An ex Zodiac builder speaks
 

I can't fault your decision to build an RV but having built and flown the zodiac for 7 years I can tell you its a pretty stout little airplane. What you forgot to mention was the wing folded right after it was bolted on the airplane by the new owner. The airplane was taking a brief check out flight after re mounting the wings. The airplane had flown perfectly well before.

I don't have the exact facts but it is highly likely the new owner left the nuts off the spar bolts or left bolts out.

Hardly the airplane's fault.

I would have liked to see a response from Zenair as well though.

Frank

Light stick and passenger
 

Steve buddy, I have about a grand of time in RV-4's, just be careful, when you have a passenger the stick forces get very very very light. I had flown quite a bit solo acro in the dash 4. I remember the first time I did my normal 3 g pull-up with a passenger, I over shot quite a bit, say 4.5 g. Also landing you can't flare too much, you almost hold forward stick to keep the tail off, depending on speed. My RV-4 was at the fwd CG limit solo BTW. Just be careful.

I only mention this to you because of the factory RV-8 accident we are discussing. There is no doubt they where over acro gross weight and that one guy had little or no RV-8 experience. Both being former or current Ag pilots, I am sure the passenger was use to higher stick forces. Although I don't know who was actually flying at the time of the accident I could see the light stick force catching them by surprise, and since the the pilot trusted the passenger, who was a buddy, he might have been less vigulant. I know I was surprised when I first flew my RV-4 two up. A RV-4 and guess the RV-8 are two different planes solo v. dual.

Again the RV-4 stick gets real light with aft CG. I am sure the RV-8 is the same. It is so easy for a passenger to yank on the stick at high speed and remove the wings. Key of course is doing maneuvers at or below maneuvering speed. There was another near miss in a RV-4 when a passenger, the pilot assumed the passenger knew what to do since he was a real Acro Pro? The passenger preceded to do a Split-S from near cruise speed. They pulled out well over 9 g's and past Vne. There where permanent wrinkles. With that said, I think the RV-4/6 had wings might have a slight edge with greater structural margin than the newer design RV-7/RV-8, which are strong enough but not over built. Lesson is just don't let anyone play with your stick.

That's why I took the rudder pedals and stick out of the back seat of my Rocket. I had dual controls on my RV-6 and my son's friend had us upside down at 1600' in a hearbeat thinking he was flying his computer.

If I can't see them, they aren't touching the controls.

Exact opposite of what my dad told me. :cool:

First of all, just to clarify, I have no axe to grind - just a little hangar talk here...

As an engineer, I get razzed by friends, coworkers and family for never really committing 100% to any judgement or expectation. At work I've been asked, "Why did the compressor fail?" "Well, I can say with 95% certainty that the blah, blah, blah...."

Later on, inevitably, operations would ask, "Will the repaired compressor work?" "Well, we believe it will." "Bryan, can't you ever just say yes or no?!" "No." :D

Why did the wing fail on N58RV? God is the only one who knows with 100% certainty. I believe (having reasonable knowledge of the physics, materials and structure) with 99+% certainty that the wing failed due to overload.

The metallurgical exam showed no fatigue, pre-existing damage, corrosion and that the material met spec. These results are conclusive to me with 99++% certainty. Plus all the other circumstantial info... Just curious, but what else could it have been?

And, yes, the RV-8 stick forces get a lot lighter with a someone in the back. After letting an "F-16 pilot colonel" fly from the backseat of my RV once (can you say holy cr@p!), I never let a new pilot fly without me encircling the front stick with both my hands. This way I can grab my stick ;) within a fraction of a second, and they can't move it more than a 1/2 inch or so.

...up to about 8 cents now, I believe

there you go, thats my thought as well.

Bryan and GMC,

You guys nailed it. I was also stunned at how pitch sensitive my -8 becomes with a typically sized GIB. (Typical these days being over 200 lbs.) On one flight I was into the overhead break and used my typical pull to put on 2-3G's to get down to flap speed. Man 'o man...I think I hit 4G before I unloaded. I swear I hardly moved the stick at all, just the usual "suggestion of pressure" so typical with these lovely airplanes. On landing, the airplane does settle nicely into approach speed with little nose up trim if any, and seems to land better than I can while solo. So, I kinda like having extra weight aft for landing but for maneuvering above Va, the pax doesn't get the stick. It stays clipped into position on the seat back where it normally rides 99.9% of the time.

I seldom allow anyone to fly from the back seat anymore and, oddly enough, most pax don't even care to. I had a high-time pilot GIB once pull waaay too much on the stick and I learned that day to NEVER ASSume that the guy/gal knows how sensitive the airplane has become with their biomass on board. I don't care who they are, how many hours they have, or what kind of a/c they have flown. Nothing flies like an RV. Dontcha love it? :)