Rick's F1 Rocket Flies

Well....I finally got my wing root fairings back from paint today so there was no reason to not fly the Rocket. All I can say is W-O-W. So far I'm very impressed with the way the plane 'feels' in the air. Best words I can come up with the describe the way it flew is 'ROCK SOLID'. No quirks, no funny feelings.....just powerful and smooth, no heavy wings and no unusual tendencies. All temps and pressures were in the green. LOTS of available pitch and roll trim. I did a little half throttle take off and flew it over the Mid Ohio Valley Airport at 4k' for about 25 minutes. Took some notes on my kneeboard (CHT's/EGT's Oil temp/press/fuel flow/etc) and did some slow speed with flaps before bringing it in for a landing. The 3 blade Whirlwind prop sounds great in the cockpit and is smooth as a whistle. Matter of fact I took my headset off for a few seconds and I'll have to say that the IO-540 was a lot quieter than the other RV's I've been flying lately....reminded me of my RV10 (for obvious reasons). Biggest difference in the cockpit from all the RV's I've built was looking over that long nose.....plenty of S turns on the taxi way......of course the sound and feel of that I0-540 on a 2 place wasn't overlooked ).

Oh yea...the landing was a squeaker....of course....ha ha. The next
few will make up for it I'm sure :^).

Now that all the parts are on the plane I plan to fly it as much as possible to get the engine broken in. I'll do one more short flight this morning like last nights flight then I'll take it up to altitude and start the break in. Just want to make sure everything is in order before I go too far.

She's a sweetie .

Congratulatios,

You are never gonna be the same again. Its just the nicest flying plane evr made.

Post a bunch of pics so we can all be jealous.

Rick,

Great to hear that you are in the air and everything is good so far. I can still recall the sensation from my first flight when I entered the pattern and pulled the throttle back. It slowed very nicely and was very solid, it just felt right.

I look forward to seeing it in person. Maybe you can buzz over to II87 when your hours are flown off.

Can't wait to see this baby.

Congrats Rick!

Nose Camera

Congratulations, Rick. I'd love to see some photos. Sounds like she's another fine airplane from your shop.

Your comment below reminded me of something...

rv6rick said:

... Biggest difference in the cockpit from all the RV's I've built was looking over that long nose.....plenty of S turns on the taxi way...

Click to expand...

My son and I went to the Reno Air Races in September. Jon Sharp who designed, developed and flies NEMESIS NXT uses a lipstick camera so he doesn't have to S-turn while taxi-ing. It's just a suggestion that you might consider as it seems to work for long-nosed taildraggers like NEMESIS NXT. I didn't know this until after I had photographed his plane. Otherwise I would have tried to get a shot of not only the camera but also the cockpit. There may be some links out there that would provide more info on his setup.[ UPDATE: I found a Budd Davisson article complete with photos of a nose camera...for less than $400! In case anyone is interested...]

Don

GRT Demo

Hi Rick,

Glad to hear you're flying.

I noticed you are writting down some engine performance numbers. Good idea for the first flights. May I suggest you use the DEMO Record function in the EFIS? This will record all the data coming into the display and allow you to play it back on the ground in real time, at your leisure.

If you use the GRT DeCode (just Google it) by Carl Morgan you can put the engine data into a spreadsheet and even plot your flight path on Google Earth.

Best regards,

Carlos Fernandez
GRT Avionics

P.S. Rick's Rocket is gorgeous, inside and out!

Thanks for the comments and congrats......I appreciate it!

I've only had one minor issue thus far....'off' reading on the Manifold Pressure....a call to Grand Rapids got me a different scale factor and offset and the reading was immediatly corrected. This is the THIRD set of EFIS screens that I've purchased from GRT (RV8/RV10/F1 Rocket)....there is a very good reason that I choose to do business with them.....simply put....THEY ROCK!

Flew 3 flights yesterday. Each flight gets better and better. I thought my RV's were slippery....the Rocket is quite a bit faster and with the shorter wings is noticibly more 'slippery'....she really scoots . Climb out is like an express elevator going to the TOP floor....truly effortless and very impressive....I've never experienced anything like it. The 3 blade Whirlwind '400 Rocket' prop is so smooth it's just 'crazy'. One thing I really notice over the 2 blade Hartzell BA I had on my RV10 (which I thought was great) is that when you crank the engine for start....intstead of just 'turning over' the prop...it 'spins' the prop....hard to explain but very noticable...in a good way. Handling is superb and landings are a walk in the park. It flies great right out of the box. I've had more than my share of RV's...this is my first Rocket....you Rocket Guys are right.....just call me 'Mr. Spoiled' .

Carlos....thanks for your input on using the recording feature. I've been writing down all my CHT's/EGT's at various power settings on my kneeboard....paying close to attention to #1/#2 CHT's. They were on the high side for the 1st 2 flights but have already to started to settle in. The short of it is that 'I forgot' about the record feature. I'll put it to good use tomorrow when I fly again....raining here in Ohio today. Also....thanks for your kind comments on the Rocket pics I sent you!

