REFLECTOR: Slow flight characteristics

[Tom]

Thanks for all of the thoughts--yes, it is fixed gear and come to think 
of it I don't remember having this issue when I flew it the first few 
hours with no wheel pants. I didn't try slow flight back then but this 
is a good possibility. One thing that still baffles me is the high speed 
end is so good. When I owned a Mooney, if something was even slightly 
out of rig it significantly affected top end speeds. This past weekend I 
was the subject of a photo flight and the photos were taken from an 
IO520 Meyers (Grand Champion at Sun-N-Fun). I took off just a few 
seconds in front of him and it took him several minutes to catch me (I 
had to keep throttling back). Initially, in a no wind condition, we were 
doing 172 knots over the ground (not full throttle). When testing this 
past Monday, I pushed it over at 1000' and held it straight/level for 
about a minute at full throttle and indicated a/s was 182 knots. If it's 
crooked somewhere--we may want to patent it.