It seemed to take forever to accumulate the 25 hours of air time stuck in the 25 mile radius of Stettler (as dictated by my flight restrictions). Right around the first week of July, I satisfied these requirements and submitted my paperwork to Transport Canada. It took two weeks for the Edmonton office of Transport Canada to process the paperwork and now I can legally carry a passenger and travel just about anywhere I choose.

My first passenger was my wife Judy, who has been a great supporter of the project since we first drove down to Oregon to pick up the wing and tail section kits eight years ago. Judy helped buck all the tough rivets on the wings and fuselage. She was always willing to crawl into the tail section of the RV to hold the bucking bar and get her teeth rattled by my rivet gun!

Judy’s first flight in the RV9A

We left Stettler on Sunday morning and did a nice wide circle tour of the area. The air was more or less stable and we had a great flight. The workload around the ranch is easing a little as we get caught up and now we can start making day trips to visit friends in other parts of the province.

It finally came together, all the elements that are required for a successful first flight. My test pilot’s work schedule, the weather and the aircraft’s essential paperwork. We did 1.2 hrs at 75% power stuck in the big racetrack around the home field. There were a few snags to attend to when we returned to the hanger. Second flight was about 1.9 hours in a 10 mile racetrack square (sort of square). The aircraft flew great. Rick pronounced it as a perfect flier. He has about 15000 hours at the controls so I consider this to be a complement to an excellent kit and the time and care put into the project. We had a lot of competition for airspace that day as the geese are migrating right now and formation flights were everywhere. Flew beside a flock of snow geese at 5000 feet asl for a moment or two. I have had the 10 hour transition training session with Mike Seager in July which  prepared me for the flight. I have been flying a CH701 STOL for the last 14 years. That is probably the worst plane to transition to a RV9A from, IMO.

A ton of thanks to my wife, Judy who has supported this project 100% of the way. Judy was my bucking partner for all the tough parts and quality control. She also paid all the bills so there is no secret as to how much this one cost.

Also thanks to Doug Reeves for hosting the Vans Airforce. I found the answer to many a question that came up over the course of the project.

Yes it took eight years to complete but its been a great experience and learning for me. I’d do it again, but first we must fly!

Mike’s wife Georgina makes all the T-Shirts for Vans and also does custom embroidery with her custom Brother embroidery machine. I couldn’t resist getting a custom tee shirt done for me while I was there.

Notice how I said the transition training wraps up at Vernonia? Yes there is a lot more flying to do before I am ready to fly off into the sunset with Tango Lima Lima. Over the last three days I picked up 10 hours of RV flying time, learned a number of new skills and was refreshed on many I had let rust up. I am getting close to managing a proper RVA landing but still haven’t got it yet. To get there I am going to have to fly many more hours (in the 701) and get back into the spot I was in 2007 when I flew a lot more. I did pretty good on the upper air work, take-off weren’t too bad once I quit fisting the stick and held it with my thumb and forefinger. The circuit had its good and bad moments. Mike flies what I first thought was a real tight circuit but it’s really by the book and everyone who was training in 172s at the airport flies long and wide bomber circuits. What was amusing is that as soon as we got in the circuit doing stop and goes, everyone else tightened up their circuits to keep in sync with us. Mike chuckles. So with this RV aircraft, if you don’t hit the numbers (airspeed, rpm, altitude) as effectively as possible, the rest of the circuit gets squished up and you run out of time (get too far out on downwind leg or too far on base leg) All of these situations can get you into a difficult spot.

I think that its easy to get tricked into thinking that this aircraft has very docile and easy to manage flight characteristics for low time pilots. The company literature might make you come to that conclusion “It’s so easy to fly that low time pilots can make a quick and painless transition”. Mike assured me that the RV9A is same aircraft to land, just does it 10 mph slower than the RV6A we were practicing in.

Flying in the coastal hills and mountains has been a real change for this flatland flyer. I was starting to get my bearings by the end of this session and figured out the local features so at least I had a rough idea of where we were most of the time.

I finished for the day, Carl gets the 7 ready to go. I was totally soaked as Mike worked me hard in the circuit (plus it was in the mid 80’s, probably 90’s in the cabin)

All that confession aside, this morning we met up the Van’s man himself at the fuel stop in Scappoose. Richard (Van) VanGrunsven and another staffer were flying up for the Arlington Airshow and stopped for fuel in the RV10A. It seems the starter pad had worked its way loose over time and the starter was unable to engage the ring gear when they tried to restart after fuel up. It was unfortunate for them but I enjoyed the chance to go over and help them get the lower cowling back on after tightening up starter bolts. Van is such a nice gentleman.

Tomorrow its back to Calgary and then the drive home. Its been a very good experience and will pay off big time.

This is the original factory RV6A. It has over 5000 hours on it and three shades of blue for all the pieces that have been replaced. It still feels and sounds solid as we bump over Mikes grass strip.

Today was my first day of transition training with Mike Seager down south in Vernonia Oregon. I flew into Portland yesterday via Alaska Airways from Calgary and then grabbed a rental car for the hour or so drive over to the town of Vernonia. Mike has a couple of hangers at the Vernonia airport just outside of town. Mike has been running transition training sessions for many years and has many thousands of hours experience training with RVs. This week we are training in a RV6A which according to Mike flies the same way as my RV9A, only about 10 mph faster for most of the standard procedures like cruise, flap extension, downwind and final.

Any thing I had read or heard about the RV9A being as easy to fly as a 172 have been discarded after today. Everything happens quickly in this aircraft and a light touch (not grip) on the stick is all that is required. Mike puts a lot of work into getting the trainee into the right mindset for unloading the nose wheel.

I am learning how to steer the aircraft with only differential braking on the mains which is really different from steering with a nose wheel. I feel pretty humbled by this task, darn hard to keep the rudder pedals neutral and keep the aircraft going in a straight line. It was better at the end of the day than it was this morning but still not a pretty scene.

The takeoffs require a technique that involves holding the stick back when power is added, lifting the nose wheel off and then pushing the stick forward slightly until the aircraft lifts off. It happens too quick for me yet, still not ahead of the aircraft this early in the game.

We flew over to Scappoose KSPB which has a paved runway and practiced the circuit and landing procedures. Today we did 6 landings there and two back at the home strip. It was pretty ugly work on my part but I am optimistic it will improve a lot by the end of the week. We also worked on upper air work today, steep turns, climbs, slow flight and stalls. The air was pretty rough in the afternoon but my attention was on the task at hand.

One thing for sure, I have acquired some pretty bad flying habits that Mike is working on breaking. In my 701 I use the trim tab to set aircraft altitude and not the elevator. I usually only use the elevator for takeoff and landing control. In the RV6A I have to use the elevator to get to desired altitude and then trim to hold that altitude. I can see the fault with my old technique now as I am always fiddling with the trim wheel to maintain level flight.

Landing at the home field is pretty cool. You approach the end of the runway at a 45 degree angle where a path is cut through the forest going down the mountain side. You come out of the forest and then lineup with the runway for what’s left of a final approach and landing. This goes on at 85 mph and a decent rate of 500 fpm until you’re over the runway, then cut power and glide in.

So that’s today summary. I was pretty well drained by the end of todays session. Mike asked me a question on final approach to the home field to which I answered, “sorry Mike, I can’t process that question right now “, I only had enough brain left to fly the plane!

Tomorrow will be a great day, sunshine and warm weather.