Do it again? Yep!
I have just flown my RV-9A for the first TWO times only. The first flight on June 9th was just 25 minutes, but gave me the confirmation I wanted about the trim and handling of this airplane. I flew it just seven days after completing flight training with Mike Seager using the factory-owned RV-6A in Scappoose, Oregon. The second flight on June 11th was 1.5 hours dodging rain showers to stay VFR to test the single-axis autopilot, radar transponder, and the VOR/ILS receiver-to-antenna connections.
I was told by a builder who was ahead of me all the way through the project to just think of this as a lot of little simple jobs that add up to an airplane. Don't think of it as a big job that will never be done. I started in October 2002 on the empennage kit. The wings arrived in early January 2003, the fuselage in the summer of 2003, and the engine and prop in the summer of 2004. My airworthiness inspection took place after 1,999.5 hours of building time.
Since I had to LEARN all the processes, I was unsure of some of my skills as I tackled a new one. Now that I have completed "most" of the project, I think a second one would go much quicker. I would only have to build the whole airplane TWO times instead of three. If you read the stuff on my web site, you know why I say that. This has certainly been educational. Before this airplane, all my others were radio-controlled models which is more common than I thought. Even Mike Seager has a few RC models.
Yesterday when I was flying around the weather in circles, I knew I would not be happy flying in a SPAM CAN anymore. The interior ships at the end of this week when I will be returning from a business trip to Texas the old-fashioned way. When that arrives, I will have real seats instead of some old cushions. I won't install any of the interior walls and carpets until the painting is completed. When you look at my web site, you will see why I could not paint the airplane myself.
As for the investment, yeah, this is much better than an IRA account. The value does not GO DOWN. I do have an IRA, but the airplane will be around $75K when painted. It is set up for ILS and has a constant speed prop. It will do what I want to do with it, and very fast for a fixed-gear airplane. I will be putting on the gear leg and wheel fairings soon to get up to full speed.
Jerry K. Thorne
East Ridge, TN
RV-9A N2PZ -- Flying
www.n2prise.org
(The car went back into the Garage on April 27th for the first time since January 2003.)