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New to me RV-3

AUcary

Member
Hey guys, I'm new here. Already paid up on my due's. I just recently purchased this wonderful RV-3. Its an A with a B wing added later. This is hands down the best flying airplane I have ever flown outside of maybe an Extra 300L. I am literally in shock at how good it is. I had a handful of hours in an RV-7 15 years ago along with an hour refresher in another 7 recently and felt fine hoping right in after a little coaching from a bud on the quirks of the RV-3. It's really true what they say about the RV-3, it is stupid good. Thanks for having me along for the ride, look forward to meeting more of the RV guys in the future! Feel free to impart wisdom!
 

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Sweeeeeet!!

Very nice, enjoy it and single-seat flying.

My only suggestion would be to sort out any shortcomings it may have right away. Mine had a slightly heavy wing and a too-far-forward CG for optimal enjoyment. The only two things I wish I had addressed.
 
Hey guys, I'm new here. Already paid up on my due's. I just recently purchased this wonderful RV-3. Its an A with a B wing added later. This is hands down the best flying airplane I have ever flown outside of maybe an Extra 300L. I am literally in shock at how good it is. I had a handful of hours in an RV-7 15 years ago along with an hour refresher in another 7 recently and felt fine hoping right in after a little coaching from a bud on the quirks of the RV-3. It's really true what they say about the RV-3, it is stupid good. Thanks for having me along for the ride, look forward to meeting more of the RV guys in the future! Feel free to impart wisdom!

THAT, gained you some respect.......:)

Welcome!
 
I too had an A converted to a B with factory-made wings as part of the promotional upgrade program. What "quirks" of the RV-3B do you speak of? Aside from not having somebody along to talk with, which many times can be a plus more than a quirk. I did dislike the non-swivel tailwheel when it came to pushing the airplane around on the ground. I fixed that by buying the RV-3 sized tailwheel socket and Screaming Eagle wheel assembly from FlyBoys and then machining the original tailwheel rod spring to match to socket. It can tend to have the main landing rod gear shimmy on concrete surfaces with expansion joints, just like the other engine mount attached landing gear RVs. I fixed that by buying the highest-quality tires from Michelin that were actually round and balanced. I found the RV-3 to be every bit as honest as any other RV types flown, just more nimble and fun.

Oh, and more importantly, Welcome Aboard!
 
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Welcome!

Welcome to VAF and to RV3 flying. It really is a fun little airplane. What engine/prop combination does yours have? Do you have the fuselage fuel tank or wet wings? I’m also curious about the little fairings between the gear struts and the fuselage. Mine doesn’t have those. Yours make that area look much cleaner.

Enjoy!
 
I too had an A converted to a B with factory-made wings as part of the promotional upgrade program. What "quirks" of the RV-3B do you speak of? Aside from not having somebody along to talk with, which many times can be a plus more than a quirk. I did dislike the non-swivel tailwheel when it came to pushing the airplane around on the ground. I fixed that by buying the RV-3 sized tailwheel socket and Screaming Eagle wheel assembly from FlyBoys and then machining the original tailwheel rod spring to match to socket. It can tend to have the main landing rod gear shimmy on concrete surfaces with expansion joints, just like the other engine mount attached landing gear RVs. I fixed that by buying the highest-quality tires from Michelin that were actually round and balanced. I found the RV-3 to be every bit as honest as any other RV types flown, just more nimble and fun.

Oh, and more importantly, Welcome Aboard!

I should not say quirks, more like tendencies... The controls on the 3 are light and I noticed on the first landing the PIO can happen quickly as my buddy told me. After I sorted that out it was great!
 
Welcome to VAF and to RV3 flying. It really is a fun little airplane. What engine/prop combination does yours have? Do you have the fuselage fuel tank or wet wings? I’m also curious about the little fairings between the gear struts and the fuselage. Mine doesn’t have those. Yours make that area look much cleaner.

Enjoy!

