exsterminator
Member
Like I assume many other members on this forum, I am hugely interested and want to own my own RV one day but have to make do with living vicariously through all the other builders and fliers on the board as (young) family life dictates most of my schedule and budget. I have been a member here since 2008, have only posted maybe a dozen times and the "flavor" of RV I prize has changed time and again. I read Dan C's build log start to finish back in the day and spend countless hours reading all manner of threads here.
Yesterday was the first time I have seen an RV up close, sat in one and went for a flight.
I got my PPL in 2001, have less than 75 hours TT and have not flown in over 10 years. However, my love of flying hasn't abated and I always look up to the sky when I hear an engine above. Aside from an hour in a Lancair Legacy with its builder in 2007, I hadn't even got into a GA aircraft until 2 weeks ago. That was a stunning Cirrus SR22TN which its owner kindly took me for a round trip 200-mile flight on.
The Cirrus was magnificent. The all-glass cockpit, rich leather interior with custom stitching, roominess and sense of "technology" was amazing. It felt like climbing into a luxury sports car with every tiny detail attended to. The Entegra R9 system, even to the uninitiated like me, made the complexity of flying so logical and ordered. Vivid colors, flashing screens, audible warnings of traffic and altitude immersed me. And of course, it flies beautifully - fast, stable and predictable.
As memorable an experience as it was, it left several lasting impressions on me. Should the owner offer me another flight, I will leap at it. But I know I will never want to own one (assuming of course I could even afford it) and this certainty was due to the hour I spent with Nigel in his 6.
Why? Leaving cost of acquisition and maintenance aside, the experience of flight in both aircraft was so wildly different. For me, the RV captures the "magic of flying", a sense of engagement and harmony with the aircraft, a canopy that offers all-round visibility and proximity to the sky. You are nestled in next to your co-pilot, wedged between the engine and the baggage compartment. There is no roominess or true sense of luxury, no overwhelming allure of technology that draws your attention inside instead of outside. I know there is no definition of my "mission" here and that in all honesty, the Cirrus isn't likely to fit mine.
Again, these are only my initial impressions after an extremely short time in each and I acknowledge my inexperience as a pilot. What I saw and felt is going to be different to the next person. But in this short time, I left certain that my path in aircraft ownership and flight would be along RV lines. Now the decision will be whether I feel I am able to accomplish the 200-odd smaller tasks required to build my own airplane, or whether I buy one built by one of you fine people! But I do know that I really liked the situational awareness and warnings offered by some of the glass technology that it would need to be part of my RV, as well as an autopilot . . .
And if you read this Nigel, thank you once again for creating a memory and for inspiring me to keep this dream alive no matter how long it takes.
Yesterday was the first time I have seen an RV up close, sat in one and went for a flight.
I got my PPL in 2001, have less than 75 hours TT and have not flown in over 10 years. However, my love of flying hasn't abated and I always look up to the sky when I hear an engine above. Aside from an hour in a Lancair Legacy with its builder in 2007, I hadn't even got into a GA aircraft until 2 weeks ago. That was a stunning Cirrus SR22TN which its owner kindly took me for a round trip 200-mile flight on.
The Cirrus was magnificent. The all-glass cockpit, rich leather interior with custom stitching, roominess and sense of "technology" was amazing. It felt like climbing into a luxury sports car with every tiny detail attended to. The Entegra R9 system, even to the uninitiated like me, made the complexity of flying so logical and ordered. Vivid colors, flashing screens, audible warnings of traffic and altitude immersed me. And of course, it flies beautifully - fast, stable and predictable.
As memorable an experience as it was, it left several lasting impressions on me. Should the owner offer me another flight, I will leap at it. But I know I will never want to own one (assuming of course I could even afford it) and this certainty was due to the hour I spent with Nigel in his 6.
Why? Leaving cost of acquisition and maintenance aside, the experience of flight in both aircraft was so wildly different. For me, the RV captures the "magic of flying", a sense of engagement and harmony with the aircraft, a canopy that offers all-round visibility and proximity to the sky. You are nestled in next to your co-pilot, wedged between the engine and the baggage compartment. There is no roominess or true sense of luxury, no overwhelming allure of technology that draws your attention inside instead of outside. I know there is no definition of my "mission" here and that in all honesty, the Cirrus isn't likely to fit mine.
Again, these are only my initial impressions after an extremely short time in each and I acknowledge my inexperience as a pilot. What I saw and felt is going to be different to the next person. But in this short time, I left certain that my path in aircraft ownership and flight would be along RV lines. Now the decision will be whether I feel I am able to accomplish the 200-odd smaller tasks required to build my own airplane, or whether I buy one built by one of you fine people! But I do know that I really liked the situational awareness and warnings offered by some of the glass technology that it would need to be part of my RV, as well as an autopilot . . .
And if you read this Nigel, thank you once again for creating a memory and for inspiring me to keep this dream alive no matter how long it takes.