OneTwoSierra
Well Known Member
Here's a brain-dump of some notes from this weekend's flying in my new 9A.
I now have 5.3 hours on 9612S and about 20 landings or so. The garmin 196 automatically (no buttons required) records all flights under the 'flights' tab, so no cheating by counting taxi time. Take off and land an hour later and you'll see a flight recorded in the tab. It shows date, flight time, distance, airports visited and lots of other cool info.
At 4 hours, I passed that magic milestone where I feel very comfortable in the plane now. Nothing is going to fall off and the prop is going to keep spinning. After 5.3 hours, I think I will now stop taking the cowling off after every flight for an inspection and cutting and reinstalling the safety wire to make sure the gascolator is clean. Maybe after every 2 or 3 hours for a while...
I also recorded my longest flight of 1.4 hours and 200 plus miles. I had been doing .7 hours max and coming down for an inspection. I can see I'm going to get bored with my Phase 1 flight area even though it's big.
She loves to fly at 2100 RPMS at 109 knots IAS (120 True) IAS at 5.3 gph. That's 26 miles to the gallon -- as good as my wife's Camry and better by far than my truck.
I finally fully stalled her in various configurations. 42 knots IAS with full flaps, 44 with about 1/2 flaps, and 48 no flaps. This should come down when I get the fairings installed, but I am very happy with this. I'm having way too much fun to think about fairings right now.
The fastest I went this weekend is 145 knots true (166 mph), and I was there for no more than a few seconds. I think she'll top out at more than this even without the fairings. I didn't investigate the high end this weekend like I though I would...maybe tonight?
In my opinion, holding 70 knots on final way too fast. 60 is all you need on calm days, 65 max. You could go slower for short field. That's my own opinion so please consult more knowledgeable sources before flying like I do. 60 is still nearly 1.4 X stall speed.
With full power applied for take off, the rudder is STIFF, and I mean STIFF. For a few seconds I thought it was jammed. (I later laughed at myself, so go ahead and laugh too). You actually need to hold some right rudder all the way up to altitude when climbing with full power (which I only do on takeoff). I guess it's the p-factor. After leveling out she flies ball centered with feet off the pedals. Even most turns don't need rudder input.
I got 2 hours in an RV-7A last week with a CFI for my insurance requirement. The thing that strikes me the most is not the differences but the similarities. They feel exactly the same. The RV-9A's control feel stiffen up more at higher speeds (or for the rudder, higher power), but that's the only 'feel' difference that I could discern. But, the power off sink rate on the 7A with a constant speed prop was 1750 ft/min. My 9A is somewhere less than 500 feet per min...a big difference. The issue with this that my CFI pointed out is that when you give it the gas on a go around, it takes substantial time to actually stop the decent. He said a lot of people get in trouble because they wait till they're too close to the ground for a go around and then try to stop the decent with by pulling back, increasing the sink rate and hitting very hard. This will be much less of an issue in the 9A, but still, be on the look out for it. Decide to go around early if you're going to do it.
That's about it for now. I'll be going out of town this week so tonight is my only chance to fly until Saturday. I'm going to miss it.
I now have 5.3 hours on 9612S and about 20 landings or so. The garmin 196 automatically (no buttons required) records all flights under the 'flights' tab, so no cheating by counting taxi time. Take off and land an hour later and you'll see a flight recorded in the tab. It shows date, flight time, distance, airports visited and lots of other cool info.
At 4 hours, I passed that magic milestone where I feel very comfortable in the plane now. Nothing is going to fall off and the prop is going to keep spinning. After 5.3 hours, I think I will now stop taking the cowling off after every flight for an inspection and cutting and reinstalling the safety wire to make sure the gascolator is clean. Maybe after every 2 or 3 hours for a while...
I also recorded my longest flight of 1.4 hours and 200 plus miles. I had been doing .7 hours max and coming down for an inspection. I can see I'm going to get bored with my Phase 1 flight area even though it's big.
She loves to fly at 2100 RPMS at 109 knots IAS (120 True) IAS at 5.3 gph. That's 26 miles to the gallon -- as good as my wife's Camry and better by far than my truck.
I finally fully stalled her in various configurations. 42 knots IAS with full flaps, 44 with about 1/2 flaps, and 48 no flaps. This should come down when I get the fairings installed, but I am very happy with this. I'm having way too much fun to think about fairings right now.
The fastest I went this weekend is 145 knots true (166 mph), and I was there for no more than a few seconds. I think she'll top out at more than this even without the fairings. I didn't investigate the high end this weekend like I though I would...maybe tonight?
In my opinion, holding 70 knots on final way too fast. 60 is all you need on calm days, 65 max. You could go slower for short field. That's my own opinion so please consult more knowledgeable sources before flying like I do. 60 is still nearly 1.4 X stall speed.
With full power applied for take off, the rudder is STIFF, and I mean STIFF. For a few seconds I thought it was jammed. (I later laughed at myself, so go ahead and laugh too). You actually need to hold some right rudder all the way up to altitude when climbing with full power (which I only do on takeoff). I guess it's the p-factor. After leveling out she flies ball centered with feet off the pedals. Even most turns don't need rudder input.
I got 2 hours in an RV-7A last week with a CFI for my insurance requirement. The thing that strikes me the most is not the differences but the similarities. They feel exactly the same. The RV-9A's control feel stiffen up more at higher speeds (or for the rudder, higher power), but that's the only 'feel' difference that I could discern. But, the power off sink rate on the 7A with a constant speed prop was 1750 ft/min. My 9A is somewhere less than 500 feet per min...a big difference. The issue with this that my CFI pointed out is that when you give it the gas on a go around, it takes substantial time to actually stop the decent. He said a lot of people get in trouble because they wait till they're too close to the ground for a go around and then try to stop the decent with by pulling back, increasing the sink rate and hitting very hard. This will be much less of an issue in the 9A, but still, be on the look out for it. Decide to go around early if you're going to do it.
That's about it for now. I'll be going out of town this week so tonight is my only chance to fly until Saturday. I'm going to miss it.