Yesterday began the actual odyssey of flight with the RV-7. Mike Seager has been teaching transition to the RV series for a long time and I’m the current beneficiary of his skill and knowledge.
I’m currently learning in his plane:
We cleared ourselves to take off through the fog (you can do this at uncontrolled airports, apparently) then punched out and headed for Hillsboro.
I thought after flying the Citabria for a while, I’d have this nailed, but no, not even close. The RV with constant speed prop is a completely different animal. There’s a lot to do very quickly: it’s very easy to get behind this airplane, especially with the added workload of the constant speed prop and the fact that it climbs like a rocket.
The EFIS is another twist. Mine is different and I kept relying on the steam gauges rather than the display. So pitch/power/trim/heading was a handful and I’m less than satisfied with my performance in that regard.
Ground ops are different from the Citabria as well. Way more emphasis is placed on differential braking than rudder control and feet come off the floor for braking, which I’m not used to. Mike has you brake instead of eating up a load of runway on landing.
Speaking o which, I need work on landings. One thing different about this plane is that I can’t see over the nose in stall attitude. I can in the Citabria, so that’s given me the bad habit of trying with the RV. It doesn’t work.
On the plus side, we took a little side trip to the Van’s Aircraft factory in Aurora. The Mothership!
Then we went back to Vernonia for debrief. More tomorrow.
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