Another RV-6 First Flight
 

After 2yrs of fairly regular building, my RV6 Slider Kit#22874 got its maiden flight on August 12th 2014 at 4:30 p.m. at KOGD. I spent the prior week training with Mike Seager for 15 hours in the RV7 for transition and tail wheel endorsement giving me the confidence for the first flight.

I had one small squawk with my electric rim tab motor setting backwards (up trim was down, down was up) that took a minute or so to realize this and adjust for it and then no other issues at all in the 30 min flight. (Easy setting on Vp-50 unit to reverse direction of trim).

N846RJ is an RV-6 Slider with a Superior fuel injected 0-360, fixed pitch Catto 3-blade prop, GRT Sport EFIS with AFS 2500 engine monitor and SL30 Nav/Com and Vertical Power VP-50 unit for electrical management.

Now it is off to the rest of my Phase I flight testing and enjoying the fruits of my labor.

Well done Russ! Photos?

Congratulations!!
 

Russ, congrats on the new fledgling:D

Well done. Now call Van's and let them know so you can be counted in with the world's most popular kit aircraft ever......... the RV6,A

The 7 will take years to catch up.

IMO the best of fleet and the best ever kit aircraft, but I am biased.

My own aircraft flew for the first time in mid 2010, at which time the RV-6 empennage kit had been long discontinued and mine was close to the 2400th RV-6 recorded on Vans Hobbs meter.

4 years and 132 more completions later the '6 would still be the envy of most other kit manufacturers.

Congratulations, you will love it.

Great job. Stay safe in phase 1 and keep us posted.

Yes, looking forward to your reports as I'm very interested in your engine/prop setup. I'm thinking of the same combo instead of the CS, saving money and maintenance costs. I am wondering about CG though with the lighter prop.

Hope you are having fun

Phase 1 testing progress update 13hrs in
 

Phase 1 testing update- 13hrs into Phase 1 over 10 flights (I fly in Utah airport elevation 4500ft, density altitude in summer is frequently 7-8 thousand at airport elev so performance can suffer a bit.)

Weight & Balance Final tally: 1065 lbs (Left: 504, Right: 498, Tailwheel: 63)
Configuration is RV6 Slider XPIO360 180HP Fuel injected- No paint, but have gear fairings and upper intersection fairings installed along with the old one piece wheel pants, no lower intersection fairings. It was my intention to replace the old style wheel pants with the newer ones to get some more speed but they are growing on me and performance isn't too bad so I will probably keep them and have them painted with the plane.

After calibrating my GRT sport TAS settings, I found my top speed is 203 mph TAS (8000ft 2720 rpm) Catto 3 blade (68 x 76) and it cruises nicely at 2600 is around 185 mph. My climb rate testing shows (@10,000 ft density altitude) ~1200 fpm @ weight of 1417lbs. The FPM climb @ 80, 90, 100, 110mph was fairly close in initial testing). Prop RPM was around 2230 and manifold pressure 22.5 on these climbs so I'm only getting about 120hp at this density altitude.

Before Phase 1 started, I spent 15 hours transition training with Mike Seager near Portland OR and getting my tailwheel endorsement at the same time. This time in the factory RV7 with Mike (O320 CS prop at sea level) is the only RV time I have to compare with for my plane. That experience contrasted to my plane so far is that I have slightly higher top speed with the 180hp, slightly less climb performance and slightly more float on landing with the fixed pitch prop but overall similar feel and performance to factory RV7. (expected)

Overall, I was probably the most concerned about landings in the tail dragger on my on my first few flights, however I found my landings have been pretty good (so far). However on my takeoffs I have been drifting slightly left and the mains were skipping slightly on runway before getting airborne. I've been working on my right rudder inputs when lifting the tail each takeoff and I also noticed yesterday that where I thought was my neutral stick position for the control stick was actually slightly nose up on elevator when I checked during run up before closing the canopy. After adjusting for this on my latest takeoff roll, I had a much better takeoff with no drift or skipping with better control inputs. I will continue to practice that some more. Fortunately at KOGD we have long and wide runways available for this new tail wheel pilot to practice on.

I haven't had any temperature problems, my temps have been good so far with low 400 CHTs on takeoff and then mid to high 300s in cruise and relatively equal temperatures. Oil temp stabilizes in the 180's. I continue to adjust the low/high ranges on my engine gauges a bit with more experience with the plane. With these glass panel digital gauges it is easy to get to consumed with minor variations of the numbers rather than trends.

Immediate plans: Continue flying my Phase 1 testing plan, and start expanding the envelope on weights to gross and some higher climbs (I've been to 13,000 but need to mount my oxygen bottle for higher altitude testing). I also have a two axis GRT auto pilot wired but not no servo's installed yet since I wanted to get a feel of the controls before installing autopilot servos. I'll get the autopilot installed about 1/2 way through my Phase 1 hours and incorporate that into my final testing. I'm also going to relocate my ELT antenna, (I place my ELT on the floor near the firewall to keep weight forward and ran a short wire to the ELT antenna extending below the fuselage below the pilots feet near the firewall but I think it gets too much prop blast there with the long antenna so I'll extend the antenna wire and move it to rear top deck in front of vertical stabilizer). I'll use the forward hole for an external ADSB stubby ted antenna I plan to use later.

Good for you Russ. I just bought a 7 in August and love to hear other new-guy stories too. I was a little strong with the ailerons durign training instead of using my feet for heading control. Working through it just like you. Feels great to be a plane owner though. Enjoy the new 6!

The most popular kit aircraft
 

Congratulations Russ, you are my inspiration ! :D Enjoy the fruits of your labor and fly safe! :)