0-320, 160HP, Wet wings. It has a ton of thrust and I love it but I want to change the prop over to get a little more on the top end. The way an RV maintains energy is amazing. Beating up the pattern in the 3 is about as good as it gets to me.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of Van's

Hey guys, I'm new here. Already paid up on my due's. I just recently purchased this wonderful RV-3. Its an A with a B wing added later. This is hands down the best flying airplane I have ever flown outside of maybe an Extra 300L. I am literally in shock at how good it is. I had a handful of hours in an RV-7 15 years ago along with an hour refresher in another 7 recently and felt fine hoping right in after a little coaching from a bud on the quirks of the RV-3. It's really true what they say about the RV-3, it is stupid good. Thanks for having me along for the ride, look forward to meeting more of the RV guys in the future! Feel free to impart wisdom!

Happy Landings to you,
Daddyman
 
Rv-3

I owned and flew this for 250 hours while building my 9.
Loved the plane. 0320 160 hp with Ram air. Was a rocket and very fun to fly.
Now on the west coast
 

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Darn nice MIG! Where'd you fly 'em:)?

Ha! Nice catch;) It's a crazy story... Back in 2017, when my dad and I started getting serious about building the Aircam, I happened to look on the Lockwood forums and found a potential partner in Fernandina Beach who was looking for someone to build with. After meeting up over coffee and again at Sun N Fun in 2018, we struck a deal to do a partnership in the airplane. At the time, all I knew about Rob or Z-Man as I call him was that he flew in the USAF and was about to retire as the United 75/76 line standards manager. Once we got started on the build, as you can imagine, after spending thousands of hours hanging out, the story's started to come out, and he begins to fill me in on the 4477th TES and his Mig background! Needless to say, I was blown away. I had no idea the program even existed. It turns out the Rob started in F-4's, then went to F-5's as an aggressor pilot, which eventually led to him getting the invitation to join the 4477th. It's absolutely wild to hear him talk about flying the Mig 21 and 23. He would eventually get over 500hrs combined between the 2 airframes before his tour ran out, and he ended his career in the AF in the F-15. To this day, Rob tells me that a clean 23 on the deck will still outrun anything in our arsenal...

As we started to finish our Aircam build, I thought it would be cool to spruce our hanger up, so we had these killer vinyl graphics made, and I mounted them on acrylic. Looking back, it was a total PITA, but it came out awesome, and it makes our hanger look great. As a nod to the squadron, we registered our Aircams tail number as 4477TS. One of the cooler things out there is this sole surviving photo of a pilot in front on one of the 23's, turns out it's Rob ha! I believe he was 28 when this was taken, big balls man, big balls....

Good interview with Rob, its a little humbling to be on the other side of the partnership but Rob has taken me under his wing like family. We have a ton of fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BayjAFra_6U&ab_channel=10PercentTrue-TalesfromtheCockpit
 

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The builder is a good friend, and I’ve flown that aircraft, and it’s a beaut…

Try and avoid deer.

He did a great job, you can really tell that he took his time. It needed a little TLC here and there but overall its a fantastic aircraft for have 500 hours over 20 years.

What's up with the deer story ha! Prior damage?
 
Excellent backstory on 23! The wing CO at Zweibrucken AB in mid 80’s was squadron CO (as memory serves) of that squadron at Tonopah. He missed general officer due to one of the MIGs lost during his watch. Of course he had zero to do with it but those are the rules. He wrote an excellent book about it, search under Col G. Peck on Amazon.

America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG (General Military)

If I’m not mistaken our good friend Vlad flew MIG23’s as well, help us out Vlad..
 
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Excellent backstory on 23! The wing CO at Zweibrucken AB in mid 80’s was squadron CO (as memory serves) of that squadron at Tonopah. He missed general officer due to one of the MIGs lost during his watch. Of course he had zero to do with it but those are the rules. He wrote an excellent book about it, search under Col G. Peck on Amazon.

America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG (General Military)

If I’m not mistaken our good friend Vlad flew MIG23’s as well, help us out Vlad..

