. Work can really suck and I just don't care. "Did I mention I flew this morning?" is a quote my co workers are getting sick of hearing.

Cam