Have you changed your mind?

[spikescopilot]

Pretty bad when your are squealed on by your own wife. She's down in Orlando now on business, she must be bored. Thanx hon!

You squealed on yourself -- I was just posting pictures of you in different airplanes.

[tmbg]

The biggest thing though was the plane itself. Patti and I seriously considered selling off the 9 to do something else. The short list ended up containing the RV10, Sportsman (in the above picture), and the DA-40XL.. The sportsman seriously impressed me with fit, visibility, and performance. Specifically the useful load was impressive. In then end though we decided to stay with the 9. We aren't convinced that its the best plane for us for a few reasons, but, it will be a fantastic aircraft, and its financially the best option at this point.

You've gotten awfully soft on the RVs lately, what exactly is going through your collective brain? What is it about the 9 that's not living up to your expectations, and has this changed from when you first made the decision to start building?

Come on man, you're starting to get depressing!!

[Spike]

You squealed on yourself -- I was just posting pictures of you in different airplanes.

Yes, in a thread about changing your mind. Don't play coy with me you goober. I see right through it.

You've gotten awfully soft on the RVs lately, what exactly is going through your collective brain? What is it about the 9 that's not living up to your expectations, and has this changed from when you first made the decision to start building?

Slow down there Nelly. I haven't gotten soft on the RV's, and there is nothing about the 9 that isn't living up to my expectations. Its a fantastic airplane, as a matter of fact, all of the RV are fantastic planes. Van has done some incredible things with his line of aircraft, not one of them is a loser. I have definitely lost some love for the company though and the way that it interfaces with its customer base. That however, really doesn't effect my view of their product. Its top notch and I suspect if you were to ask the company leadership they will tell you thats the point.

So, lets answer your real question which is probably along the lines of why would I consider walking away from the 9 and doing something else? There are two reasons. The first is that there are planes out now that either were not out when I started, were just coming out, or were not in a usable form. The second reason, is that if I honestly look at it, I failed in doing enough due diligence during my selection process back in '04. Thats a sucky thing to admit to, but its true.

Basically Patti and I decided to start the process over again, coming up with criteria, looking at both certified & uncertified aircraft. Thats how we came up with the short list. Ultimately what we found out was that the 9 is not the best option out there for us, without respect to cost. The RV10 or Sportsman would be, primarily to cabin comfort. I also have grown very appreciative of the downward visibility the sportsman provides.

The two areas that the 9 lose out in are cabin comfort (though its still much better than my Cessna) and useful load. However, the 9 is priced better for us. We came really close to putting money on an RV10 tail cone while there, but the idea of $40K for an engine put that down.

So we are sticking with the 9 and looking for ways to "do it up right". We were happy to see a Classic Aero interior up close in a 7 at Osh and think this will probably be the way we go. That should go a long way towards cabin comfort.

[tmbg]

thanks for clearing that up a bit.... it's perfectly understandable spelled out like that!

I definitely understand where you're coming from on the comfort angle; I'm not exactly svelte, and the RV-7 is a hair tight for me, but not really any more so than my cherokee is. I don't know how the 9 compares to the 7 in terms of cabin room.

The biggest complaint I have about the interior space is that, for me, the area in between the arm rest and the longeron is essentially wasted. The longeron digs into the meat of my upper arm, and I can't get my elbow outboard far enough to even use the armrest!

Anyway, so long as you don't run off and abandon us, build whatever you want to build!

[tshort]

I like the sportsman, too - taildragger or floats ... that thing is sweet!

T.

[svanarts]

I was half way toward cancelling the deposit on my wing kit. I went and sat in a CH-701 and it fit me perfectly. Great visibility, excellent short field performance, and butt-ugly. Don't care about the looks. I do like rugged short field airplanes though. However, I've already started on the RV-7 so I will stick with that until complete and fly it for a while.

[JohnR]

Scott, I like the 701 and they are pretty close to me. After talking with a few people though it seems they have to land with power on or they loose elevator authority. Probably no big deal but I didn't like the sounds of it. Plus it was on the opposite end of the spectrum performance wise. Once the 7A is done maybe I'll look at them again.

I should run down and take a demo ride sometime. If I do I'll report back on what I think.