Ray Fessenden’s New RV-9A | Langley B.C. Canada RV-9A #91413

Congrats to Ray, who writes:

Had instructor Bob Salway ride with me. Weather at CYXX [Abbotsford] was CAVOK with no wind. Aeroplane is a slow build with a Titan O-320 D1A and a hartzell propeller. It has all Van’s steam gauges and a sliding canopy.

The aeroplane jumped off the ground and established a positive climb rate. It had a heavy wing. I reached down and neutralized the aileron trim.

Flies beautiful and straight.

Controls are very sensitive and elevator trim very effective compared to my 172. Stalled the aeroplane. Stall is about 45MPH but the stall warning started blaring about 75 MPH. Approach speed was too fast because of the stall warning and touched down going too fast. Could feel the nose wheel shimmy. Taxi was normal and most of the steering could be accomplished with the air rudder with just light taps on a brake. Now I must read the instructions and adjust the stall warning vane and check the friction on the nose wheel fork.

Looking forward to the next flight. 0.7 hours today. Only 24.3 hours to go to get the permanent C of A. This aeroplane is going to take a bit of time before I am totally comfortable in it.