| Special Thanks For giving up several weeks of his time to help with the firewall forward as well as the canopy we are sincerely grateful to my father in law Jim Leale. He is known around the San Jose area as the go to guy for any thing in any form that converts gasoline into noise and we were lucky to have his advice and skills offered during the harder parts of the build. He also offers his time and expertise during our annual condition inspection providing an additional set of eyes. Like to see an example of what he can do with a couple of engines? Go here to see the Worlds Fastest Motorcycle. This project has taken much of his free time in recent years as well as many of his friends. Think a World Land speed record is easy? Don't bet on it. He is also a 30 year plus pilot and flys an award winning Comanche 260B.
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Flying with our dog People often ask us about flying with our dog. We have found that dogs love to travel in airplanes and our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Charlie is no exception. The noise levels in our RV however are very high and caused him to become stressed on his first couple of trips. Just about the time that we were about to give up on taking him in the RV we were told about Mutt Muffs hearing protectors for dogs. After measuring his head the order was placed and in a couple of days Charlie was a jet setting and very spoiled little dog. He lays between us and rests his head on one of our legs and sleeps until we land. In an attempt to teach him to be comfortable in the plane I often placed his bed in the baggage area during the build and let him sleep while I worked in the garage. This seemed to work and he now waits for us at the front door when it is nearing time to drive off to the airport. |
| Lessons learned I under estimated the mission when choosing avionics for our RV. Simply put, I had no idea that my flying would evolve and that the desire to fly IMC would emerge. The focus on the RV being a sport plane clouded my judgement and the thought of it being IFR capable never seemed important during the construction. We are looking into an upgrade or two and cutting a new instrument panel to correct for this oversight during the original assembly |
Right the first time The only item that I knew our plane would have before even ordering the kit was a constant speed propeller. There has never been regret on this purchase, and while pricey the Hartzell really helps to give an already great flying plane that extra little bit of performance. We seldom roll past the runway numbers on takeoff and cruise climb at 1000 fpm thru 6,000'. We also enjoy the ability to run full throttle while reducing the rpm's to keep cabin noise down. If I had to choose between a fancy gismo in the panel or a constant speed prop the choice would be obvious. This feature really seems to pay dividends in performance and also helps to slow the plane down when we arrive at our destination. |
| Performance So what will she do? We typically see 162 knots TAS at 8,500 at full throttle and 2,300 rpm. This yields a 7 gallon per hour burn, but if we are willing to spend an extra $12 per hour we can cruise at 167 knots. The trade off doesn't seem like a good investment unless we are trying to keep up with faster RV's. (Or a certain Comanche) Sometimes seeing is believing. This picture was taken at 7,500' with full throttle and the rpm set to 2,300. The true airspeed is right at 186mph or 162 knots. For those desiring a 180 h.p. engine in their 9/9A this picture also clearly shows that there is 15 knots to play with still before getting to the yellow. If I could have seen this photo while building there would be an 0-360 under the hood today!
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Thank you very much We often receive comments on our Flag paint scheme. Twice we have had people drive around the perimeter of the airport looking for an entrance so that they can look at our plane up close and talk to us about it. One of these incidents took place at Lubbock, Texas and the other at our home field Reid Hillview in San Jose. At Lubbock the person was a custom car painter and wanted to know everything about the paint, and the painter, etc. The other occurance involved a fairly new citizen of the US who patted his chest with his open palm as he looked at "The Flag" and told us that our plane made him happy "Right here." He literally had tears welling up in his eyes and it was a very moving experience. I'll never forget that moment which was probably the proudest I've felt since finishing my airplane. Hit Counters? They don't work!!! Does anybody out there know how to write code for a counter that actually tracks visits accurately? After trying several free counters it has become obvious that they are off by around 40% when checked against the records provided by my host site. As an alternative to having a hit counter that can't add correctly, I'll update a graph from my hosting site and post it now and again instead. Below is the current site activity for 2009. It seems somebodies looking around at our story and I'd like to thank you for visiting. It looks like Sept. has been good to us.
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Our RV-9A
Our RV-9A first flew in August of 2004. After 3 1/2 years spent in the garage our plane finally slipped the surley bonds of earth and climbed towards the heavens. We have since flown to 18 states and 3 countries, and we have flown the shoreline on both the West and East Coasts of the United States as well. We are proud of the journeys that we have experienced in our RV and enjoy many new friendships that we have formed with people while sharing our love of flying. As Trish Russel once told us, "RV's come with friends." These words have turned out to be quite profound and insightful, and possibly even an understatement. . We have learned about long cross country traveling from others that have paved the way before us and welcomed us into their groups. In short this flying machine that began its life in a pile of metal on the floor of our garage has changed our lives. So if you see us at an airport please be sure to say hello because we are looking forward to meeting you.