Sorry for the late response, Dad life and Oshkosh had me wrapped up for the past few months! When I started to learn more about the history of the 4477th from my partner Rob I became obsessed with finding every bit of information I could get my hands on to learn more ha! I have read both Peck's book and Steve Davies. They are both an excellent read and I would recommend them to anyone. Rob has some pretty gnarly stories from flying in the squadron, especially with the 23. In his own words, a clean 23 would pretty much outrun anything out there, he thinks the jet would literally fly right through its own VNE in level flight until disintegration. Wild stuff.

Onto the RV, I have been flying it a ton lately for fun and for work travel, and the more I fly it the more I love it. I don't think I have ever owned an airplane that gave me so much back for such a small investment, it's almost as if I feel lucky that we crossed paths. IMO I think the 3 might be as good as it gets when you look at all-around GA value in a single-seat platform. This past Tuesday I took a trip down to Ft. Lauderdale for work and traveled 638 miles combined in 3:37 with an average speed of 178KTS while 8.8GPH. Keep in mind this is with a pretty basic wood prop. I think the airplane has a ton left in it at altitude and I have a Catto on order that I believe will push it up into the 190KT class at 10K, fingers are crossed. The airplane has made XC flight in Florida much more enjoyable because I can work around WX with a wide margin with speed and endurance. I made a few initial mods along the way that have improved comfort a ton. Down low the NACA vent was not giving me enough fresh air so I ordered a side vent that my buddy Doug helped install that has done a ton for overall comfort. It's a little loud down low with them open but overall it's been a great compromise and once I get to altitude I close them up with no air coming through at all. After building an Aircam with Lockwood it was a welcome surprise to order the kit from vans that included 2 vents for around $40. Lockwood would charge probably $300 for something like this... In addition to that, I also added some slap on sun visors from Spruce aircraft that cut down on the UV exposure and give me a little shade. I like to install these slap-on shades with a water/soap solution along with a vinyl squeegee brush to give it a more finished look with no bubbles. I believe I can order these in a bigger sheet which I will look into down the road for both airplanes but for now combining the sheets is not a bad option. To do the Aircam canopy for the Oshkosh trip it took me 15 of them to cover the canopy! Im coming up on Annual later this month and I have multiple items to address that I welcome input on.

-I have a slow leak in the caliper on the right wheel so I will probably rebuild the entire system after dealing with brake fade for the past month. I would love to swap the lines over to a braided line if possible and would love input on this if anyone has done it. I have owned airplanes in the past that use this plastic line and over time you get expansion in the lines that will lead to failure and I would love to address it now.

- The cowl is in pretty bad shape and I am wondering if I should start from scratch and just replace the entire thing? The oil door is a mess and the rear of the cowl hinges are starting to fail. Again, would love input on this.

- I am getting ALOT of shimmy in the legs at 10-20 MPH if I run anything over low tire pressure. Going to try and balance the wheels as best I can but I am wondering if running a low PSI is a bad thing long term?

Lastly, I was not very happy with the performance of my Clarity Aloft headset that I ordered so I tried this ANR headset from this company and I am blown away at the performance. Its not Bose quiet but its close and much more suitable for the airplane. I pretty much quit using my A20's at this point because I love these things. And you cant beat the price point! You guys need to check them out.

http://www.uflyquiet.com/ANR-L2-Hi-Lite-in-ear-aviation-headset-p152.html
 

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Congrats Cary on your -3! I'm still working on mine (or rather - trying to find the time to work on her). Can't wait...

As for the Uflyquiet headsets - my experience is rather different. Money down the drain as far as I am concerned. I've bought a pair for in my Fly Baby (open cockpit, this might be the issue here). Even during my first flight I've tossed them out and was happy that I kept my A20 within reach just in case. Totally useless.

I'm now mostly flying the Fly Baby with my Bose Quietcomfort ear buds and a separate mic boom. Much better...

Anyway, enjoy your Three!

Hans
 
... This past Tuesday I took a trip down to Ft. Lauderdale for work and traveled 638 miles combined in 3:37 with an average speed of 178KTS while 8.8GPH. Keep in mind this is with a pretty basic wood prop. I think the airplane has a ton left in it at altitude and I have a Catto on order that I believe will push it up into the 190KT class at 10K, fingers are crossed.

