A future RV-10 / RV-14 pilot!
Added Summer 2015I couldn't resist posting this little blurb.
Everyone's heard of kids refered to as my "Pride and Joy"...
Well, this certainly is an example of something that brings great pride and great joy to my heart. My youngest has started official flying lessons! For the past couple years she has taken the time to have me teach her how to land the plane. We've done some basic airwork, and stalls, and spent many turns around the pattern as I show her the procedures involved in landing the RV-10. She's been very good at paying attention. I didn't want to make it too overbearing, so I spared her the details on some of the how's and why's, and didn't show her how to preflight or any of the other things you would have to know, but showed her the more enjoyable side of learning to fly. The result was she had a lot of fun, and quickly became capable of landing the RV-10 often without much or any help. Certainly she can be counted on to taxi, take off, and climb/cruise/trim the plane, but landing really was great to see, from a fathers perspective. With that experience in hand, it was time to get her a bit more firm training. Since I'm not yet done with the RV-14, we decided to just have her fly with an instructor we know and trust, and use her 150 for the first few hours of instruction. And since my daughter won't even be able to solo for quite a while yet, she would only do a few lessons this summer and next summer as well. By 2016 summer though, she should be able to do those lessons in an RV-14, which will be very exciting for all of us. I personally believe the RV-10 is a great flying airplane, and the RV-14 should be identically great in flying qualities. Yes, it is much more than a trainer and being slick and fast, it will be easy to get behind the airplane. But, I've found that if one flies such a plane a while, that becomes their new "comfort zone". So while I would normally suggest all people learn in slow planes at first, I think in her case, growing up in faster planes has made it more "normal" for her and she'll do well with it. Certainly the RV-14 will be less complex from a controls and instrument standpoint, even if it does have a C/S propeller and many gizmos. Glass is just far more put together than a steam gauge panel.
Anyway, here are some photos from her first couple lessons...
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