My USCG-themed RV-9A was completed this weekend.
I built it using a slow build kit, although I did get a jump-start, buying 90% completed wings from Ravi Thakker, another RV-9A owner.
The plane is all Garmin, all-glass, IFR, with a Lycoming IO-320 and a 3-blade-fixed pitch Catto prop with oxygen. From delivery of the first kit, to test flight was 25 months. Final paint came 3 months later.
When I started building, I was not a pilot. Flight training paralleled the building process. I received my Private, two days before the commencement of flight training. Dave Hirshman of AOPA mentored me through the first steps of flight training.
N1119A has flow about 70 hours, and it’s already been to the beaches of Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland and North Carolina, and completed cross-country trips to Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia. It cruises comfortably at 150 knots at 11,000 feet burning around 6 GPH. What’s not to love?!
–Steven Gross
I saw your beautiful RV-9A on a youtube stream replaying Oshkosh arrivals and departures. What a gorgeous airplane and a fantastic livery! I love how the RV-series looks good in just about any livery, from warbirds to really out-there schemes to, now, a USCG livery. Love it!