Today fellow EAA Chapter 90 member Frank Spyksma could find nothing left to do on his RV-9A and so decided it was time to for it to fly. Frank had promised his wife that he would not make the first flight and so enlisted a good friend of mine Dennis Bailey, who owns an RV-6A was tapped to make the first flight. Yours truly flew his ratty by comparisson RV-4 in chase. The first flight was uneventful aside from a single oil drip that we couldn't tell where it came from and didn't drip on the subsequent flight, and a heavy left wing. The left wing was traced to impropper rigging of the flaps and quickly fixed. Dennis truly enjoyed flying the 9A and when the flight was over I'd like to be able to say he greased it on but suffice it to say ... I can't say he greased it on.
Since the first flight and been done, and the squawks fixed, Frank decided to take his new plane up. After a quick briefing from Dennis on the handling qualities Frank took his new plane up for about a 20 minute flight. Frank came back and made one go around but on his second try he truly greased it on. Beautiful landing!
Dennis said he couldn't believe how much the 9A wanted to fly. He had A LOT of trouble getting it out of the sky. Those big wings just don't want to let the airplane come down.
This particular plane has a Catto 3 blade prop, lightspeed ignition, and an O320 engine. Seeing how that engine starts I have GOT to get electronic ignition! He reported that the Catto prop was SMOOTH as glass.
I had as much fun as Dennis and Frank did.
CJ
