Real Rocket Speeds?

rv6ejguy · #1 03-05-2008, 12:43 PM

We're planning a short cross country race here and wanted to plan intervals for the aircraft. What sort of speeds are you Rocket drivers seeing at say 6-8000 feet?

mark manda · #2 03-05-2008, 01:28 PM

mine's slower than most.

Kahuna · #3 03-06-2008, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rv6ejguy

We're planning a short cross country race here and wanted to plan intervals for the aircraft. What sort of speeds are you Rocket drivers seeing at say 6-8000 feet?

Mine is not a rocket. Buts its ball park. You could ad ~5kts to get a rocket speed. Course I have out run a couple in head to heads. But Im giving em 5kts on the shorter wing to make em feel better. Im sorry, was I bragging?

You can find lots of performance data here.
http://mstewart.net/super8/performan...omparisons.htm

Best,

Linedog · #4 03-06-2008, 08:15 AM

Are you talking "normal" cross country speeds, or race speeds? It depends on how much gas you want to burn! If guys want to go fast, they may well use different altitudes. It may also depend on whether it is an EVO or Sport wing, as they are optimized for different altitudes...and of course depends on race length.

We had a 100 mile "navigation exercise" down here in Memphis with 6 Rockets. Everyone stayed low, and the speeds were generally in the 210-220 Kt range for the whole course.

For a sport wing a wag round race number in the 6-8K' range would be 210-215 KTAS? For an EVO maybe 215-220 KTAS?

Hope this helps...

rv6ejguy · #5 03-06-2008, 09:18 AM

Yep, race speeds. So 200-220 knots in in the normal range. Thanks. This will help in planning.

f1rocket · #6 03-06-2008, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kahuna

Mine is not a rocket. Buts its ball park. You could ad ~5kts to get a rocket speed. Course I have out run a couple in head to heads. But Im giving em 5kts on the shorter wing to make em feel better. Im sorry, was I bragging?

You can find lots of performance data here.
http://mstewart.net/super8/performan...omparisons.htm

Best,

Man it is time to put this BS to bed!

We've all flown with the Indy Super-8s and unless you found some super secret speed mod, I'm pretty sure 5 knots is quite conservative. Of course, we're never going to know for sure until we get in a side-by-side comparison.

Linedog · #7 03-06-2008, 10:49 AM

Randy...

Anybody that has to brag to get listened to...well...isn't worth paying attention to? He didn't show at our race... It would have been the perfect opportunity to prove his "speed".

On the other hand, I was surprised at how fast a buddies new RV-8 is. Without wheel pants he was getting 170 kts out of a IO-390..so that just might put him within 15 knots of the Rockets!

Jeff

f1rocket · #8 03-06-2008, 01:38 PM

Hey Jeff,

We kid Kahuna all the time. He does have a very nice Super 8 and he's a good guy too. He's been up to Indy a couple of times to consult with the Super 8 guys but I can never seem to hook up with him.

Come to think of it, I remember we extended him an invitation to the Memphis race but his email was suddenly silent. Must have been a temporary equipment failure.

Kahuna · #9 03-06-2008, 09:05 PM

All of my performance data has been posted for all to see and nit pick.
My best ever seen on the efis straight and level was 206KTAS. That

Im just messin with you rocket guys. You are faster. I conceed. Clearly my longer wings bust me out on the running.

I do like the head to heads though, especially against the 3 blade fellas.

Dont get your panties in a waad when I pick at ya. The rockets are awesome, and indeed faster. The only 2 I have run against both had 3 blades. Both were out run by a knot or 2. You can see by my 3 blade data that it is a distinct disadvantage.

Best,

Tom Martin · #10 03-07-2008, 04:39 AM

The beauty of racing is that it really sorts out the men and their machines. The sport aircraft racing league is open to all competitors, there are no fees, few awards, but lots of fun. http://sportairrace.org/index.html Real life rockets speeds are posted in the race results. The fastest RV8, owned by John Huft is very close to the slowest rockets and about 20mph off the faster rockets. He does this with an exceptionally clean FOUR cylinder RV8. Power is not everything as attention to detail can make huge differences. Mike Stewart, with a 540 should be in the same range as the rockets, I would be surprised if he was not. Races let you see how you and your airplane compare to others. Rocket race speeds in the 200 to 215 knot range are going to catch 99% of the planes.