I'm not sure if you're talking airspeed or ground speed, but I believe VNE is ~180KT TAS, so you may want to be careful.
 
A friend fixed a gear leg shimmy by attaching an aluminum bar to each leg with Adel clamps. His bars were overkill, I think, being 3/8" thick by as wide as the fairings would permit. I have heard that 1/8"x 1.5" will work. He used 7 Adel clamps per leg.

His plane is an RV-6A.

He'd previously tried different tire pressures and balancing the tires with no luck. The main taxiway from his hangar to the runway appears, in his description, to be about perfectly designed to excite shimmy, so I regard this technique as a real solution.
Dave
 
Final fun MIG 23 fact: thing was so loud it made the F35 sound like a whisperjet, or so I’m told:)

Rock on in your 3, careful with newly minted experts in this neck of the woods…
 
A friend fixed a gear leg shimmy by attaching an aluminum bar to each leg with Adel clamps. His bars were overkill, I think, being 3/8" thick by as wide as the fairings would permit. I have heard that 1/8"x 1.5" will work. He used 7 Adel clamps per leg.

His plane is an RV-6A.

He'd previously tried different tire pressures and balancing the tires with no luck. The main taxiway from his hangar to the runway appears, in his description, to be about perfectly designed to excite shimmy, so I regard this technique as a real solution.
Dave

Interesting, I cant see why this would not be worth investigating. Only issue I would have is drilling out the gear leg fairings, would be a ton of work...
 
Congrats Cary on your -3! I'm still working on mine (or rather - trying to find the time to work on her). Can't wait...

As for the Uflyquiet headsets - my experience is rather different. Money down the drain as far as I am concerned. I've bought a pair for in my Fly Baby (open cockpit, this might be the issue here). Even during my first flight I've tossed them out and was happy that I kept my A20 within reach just in case. Totally useless.

I'm now mostly flying the Fly Baby with my Bose Quietcomfort ear buds and a separate mic boom. Much better...

Anyway, enjoy your Three!

Hans

Open cockpit is your issue, trust me when I say that I have a TON of experience in testing headsets with the Aircam set up in the summertime flying configuration. The problem is the airflow over the mic, you have to do one of two things. I our case we do both. Step one, get the air off the mic with a mic cover. This will significantly help with getting the air cut down over the mic.

https://www.oregonaero.com/micmuff-microphone-cover

Step two, install a switch that turns off or isolates the microphone. In the Aircam we use a PS Engineering PMA 4000 that has an isolation switch. When flying open cockpit with a passenger in the back the wind is so bad that I have to isolate the microphones in order to enjoy the flight. We just have a push-to-talk switch to talk to each other in the airplane that is separate from the comm button. I realize that the Fly Baby is probably a single seat so it would just be a matter of isolating your mic. I believe if you took the steps to do this it would solve all your problems:)

https://www.ps-engineering.com/pma4000.html
 

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Interesting, I cant see why this would not be worth investigating. Only issue I would have is drilling out the gear leg fairings, would be a ton of work...

His fairing was removable....

I think that the reason it works is if the shimmy is a coupling between the fore-aft and up-down modes of vibration, with maybe a little torsion thrown in, this changes the fore-aft stiffness just enough that it decouples the modes. (For you techie types....).

Dave
 
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A clean MiG-23 can outrun almost anything else in a clean configuration and in straight flight.

https://hushkit.net/2020/10/20/my-fight-with-secret-migs-an-f-15-eagle-pilot-writes/


Excellent backstory on 23! The wing CO at Zweibrucken AB in mid 80’s was squadron CO (as memory serves) of that squadron at Tonopah. He missed general officer due to one of the MIGs lost during his watch. Of course he had zero to do with it but those are the rules. He wrote an excellent book about it, search under Col G. Peck on Amazon.

America's Secret MiG Squadron: The Red Eagles of Project CONSTANT PEG (General Military)

If I’m not mistaken our good friend Vlad flew MIG23’s as well, help us out Vlad..
 
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