bryanflood
Well Known Member
Hi,
Well after almost 6 years of building another RV has flown and returned to earth safely. The first flight of my RV-9A occurred last Friday night about 6 pm lasted a ? hour. The flight was nearly perfect, except I landed slightly on the brakes, which seem to be working quite well. Anyway, for the record I wanted to say how valuable I found transition training to be. I did transition training with Dan Cunningham in Decatur Alabama in his RV-9A. First off Dan was great. I had to get 5 hours for insurance but only had one day to fly. Dan really worked hard to make sure I got all the time I needed, which involved taking several breaks and going for a nice lunch. I was pretty tired after that big day of flying, but what a difference it made in my ability to handle the airplane. When I took off on the first flight of my plane the training proved invaluable. At no point during the first flight did I have to question my ability to land b/c I had already landed Dan?s plane a bunch of times. The pressure was completely off. I thought the first flight would be shear terror, but it wasn?t. About 2 seconds after the plane lifted off the ground and was clearly controllable the rest of the flight was a pure joy. I really do contribute this to training, having experience in the type was everything for me. Before the first flight I reasoned that if the plane would perform flawlessly on the first flight I could probably take the flight w/o transition training. You know spend time feeling it out, slowly finding the stall buffet, estimating an approach speed and what not. As it turns out the first flight was flawless, and I did get to the stall buffet and found that the numbers were exactly the same as Dan?s plane. So I knew all the information I needed before I even took off. That was very reassuring, but in the case of an emergency it would have been invaluable. If everything hadn?t gone exactly perfect it occurs to me that I would not only had an idea of the emergency procedures but actually had done them. Again training with Dan was probably one of the best decisions I made during the whole project. I would highly recommend Dan Cunningham?s training, especially if you have an RV-9A and want to get time in the model. Dectaur Alabama is a nice town, the airport is nice and clean (and long), the people are friendly (the airport dog even more friendly), and not that long of a drive or a flight from anyplace when you consider how close it is to Huntsville. Anyway thanks Dan! And good luck to all of you in RV land.
Bryan Flood
N95BF (0.6 hours)
Well after almost 6 years of building another RV has flown and returned to earth safely. The first flight of my RV-9A occurred last Friday night about 6 pm lasted a ? hour. The flight was nearly perfect, except I landed slightly on the brakes, which seem to be working quite well. Anyway, for the record I wanted to say how valuable I found transition training to be. I did transition training with Dan Cunningham in Decatur Alabama in his RV-9A. First off Dan was great. I had to get 5 hours for insurance but only had one day to fly. Dan really worked hard to make sure I got all the time I needed, which involved taking several breaks and going for a nice lunch. I was pretty tired after that big day of flying, but what a difference it made in my ability to handle the airplane. When I took off on the first flight of my plane the training proved invaluable. At no point during the first flight did I have to question my ability to land b/c I had already landed Dan?s plane a bunch of times. The pressure was completely off. I thought the first flight would be shear terror, but it wasn?t. About 2 seconds after the plane lifted off the ground and was clearly controllable the rest of the flight was a pure joy. I really do contribute this to training, having experience in the type was everything for me. Before the first flight I reasoned that if the plane would perform flawlessly on the first flight I could probably take the flight w/o transition training. You know spend time feeling it out, slowly finding the stall buffet, estimating an approach speed and what not. As it turns out the first flight was flawless, and I did get to the stall buffet and found that the numbers were exactly the same as Dan?s plane. So I knew all the information I needed before I even took off. That was very reassuring, but in the case of an emergency it would have been invaluable. If everything hadn?t gone exactly perfect it occurs to me that I would not only had an idea of the emergency procedures but actually had done them. Again training with Dan was probably one of the best decisions I made during the whole project. I would highly recommend Dan Cunningham?s training, especially if you have an RV-9A and want to get time in the model. Dectaur Alabama is a nice town, the airport is nice and clean (and long), the people are friendly (the airport dog even more friendly), and not that long of a drive or a flight from anyplace when you consider how close it is to Huntsville. Anyway thanks Dan! And good luck to all of you in RV land.
Bryan Flood
N95BF (0.6 hours)
