Don
Well Known Member
One of the things I've wondered about is how comprehensive the flight testing was on MY plane in Phase I. My guess is, there's no way to know for sure. Some folks explore the envelope carefully and fully and others, well maybe not so thoroughly - or so I hear. How do you know which category the airplane you just bought falls into? My guess is, if you can talk with the builder you can get a sense but you never know for sure. If the folks that build N257SW were as careful testing it as they were building it, I've got nothing to be concerned about. All of my testing will just be practice for test flying my 9A when it's done. What concerned me is there are builders, there are pilots, and then there are builder-pilots. Clearly, the guys that built my 9A were top notch builders but I don't know much about what kind of test pilots they were. It's not that I doubt the work was done - rather I need to know first hand that the plane flies like Van says it should.
With that in mind, I decided to start exploring the envelope on the 9A that I recently purchased. Yesterday I took the plane up and did some power-off stalls, clean and dirty. I discovered you can "sneak up" on a stall and have the stick full back, power at idle, and the plane wallows at 43 knots dirty, falls about 100'/minute (not sure how accurate that is but its not far off) and the nose never breaks. That surprised me until I ran into an RV-6 pilot who said the same thing. When I didn't sneak up on it I could get a break at Van's published 41 (maybe 42) knots. It surprised me how 'alert' I was doing this. Maybe 'alert' isn't the right word - nervous or concerned might be closer to the truth. I didn't know for sure anyone had actually stalled THIS 9A before and just maybe I'd discover something I didn't expect. Logic said the possibility was small but not zero. Stalling the Cherokee was never a concern - but I was confident that it had been tested.
It was a non-event.
So far I've only stalled the plane at solo weight with full fuel (and nearly full). But based on that experience I dropped my final approach speed to 57 knots (between 55 and 60) and landings are a joy - albeit, a slow joy. Final approach seems to take 10 minutes getting to the runway. I've also made a habit of entering the pattern at less than 80 knots to make slowing down to final approach speed possible.
Tomorrow I will see what the stall speed is at gross and then I'll start moving the weight further back - as far aft as I can within W&B limits and see what that does. I am still getting used to the speed and the efficiency of this plane but what a pleasure it is to fly - I love seeing the earth moving more quickly underneath my wings. A whole new world of opportunities is opening up.
With that in mind, I decided to start exploring the envelope on the 9A that I recently purchased. Yesterday I took the plane up and did some power-off stalls, clean and dirty. I discovered you can "sneak up" on a stall and have the stick full back, power at idle, and the plane wallows at 43 knots dirty, falls about 100'/minute (not sure how accurate that is but its not far off) and the nose never breaks. That surprised me until I ran into an RV-6 pilot who said the same thing. When I didn't sneak up on it I could get a break at Van's published 41 (maybe 42) knots. It surprised me how 'alert' I was doing this. Maybe 'alert' isn't the right word - nervous or concerned might be closer to the truth. I didn't know for sure anyone had actually stalled THIS 9A before and just maybe I'd discover something I didn't expect. Logic said the possibility was small but not zero. Stalling the Cherokee was never a concern - but I was confident that it had been tested.
It was a non-event.
So far I've only stalled the plane at solo weight with full fuel (and nearly full). But based on that experience I dropped my final approach speed to 57 knots (between 55 and 60) and landings are a joy - albeit, a slow joy. Final approach seems to take 10 minutes getting to the runway. I've also made a habit of entering the pattern at less than 80 knots to make slowing down to final approach speed possible.
Tomorrow I will see what the stall speed is at gross and then I'll start moving the weight further back - as far aft as I can within W&B limits and see what that does. I am still getting used to the speed and the efficiency of this plane but what a pleasure it is to fly - I love seeing the earth moving more quickly underneath my wings. A whole new world of opportunities is opening up.