aarvig
Well Known Member
So, I am back and forth between the 9A and the 7A. A member of the local MN wing of the VAF, Pete Howell, was kind enough to give me a ride in his beautiful 9A last night and actually turn the plane over to me for quite awhile. I have to say, I loved the stability and smoothness of the plane, especially as a low time pilot. Very smooth, nice flying airplane. He demonstrated slow flight, just above stall speed and we performed some maneuvers at that speed. Also did stalls and no flap landings. I quickly realized the 9 had very predictable handling qualities and was very easy to fly. Needless to say, previous to riding in his plane I was pretty fixed on the the 7A being the plane I want to build. But after last night, I am starting to lean towards the 9A because of its stability and lower cost to fly. We were burning 4.5gph at 108 knots last night. For local flights that is quite affordable. I like aero but that isn't a deal breaker. What I like about the 7A is the higher cruise speed since my wife and I will be flying back and forth to North Dakota all the time. So the question I have is this...could you folks report in on your 9A performance? Specifically, with a fixed or constant speed prop, what are your cruise speeds, at what RPM and/or MP and what type of fuel burn are you getting for a specified altitude? I appreciate the data. By the way, a big thanks to you Pete for taking me up.
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