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Putting an RV Grin on a former RV builder's face

N941WR

Legacy Member
My neighbor Nick had his father visiting this week. Walt is in his mid-80's now and is a retired airline pilot. Nick followed in his father's footsteps and is an active airline pilot.

Walt had built an RV-4, -8, Hatz, and a Zinair 750, which he currently flies. He is also helping a friend build an RV-7.

Just before lunch I texted Nick and asked if his father wanted to go for a ride. The obvious answer was a resounding YES!

Walt is not very tall, maybe 5'-5" and after sitting down in the -9, he realized that he couldn't see over the nose and asked about that. He had flown his -4, 8, and a 6 before but he said he had never had a problem seeing over the nose. No big deal, he didn't want to do the takeoff or landing.

We took off and after we climbed about 400 feet he took over the controls. After some gentle turns, a couple of 1G stalls, and some other maneuvers, he declared that the RV-9 flies like an RV. He also was surprised that in level flight, the nose dropped away and visibility was better than he had feared with the tail down.

We cruised up to the mountains, over a reservoir, circled my son’s school where we circled the playground at 1000’ AGL and he was outside waving at us. (Doug R., I was thinking of you!)

Slowing down to get in the pattern, the winds were a direct crosswind and blowing at 17 knots according to the Dynon Skyview and based on how I had to work for my landing.

Our 2500’ tree lined grass strip is more or less North/South which can make landing in a crosswind and interesting challenge.

As we came down final for 15, our airspeed was jumping up and down 10 knots, the nose was cocked way off to the right, and we were getting bounced all over the place. Once below the trees I started using my feet as a yaw dampener, kicked in left rudder and right aileron while still pumping them ever so slightly, straightening the plane out for what I anticipated to be a very rough arrival.

As it turned out, we touched down so smooth you could hear the grass on the tires before you could feel them rolling on the runway. No bounce, no skip, no forced arrival, it just rolled on as smooth as could be.

My 30,000+ hour retired airline pilot passenger was very impressed and so was I. Thank GOD he didn’t challenge me to do it again!

While I pride myself in my ability to land the -9 in any weather condition, this was one of those landings that I will be thinking about for the next year or so.

In the debrief, Walt was really surprised by the speed range the -9 is capable of, all RV’s for that matter. Mostly what got him was when we slowed to 60 knots on downwind and started downhill for the landing. He thought that was way too slow and kept looking at the airspeed indicator, thinking we are were close to the stall, which we were not.
 
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Nice story! Just remember great landings like that are like winning lottery tickets
Myself I'm happy the airplanes have been reusable thus far :)
 
Walt always having fun flying. Please come home soon and help me finish the 7! Than we can see if it competes with that 9 ?
 
Walt always having fun flying. Please come home soon and help me finish the 7! Than we can see if it competes with that 9 ?

Good luck finishing the -7. Having Walt close by must be an outstanding resource!

He is having fun helping Nick with his massive hangar. They got the door opening and closing and a bunch of other tasks completed.
 
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