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How high

Mike6A

Well Known Member
What is the highest you got your rv. We got our first 6a to 19,200 with stock 0-360 and intake
 
took RV7 to FL210 two months ago. density altitude was 23000 that day. IO-375, Hatzell CS and heavy with fuel and two on board. At highest point she still climbed with 300 ft/min.

We had to abort as ATC made us aware that XPNDR was not working anymore and i had problems with oxygen.

was a great experience! so cool, will never forget that flight.
 
This was always on my bucket list, but the hassle of getting an ATC clearance plus changing my canula out for a mask seemed to be too much trouble. Now, I’ve gone to Basic Med, so, I guess I’ll never know.
 
25,500ft in my RV7 with fixed pitch prop and O-360 and dual electronic ignition. Left the ground full of fuel and about 20lbs of baggage mid July 2006. I just couldn't get it any higher. It felt like I was balancing on a beach ball waiting to fall off one side or the other. Still making 500ft/min at 20,000ft. The guys in Vancouver center had bets on amongst themselves how high I would get. One of the guys was complaining he couldn't make 500ft/min at sea level in his C172.
 
-6.9, eye to eye with Mt. Denali at 20.5Kft :D
 

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This was always on my bucket list, but the hassle of getting an ATC clearance plus changing my canula out for a mask seemed to be too much trouble. Now, I’ve gone to Basic Med, so, I guess I’ll never know.

we did that flight in germany. governmental authorities here seem to be at least equally bureaucratic as the ones in north america. but in the end getting ATC clearance was just to emails and a phone call. no deal. maybe think again.

pointing to oxygen is very important. i had a mask and problems with oxygen and oximeter showed around 80% in my blood. this was critical and was dazed accordingly and not fit enough to finish the flight. my buddy had a completely independent system with canula and had no problems. he was riding us home.

strange thing was that, even i wasn't able to perform basic tasks anymore (like steering the aircraft in the correct direction), i thought everything is ok with me. back on the ground i realized that something was very wrong with me up high.

after that experience i do strongly recommend to anybody to consider performing that kind of "record flight". it's just so cool!

but if you do so please please please take somebody with you who is able to continue the flight and with completely seperate oxygen systems. if you wanna do it alone, then use one of these small oximeters that are very helpful here and test them on the ground. then check your blood frequently and abort as soon it gets lower that 95% or so.
 

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what i forgot in my previous post...

don't be afraid of the coffin corner. an normally aspirated RV will not make it that high. the airplane felt kinda spongy but at no point uncontrollable. controls were still straight and true above FL200. these RV`s are amazingly well thought out! but if you want to feel more comfortable it would be a good idea to train some stalls before.

and check your engine parameters. i usually have a cool running engine and was fighting with very low oil temps. the engine still made around 40% power at that altitude with 17F OAT. down low with same power and OAT my CHT'S would be well below 300 F. this flight they were much higher. especially the oil temps... at that flight oil temps got surprisingly very high. i didn't expect that. basically altitude in ft / 100 + 10 = oil temp in F. :D

maybe somebody here can explain that phenomena.
 
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The family cruiser (-10) at FL 190, DA 20,800’
 

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I've had my 9A up to FL210 twice, and FL190 several times. Both times I went to FL210 it was to clear a layer of clouds during FL190 cruise to avoid picking up ice.

It's fun, but there's no real advantage to anything over 17,000 for me when you plot out efficiency (nm/gal) as your manifold pressure just doesn't allow the engine to make much usable power anymore and true airspeed starts to suffer. It's useful to clear weather or terrain (other parts of the world) or just for a "gee-whiz" flight.

A turbo would really be nice to allow full advantage of the altitude - but then you've got a very real problem not only with Vne, but also with cooling in the thin air. Nothing comes easy...
 
what i forgot in my previous post...

don't be afraid of the coffin corner. an normally aspirated RV will not make it that high. the airplane felt kinda spongy but at no point uncontrollable. controls were still straight and true above FL200. these RV`s are amazingly well thought out! but if you want to feel more comfortable it would be a good idea to train some stalls before.

and check your engine parameters. i usually have a cool running engine and was fighting with very low oil temps. the engine still made around 40% power at that altitude with 17F OAT. down low with same power and OAT my CHT'S would be well below 300 F. this flight they were much higher. especially the oil temps... at that flight oil temps got surprisingly very high. i didn't expect that. basically altitude in ft / 100 + 10 = oil temp in F. :D

maybe somebody here can explain that phenomena.

