Volume of rain an O-320 RV can fly through?

[digidocs]

Question about the airframe:

Have you guys every had any damage to the wing, tail, etc. leading edge paint from heavy rain?

[Ralph Inkster]

I use carb heat through rain if the engine is equipped. I haven't seen much effect from rain in the injected planes I've flown, but I wouldn't fly in heavy rain conditions.

Paint wise, rain damage will be determined by the quality of paint job on the plane.

Vinyl wrap doesn't do too well in rain as I found out, but is easy to patch.

[gmcjetpilot]

If you have a wood prop that is something to worry about with any rain. Aluminum props can get eroded in rain. That is why you keep the pain on it. The fancy composite props have SS leading edge but not the surfaces. Slow down and reduce RPM helps.

Paint on leading edge. I keep min waxed. But yes rain at 190 mph can cause erosion of paint... but if high quality paint it is not an issue. That is why you see jets have unpainted leading edges among other reasons.

Engine should run fine in rain... Not sure what the worry is about? If any water somehow makes it past the filter into the intake it will turn cook off the water.

[Dugaru]

Every time I fly through appreciable rain I'll find a new pinhole in the paint on the leading edge. Paint is 12 years old at this point, for what that's worth.

My Warrior used to develop pinholes on the wing leading edges AND it lost paint on the point of the spinner. No paint loss on the RV spinner so far, for whatever reason.

My Hartzell has tape that seems to have borne the brunt of any damage thus far.

Originally Posted by digidocs

Question about the airframe:

Have you guys every had any damage to the wing, tail, etc. leading edge paint from heavy rain?

[MarkW]

Being from Central Florida I fly through rain quite often. On occasion moderate to heavy. My injected IO-320 seems to lose a little RPM when heavy rain.
I have a Catto nickel leading edge prop and have not seen any damage to the leading edge. I did however lose one of the Catto stickers on the prop that is covered by a coat of clear paint.
I also have small chips in the paint on my horizontal stab where the fiberglass meets the aluminum. It appears I could have done a better job blending this in but I blame it on rain.

[Mark Dickens]

Originally Posted by digidocs

Question about the airframe:

Have you guys every had any damage to the wing, tail, etc. leading edge paint from heavy rain?

No damage, although as I mentioned there was a little bit of paint erosion on the prop tip paint.

[Paul 5r4]

I've only been in light rain a couple times. Didn't have any engine issues but water was dripping on my legs. My worry is the water being sucked in from apparently everywhere and blowing on my avionics on the back will cause problems. I avoid rain!

[Jonathan Alvord]

Originally Posted by Steve Melton

I've had some rain where the engine developed a slight non-uniform miss, I pulled the carb heat closed and it cleared. Pulling the carb heat in heavy rain may be beneficial. I have limited testing for heavy rain.

but this tape helps keep water out. doesn't need to be this wide in the aircraft axial direction. extends slightly beyond the hinges.

How did the tape last when opening and closing canopy? Now I need to find some Blue tape.

[Steve Melton]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Alvord

How did the tape last when opening and closing canopy? Now I need to find some Blue tape.

I change it about once a year but it is still OK after a year. note: I place pipe teflon tape over the seam and then cover with vinyl tape.

[prkaye]

I once inadvertently ended up in very heavy rain. It was scary. The result was that my Catto composite prop had the leading-edges torn up. I've since replaced the prop with a Catto prop with Nickel lead-edges. This prop is much better in the rain.
The more scary part of the story is that I got water in my pitot tube and lost airspeed indication. At the time I didn't realize that was the problem and had a very stressful couple of minutes without airspeed indication and not knowing why. If I'd turned on my Pitot heat, that might have helped. That was about 8 years ago - I learned some very important lessons on that flight!