There are a couple of pics in this thread...the wing root fairings are now on and the tape has been removed:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=260278#post260278

Everybody needs to at least 'ride' in a Rocket !

CarlosF@grtavionics said:

Hi Rick,

Glad to hear you're flying.

I noticed you are writting down some engine performance numbers. Good idea for the first flights. May I suggest you use the DEMO Record function in the EFIS? This will record all the data coming into the display and allow you to play it back on the ground in real time, at your leisure.

If you use the GRT DeCode (just Google it) by Carl Morgan you can put the engine data into a spreadsheet and even plot your flight path on Google Earth.

Best regards,

Carlos Fernandez
GRT Avionics

P.S. Rick's Rocket is gorgeous, inside and out!

Click to expand...

Thanks Don.

Yes....I find myself being 'extra cautious' in the taxi mode and not taking the road ahead for granted. Vis dead ahead over the nose is not good but I can see off to both sides quite well...... a couple of S turns never hurt anyone! Rocket builder Vince Frazier from the Indy Gang put a camera and screen in his Rocket and has posted his thoughts on it. Mixed reviews for some as you can imagine. My thoughts are to keep my head outside and 'S' turn but a glance at a live video sure wouldn't hurt.

rv7boy said:

Congratulations, Rick. I'd love to see some photos. Sounds like she's another fine airplane from your shop.

Your comment below reminded me of something...



My son and I went to the Reno Air Races in September. Jon Sharp who designed, developed and flies NEMESIS NXT uses a lipstick camera so he doesn't have to S-turn while taxi-ing. It's just a suggestion that you might consider as it seems to work for long-nosed taildraggers like NEMESIS NXT. I didn't know this until after I had photographed his plane. Otherwise I would have tried to get a shot of not only the camera but also the cockpit. There may be some links out there that would provide more info on his setup.[ UPDATE: I found a Budd Davisson article complete with photos of a nose camera...for less than $400! In case anyone is interested...]

Don

Click to expand...

As you know....I'm really enjoying the new Rocket . Continuing to take baby steps as this airplane is still a bit out in front of me...even with about 1000hrs in various RV's.

Taking my time to learn the plane, I now have about 8 hours on it. I did my first 'slow flight' on Saturday......I wanted to call it 'stall practice' but I never did actually 'stall' the airplane so I'll be repeating this exercise over the next couple of sessions. 'My' slow flight numbers are 48kts with flaps and 53kts with no flaps. Needless to say I was quite impressed....for the record this is the Sport Wing.

All temps are in the green.

I know everyone wants to know how fast it is.....imagine that . It's been very consistent at about 5k' showing 190kts TAS at 23 squared. A little less than 24 squared yields 203 kts. I've been up to 25 squared a few times now and the TAS shows a solid 215kts......all of this coming from the GRT. I'll be doing some 4 way GPS runs in the near future to see how the numbers compare. The higher the power setting, the more the Whirlwind 400 Rocket prop seems to 'kick in'. Fuel flows are still higher than normal as I'm running well on the rich side to keep the cyl temps in the 390F range. It'll be a few more hours till I get an idea of 'normal' fuel rates....for now I'm just paying the price....and am thankful that fuel is a little less than it has been. I've had it as low as ~9gph at ~165kts but didn't leave it there long as I'm in the break in period.

I also did my first 10 or so rolls in the plane Saturday. As expected with the shorter wing it has a lot faster roll rate than all of my RV's did.

Climb rates are very impressive and it lands like a pussy cat.

How does it compare to the RV's? All I can say is that I 'thought' that the RV grin couldn't get any bigger.....what can I say...I was wrong !

Here's a new pic....sorry for the quality....(I think) it looks better in person:



Everything's for sale .

Rick, you dumb test

Really nice Rocket!!






Just in case you didn''t know Rick, your "take the dumb test" is an advertizing SCAM!

regards

*Title should read" Rick, your dumb test", oops.

Thanks Lorne....I'm finding out what the hub-bub was about first hand !

Not sure why the 'dumb test' pops up under the 'imageshack photo'....it's attached when using 'imageshack' to insert photos....maybe Doug knows how to remove or avoid it??

lorne green said:

Really nice Rocket!!

Just in case you didn''t know Rick, you "take the dumb test" is an advertizing SCAM

regards

Click to expand...

rv6rick said:

Not sure why the 'dumb test' pops up under the 'imageshack photo'....it's attached when using 'imageshack' to insert photos....maybe Doug knows how to remove or avoid it??

Click to expand...

I use the "hotlink for forums #1", copy/ paste, & then delete the second URL paragraph.

L.Adamson

I just deleted the 2nd URL paragraph as you suggested....it was the link to the 'dummy test'.

Thankya'

L.Adamson said:

I use the "hotlink for forums #1", copy/ paste, & then delete the second URL paragraph.

L.Adamson

Click to expand...