I don't have a lot of folks reading this blog, but noticed I still get traffic from VAF and other builders wanting to "look over my shoulder" at what I did during the build. I thought I'd put in a general update since I'm about 3 1/2 years and 350 hours into flying this wonderful bird.
Things I'd change - not much. I have a hankering for a Nav radio. So far all my IFR flying has been GPS (as I expected) but it would be nice to have the redundancy or to be able to shoot an ILS on the fly going into somewhere at night (like at KROA).
The aircraft has performed absolutely to Van's specs. I had to make a couple of adjustments to my prop. When I called Sensenich about it, they suggested I start with a 4 pitch setting (there are pins that set the pitch on the ground adjustable prop). That turned out to be *very* conservative and was basically a climb prop. I often would hit 2000fpm even on a warm day at takeoff, and my max top speed once I got my fairings sorted out was around 142-145kts.
I next tried a setting of 6 for the pitch, and although that was much better, I still could easily go past redline (2700 rpm) at altitude so I knew I needed to add more pitch.
The last change was to a 7 pitch. That puts me at about 165kts true at 8500 and 2650 rpm. I can go faster than that if I want, but I'm burning about 9gph and I prefer to drop back to about 2500 rpm, 7.5 gph and 156 kts true for my cross countries. You have to be careful during a descent. If I push the nose over at altitude (not a lot, just 7-800 fpm descent) I'll blow through 180kts in a hearbeat, so I generally do the descent with a power reduction and keep in the 160kts range.
I've had no issues at all with dual PMags and would do that again in a heartbeat. The VPX has also been great, love being able to see the load on every part of the system down to .1 amps. I wish I'd gotten the Pro. If I add more power I have a sub panel fuse box, but it would have been nice to have the actual breakers.
I wish there had been LED landing lights when I built mine. I'm going to do dual wig wags, but haven't gotten to that yet.
After 3 years, I still get comments about how tight the controls are and how responsive the aircraft is. There is no slop whatever. You move the stick and the plane responds. During my last flight review, I had a fairly young instructor that had flow a Bonanza but had never been in an experimental. His comments were pretty funny (I just let him fly for about 10 minutes so he could enjoy it). "I feel like I've been lied to and cheated," he said. "I had no idea there were airplanes that flew like this". :) Funny thing is the RV-9 is quite a bit tamer than it's aerobatic brethren. I know what he means though - this is what I always thought a plane would fly like but never did.
I have the manual trim and that has been great as well. It is very sensitive yet easy to dial in to get exactly what you want. I probably should install the aileron trim (I have it still) but never have. Single pilot it tends to want to turn left a bit due to the weight, but it's no big deal.
Fuel cube works like a dream. I had to change the multiplier a bit, but I now know by actual burn within a few 10ths of a gallon.
Cross countries are great. Love the Dynon with the autopilot. ADS/B works great, and I can fly a coupled approach right down to minimums with the 400W and it will be bang on the runway. Acceleration and takeoff distances are also awesome. Synthetic vision is amazing as well. I'd love to have the HDX since I think the engine along the bottom is brilliant, but I can't complain with what I've got. Both my D10 and Skyview easily have an hour of life during actual power off testing, so the redundancy is there if I need it. PMags also work flawlessly sans power so long as you keep the rpms over about 800.
All the flight testing numbers came in bang on with what the CAFE testing did. Clean stall is 49kts, dirty is 42. Stalls are a total non-event - just wallows along losing altitude.
