RV-9A is a great training aircraft
I purchased my flying 9A with about 25 hours of flight time after passing the Sport Pilot flight test, and having a lot to learn. I trained for the Private Pilot test with another 20 hours of instruction in my airplane, and a lot of flying solo. It was/is a fantastic training airplane! The DAR was impressed with my flying and landing, especially because I took my check ride at night! After I got my license I have embarked on numerous cross country flights, and several have been coast to coast, OSH three times, and 120 different airports and 700 hours to date. The airplane will fly a coupled ILS or RNAV approach with slight adjustments in power and trim. The first major crosswind landing I ever performed was a surprise just how well it tracked the centerline down to the runway, and landed on one wheel, then the other, while still keeping me safe. The airplane and its wonderful wing, flaps, and rudder will take care of you. It does require proper speed and height management on approach with a fixed pitch propeller. Being too fast or high will cause you to float and use up precious runway. Not a big deal though on most runways, but comes into play on short runways. It does a wonderful slip, to reduce altitude and slow down as well. I always slip with right rudder for the best view of the runway, and because of that, save the right tank with more fuel for landing generally to keep from unporting the fuel pickup. The airplane instills confidence in these situations, but if you bounce, immediate full throttle and go around should always be in your training so that becomes automatic in my opinion. I have dual Dynon displays with a GTN-650 navigator and Dynon autopilot and it is a very capable airplane for local and long distance flying. I would stay away from manual elevator trim because the electronic servo trim works excellent and you use trim a lot in this airplane.