Patty and I flew to Portland, then shuttled to pick up a 24' U-Haul truck (which is really pushing 40' in overall length). Then we were off to Aurora and Van's to pick up the airplane.
Van's was extremely efficient and friendly. The drove the monster truck around back to begin loading while they took us for a factory tour. I was pretty interested and impressed with their CNC punch presses. This technology may apply to one of the companies I am involved with.
I finally got the demo ride. I came away pleased, but was expecting a wider "RV Grin" . We flew the RV7 to provide best visibility for me. We were very close to gross, maybe over MTOGW. Takeoff was a short 600'. Climb out was a respectable 1000'/minute at 90K. I had been lead to believe that it should be double that. This demonstrator had an O320 with a fixed pitch prop, making it equivalent to a Piper PA28-140. So the demonstrator clearly out-performed the Piper.