Air density

As you go higher the air gets thinner, as there is less pressure forcing the various molecules together. As pressure reduces, any given cubic area contains less and less molecules.

As the air is passing over the heat exchanger, it is transferring heat to the air molecules, not the air as a unit. Less molecules means less heat transfer.

Not a scientist so may have missed on the scientific portion, but do know that heat exchanges become less and less efficient at heat transfer as atmospheric pressure drops.

Larry
 
Beware of KIAS Vne

we did that flight in germany. governmental authorities here seem to be at least equally bureaucratic as the ones in north america. but in the end getting ATC clearance was just to emails and a phone call. no deal. maybe think again.

pointing to oxygen is very important. i had a mask and problems with oxygen and oximeter showed around 80% in my blood. this was critical and was dazed accordingly and not fit enough to finish the flight. my buddy had a completely independent system with canula and had no problems. he was riding us home.

strange thing was that, even i wasn't able to perform basic tasks anymore (like steering the aircraft in the correct direction), i thought everything is ok with me. back on the ground i realized that something was very wrong with me up high.

after that experience i do strongly recommend to anybody to consider performing that kind of "record flight". it's just so cool!

but if you do so please please please take somebody with you who is able to continue the flight and with completely seperate oxygen systems. if you wanna do it alone, then use one of these small oximeters that are very helpful here and test them on the ground. then check your blood frequently and abort as soon it gets lower that 95% or so.


Kay, nicely done and very wise to have a "security pilot" or dependable oxymeter when way up there.
Hypoxia is very sneeky and potentially deadly, many posts on this subject can be found.

I notice though that on your panel, you indicate 200 KIAS as Vne.
I would strongly suggest to change that to KTAS as per Van's

And if not already done, set-up the Dynon to show your Vne in TAS also.
You were at 90 KIAS and up there, your TAS shows 130, that's a 40 Kts difference. Very easy during descent to exceed 200 KTAS.
Check out this article by Ken Krueger.
 

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21.5 and we still could climb at about 300 fpm but the airspeed had dropped and unless you have a great tailwind, it wouldn't be worth going up there if the speed/fuel economy was the goal
 
I’ve had both the RV-8 and the RV-3 into the Flight Levels - one went to 230, one to 210 if I recall correctly (long time ago, don’t feel like going back and searching the databases….). Fun thing to do, both were flying fine, although well above any practical altitude that you’d ever use, and both still climbing when I knocked it off.

I was running with an oxygen system put together by the aerospace life support guys where I used to work, not a GA trickle system - don’t try this unless you have the right gear.

Realistically, above about 14K, performance is dropping off in the short wing RV’s, so unless you are doing it to pick up a tailwind or clear some weather (or terrain), anything higher doesn’t make much sense.

But fun to do for the experience and bragging rights….. IF you have the right equipment, and are IFR equipped and current.

Paul
 
SNIP

Realistically, above about 14K, performance is dropping off in the short wing RV’s, so unless you are doing it to pick up a tailwind or clear some weather (or terrain), anything higher doesn’t make much sense. SNIP

Paul

My experince as well. For the RV-10 (and perhaps the RV-14) I’d suggest something like 16K’ might be the practical limit (different wing). Worth the time to experiment so you know what to expect if climbing high for terrain or such.

Carl
 
Just shy of 16k in the Rocket, in hard IMC, icing and looking desperately for a way out. An event never to be repeated.

My Rocket really tops out in still air efficiency (NMPG) at 9500. I can go higher, but it generally does not buy me any MPG unless I'm chasing a favorable tailwind.
 
Took my 9A up to 17,000' in its first year. Requires a class B clearance here in Canada, I was limited to below the flight levels as I wasn't IFR equipped or rated and I only had a cannula. I step climbed to that altitude, on my last step from 15,500' I initially achieved 1500fpm climb but let it settle in at 500fpm. No problem with climb performance at all. I don't think I would have had issues in the flight levels, Vans' solo weight ceiling is listed at 24,500', I suspect I could have reached that if I'd been able. Performance wasn't too bad up there, 130-135 KT TAS, only a few knots slower than my then normal cruise with about a gallon per hour less fuel burn.
 
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