Ed_Wischmeyer
Well Known Member
With essentially all my time over the last half dozen years being in the RV-9A, what's it like to take a cross country in a Cessna Cardinal RG?
With Smokey still not de-sooted and airworthified, a friend gave me a ride from Savannah to Tampa and back yesterday where I was invited to address the Education Committee of the University Aviation Association, talking about the Expanded Envelope Exercises®. (Here's a previous talk on that same subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C2xfFNb1sQ)
* The Cardinal is oh so much easier to get in than the RV-9A! and it has a baggage door, but I just put things on the back seat. TH RV-9A has a shelf over the baggage area that works better than the back seat of the Cessna.
* Roomy!
* On takeoff, it took forever to get in the air, and we climbed at maybe 800 feet per minute at 90 knots or so. In the RV-9A with just me aboard, I see maybe 1500 feet per minute at 110 knots. The Cardinal requires a lot of attention to keep the engine temperatures under control, but in the -9A, 110 knots takes care of it.
* The Cardinal has a much better ride in turbulence. Some of that is high wing, some might be because the seats have springs, not foam, to take the edge off the bumps.
* The RV-9A has an integrated panel with Garmin G3X Touch and GTN650. The Cardinal has two G5s, a big screen but older Garmin 550, an autopilot that had roll but only altitude hold. It seemed that doing anything with the autopilot required twice as many operations as with the newer avionics, and the newer avionics display all kinds of useful things all the time. The Cardinal had foreflight wirelessly tied in the the 550, and that was slick! On the other hand, I've go so much usable screen space that I don't need foreflight.
* On final, the Cardinal can come down like a brick if you choose to do so. I think my old RV-8 with full flaps and the constant speed prop could do the same, but it was my impression (I wasn't flying) that the Cardinal would want a little power but the RV-8 could be more easily landed from a full power off approach. And if you could do that without bouncing, give yourself a big pat on the back.
* This Cardinal had a stall warning system that was tied for worst place ever. An excessively loud voice said, "Stall!, Stall!" It was startling, not warning. (The other worst system says, "Angle, angle, push.")
Tomorrow, Sunday, I'm going for a lesson in a Cessna 172, just as a reminder of what those are like. We're only going to do two landings, not go through the brutal exercise of hand flying IFR. Brutal, that is, after all these year of autopilot.
Even if the RV-9A was flying, I might choose to rent the C172. Why? I soloed in a 172 fifty years ago Sunday.
With Smokey still not de-sooted and airworthified, a friend gave me a ride from Savannah to Tampa and back yesterday where I was invited to address the Education Committee of the University Aviation Association, talking about the Expanded Envelope Exercises®. (Here's a previous talk on that same subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C2xfFNb1sQ)
* The Cardinal is oh so much easier to get in than the RV-9A! and it has a baggage door, but I just put things on the back seat. TH RV-9A has a shelf over the baggage area that works better than the back seat of the Cessna.
* Roomy!
* On takeoff, it took forever to get in the air, and we climbed at maybe 800 feet per minute at 90 knots or so. In the RV-9A with just me aboard, I see maybe 1500 feet per minute at 110 knots. The Cardinal requires a lot of attention to keep the engine temperatures under control, but in the -9A, 110 knots takes care of it.
* The Cardinal has a much better ride in turbulence. Some of that is high wing, some might be because the seats have springs, not foam, to take the edge off the bumps.
* The RV-9A has an integrated panel with Garmin G3X Touch and GTN650. The Cardinal has two G5s, a big screen but older Garmin 550, an autopilot that had roll but only altitude hold. It seemed that doing anything with the autopilot required twice as many operations as with the newer avionics, and the newer avionics display all kinds of useful things all the time. The Cardinal had foreflight wirelessly tied in the the 550, and that was slick! On the other hand, I've go so much usable screen space that I don't need foreflight.
* On final, the Cardinal can come down like a brick if you choose to do so. I think my old RV-8 with full flaps and the constant speed prop could do the same, but it was my impression (I wasn't flying) that the Cardinal would want a little power but the RV-8 could be more easily landed from a full power off approach. And if you could do that without bouncing, give yourself a big pat on the back.
* This Cardinal had a stall warning system that was tied for worst place ever. An excessively loud voice said, "Stall!, Stall!" It was startling, not warning. (The other worst system says, "Angle, angle, push.")
Tomorrow, Sunday, I'm going for a lesson in a Cessna 172, just as a reminder of what those are like. We're only going to do two landings, not go through the brutal exercise of hand flying IFR. Brutal, that is, after all these year of autopilot.
Even if the RV-9A was flying, I might choose to rent the C172. Why? I soloed in a 172 fifty years ago Sunday.