Well this past weekend I went to an event my boss' neighborhood put on. He lives on a fly-in - a neighborhood situated around a 2500' grass runway. I took the Beat out there and parked it in the car show section - not that many cars, but I had some people interested in it.
Due to weather, only about 8 planes showed up, but it was cool. A guy took me up in his RV-7A and actually let me fly it once we got some altitude. The RV-7A is a fully aerobatic plane, and we did a roll and some fairly steep climbs after buzzing the runway at about 40 ft! I think we pulled between 2 and 2.5 g's on the climbs, and he said he was taking it easy on me. This airplane is capable of 200 mph and was a joy to ride in and fly.
Now I want one. Seriously. It's an experimental plane and is a kit you build. The owner said it took him 4 years to build it. You can even buy the kit in four stages, which makes it even more affordable. To throw some GS-worthy discussion in here, it is more efficient than just about any other airplane. For example, it will cruise at 190 mph while still getting better than 20 mpg, which is good for a small plane.
It won't be any time very soon, but I am feeling pretty confident I can get myself into one of these.
Oh, and the wife took a ride in my boss' airplane, and she loved it, so it won't be too hard to convince her.
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