In the middle of a day when every piece of technology i own was beeping, blinking, ringing or otherwise doing it’s best to grab my attention, i was lucky enough to notice my caller ID indicating an incoming with “bruce gunther” showing in the display. i was happy to hear that he was planning to be in the vicinity the next day and wanted to know if i wanted to take a ride.
After Bruce left chester County, he made the trip down to woodbine, nj–1n4.
looking at the SR-20 among the other airplanes on the ramp is all you need to do to know that this company has built somthing truly unique. The ride was impressive, but what really stood out was the behaviour of the airplane at both edges of the envelope. In slow flite, it was rock solid. No slips, skids or feeling of mushy inputs. In cruise, it was almost as if it was hard wired into my brain. It reminded my of what it feels like the first time you drive a hi-performance car. the connection was amazing.
we landed at wwd and i jumped in the back and watched my CFI take a turn. It’s really amazing to watch a pilot with 45 yrs experience actually giggle when he flys.
landing was different in a number of ways, but bruce did a super job of talking us thru it. I was taught to pull throttle and drop flaps much earlier than he indicated. I thought that with a faster, greasier airplane i would pull off even sooner…not the case. abeam the numbers i was still at TPA and turning final i was 2-300 ft higher than “normal” I could feel my instructor suppressing his urge to tell me to slip or go around. Bruce just sat there calling the numbers and with full flaps on a hot day, the ship floated down at 80 kts like it was being lowered by a pulley.
The sloped cowl does take some getting used to as it provides a different set of visual cues in the flare.With Bruce’s help I supressed my urge to round out early and was able to make 2 of my 3 landings nicely. On the landing that i floated, the plane was very stable in ground affect and settled nicely.
All in all, a great experience…thanks bruce.