Robert is a lapsed private pilot. He has an instrument rating and twin time but shelved flying when the new family came along. I've been trying to goad him into getting into the cockpit again but he's never found the time or money. He had been wanting to see my RV-4 ever since he started with the company last year. Weather and time just haven't cooperated with each other up until now so when lunch time rolled around we took a drive to the airport.
I topped off the tanks as I always do with a pax in the back of the 4 and we headed for the skies. "What's our rate of climb?" I was ashamed to answer the question. With full tanks and two people, we weren't climbing all that well. "We're only doing about 1800 ft/min but she can do better!"
"Damn."
I pointed toward my normal playground in the foot hills. Enroute I let Robert have the airplane. He couldn't get over how easy it was to control. I reported that my controls were stiffer than most. He didn't believe me. We played around in the hills for a bit. I flew him down the "Death Star trench", an overflow cut for a dam, and then we headed back.
"What's our airspeed?"
Again I paused feeling somewhat ashamed that Robert had caught me with my wheel pants down.
"We're only doing 160 MPH because I have the wheel pants off right now."
"At 1000 feet?!"
"Yeah, she'll go faster though."
"Damn."
I brought 1SV down for a really decent landing and shut down in front of my hangar. Robert said that the landing made it look like I almost knew what I was doing. High praise from him. He took some pictures of the plane on his camera phone. He asked me questions about the kits and build times. The whole way back to work he'd ask another question and then think for a while, then another question and then quiet for a while again. I could hear the gears grinding in his head.
When we got back I sent him some links; Van's Aircraft, and Rivetbangers. He can find the other sites by himself I'm sure.
Robert was very appreciative of his flight. He said he has really enjoyed flying all the different production planes, but none, including the twins, fly like the RV. He was very impressed. I found out that on the drive back he had sent the pictures he took on his phone to his wife. She called and asked him what the airplane pictures were all about.The next day I called him and asked him if he had ordered his plane yet. He replied that next year's tax refund was supposed to go for lasiks, but now that money might just be diverted to an empenage kit.
And so it begins...
He is a good guy. When I was in college I worked for him. He had a machine shop at an airport here in Iowa to go along with his dusting operation. We spent a lot of time working on his race cars. I haven't talked to him for a while though. Last time I spoke to him he was into the shooting sports pretty heavy. I'm not sure where he lives in the area or if he is still dusting or not.