rightrudder
Well Known Member
What a rush. Earlier today I pulled back on the stick of an airplane I built in my garage. It leapt into the air and stayed there!!!!
Perfect conditions at Cable Airport: a balmy 77-degree February day (El Nino on hold temporarily!), some light cirrus clouds at about 20,000 feet and zero turbulence. P-factor, etc. caught me a little off guard on the takeoff roll and I veered a little to the left, but I lofted the nose wheel a few inches and she was flying in 500 feet or so. I've done this hundreds of times in rental Cherokees, DA-20s and 172s, but I have to say it's a little surreal when you, your-own-self, have built the thing and point it skyward for the first time.
Very, very stable in the pattern on climb out. I did 5 hours of transition training with Reuven Silberman out of KSEE in his RV-7, and while it's a fantastic machine, it felt a little edgy and nervous by comparison (and by design, of course). The -9A's control reaction is exactly how I had imagined it to be--steady, smooth and a little higher effort. In the first 30 seconds, it completely reaffirmed my choice of the -9A....docile, yet satisfyingly snappy in the way it handles.
Since our airport is in a fisheye cutout of Ontario's airspace, I climbed above its 5000-ft ceiling and did my lapping at about 5300 ft (about 3 miles north and northeast of the field) so I wouldn't run the risk of nicking their airspace and I could concentrate on monitoring pressures and temps. Plenty of altitude to glide back to the airport too. The workload was low, as there wasn't a trace of a heavy wing, and CHTs, which nudged 435 on a couple of cylinders during climb, for the most part settled nicely into the 360-370 range. Oil temp touched 175, well nigh perfect. I was running between 2400-2500 rpm to help seat the rings, and I bumped it up to 2650 briefly, and saw an airspeed of 135 knots and climbing. I throttled back a little before it peaked. This is with the gear leg fairings fitted, but no wheel pants.
After about 30 minutes, I worked on slowing her down to Vfe and reentered the pattern. Not my best landing, but heck, I was a little nervous!! I got the airspeed stabilized nicely to about 70 knots, but overshot my base-to-final turn and started the final about 150 ft high. So it was a bit of a chop and drop and I touched down (after some float) at least a third of the way down the runway.
A life-affirming experience, as my college psychology professor was fond of saying.
Issues? Minor. The No. 2 cylinder CHTs were a little low in cruise (maybe 275), so I need to extend the air dam in front of the cylinder a bit. And a little vibration from the left-side brakes was apparent on roll out, probably just the linings getting happing with the rotor friction surface. I will de-cowl and give everything an intense scrutinizing, and then it's off to the practice area. Woohoo!
Credit to my friend Sam Ellis, who took the excellent photos, and of course to Van's, for designing such an incredible airplane that fits my mission objectives so perfectly. That last pic is me making my first RV-9A entry in the log book (hidden behind the Magic Duster!).
Perfect conditions at Cable Airport: a balmy 77-degree February day (El Nino on hold temporarily!), some light cirrus clouds at about 20,000 feet and zero turbulence. P-factor, etc. caught me a little off guard on the takeoff roll and I veered a little to the left, but I lofted the nose wheel a few inches and she was flying in 500 feet or so. I've done this hundreds of times in rental Cherokees, DA-20s and 172s, but I have to say it's a little surreal when you, your-own-self, have built the thing and point it skyward for the first time.
Very, very stable in the pattern on climb out. I did 5 hours of transition training with Reuven Silberman out of KSEE in his RV-7, and while it's a fantastic machine, it felt a little edgy and nervous by comparison (and by design, of course). The -9A's control reaction is exactly how I had imagined it to be--steady, smooth and a little higher effort. In the first 30 seconds, it completely reaffirmed my choice of the -9A....docile, yet satisfyingly snappy in the way it handles.
Since our airport is in a fisheye cutout of Ontario's airspace, I climbed above its 5000-ft ceiling and did my lapping at about 5300 ft (about 3 miles north and northeast of the field) so I wouldn't run the risk of nicking their airspace and I could concentrate on monitoring pressures and temps. Plenty of altitude to glide back to the airport too. The workload was low, as there wasn't a trace of a heavy wing, and CHTs, which nudged 435 on a couple of cylinders during climb, for the most part settled nicely into the 360-370 range. Oil temp touched 175, well nigh perfect. I was running between 2400-2500 rpm to help seat the rings, and I bumped it up to 2650 briefly, and saw an airspeed of 135 knots and climbing. I throttled back a little before it peaked. This is with the gear leg fairings fitted, but no wheel pants.
After about 30 minutes, I worked on slowing her down to Vfe and reentered the pattern. Not my best landing, but heck, I was a little nervous!! I got the airspeed stabilized nicely to about 70 knots, but overshot my base-to-final turn and started the final about 150 ft high. So it was a bit of a chop and drop and I touched down (after some float) at least a third of the way down the runway.
A life-affirming experience, as my college psychology professor was fond of saying.
Issues? Minor. The No. 2 cylinder CHTs were a little low in cruise (maybe 275), so I need to extend the air dam in front of the cylinder a bit. And a little vibration from the left-side brakes was apparent on roll out, probably just the linings getting happing with the rotor friction surface. I will de-cowl and give everything an intense scrutinizing, and then it's off to the practice area. Woohoo!
Credit to my friend Sam Ellis, who took the excellent photos, and of course to Van's, for designing such an incredible airplane that fits my mission objectives so perfectly. That last pic is me making my first RV-9A entry in the log book (hidden behind the Magic Duster!).
Last edited: