Authority To Fly + Climb Tests
ATF, CLIMB + SPEED runs
Well we, I, completed all the Proving flights in just 9 days, 25 hours of flying :twisted:
ATF
CAA (Your FAA equivalent) knowing us group want to use it for private owner training decided they want to come and do a personal inspection over and above our Approved Person (AP) inspections. Our group is a little different from one person DIY homebuilder so I guess CAA just wanted to confirm we are OK. So CAA NTCA sent a person to come and inspected our RV12 and he gave us the thumbs up. Earlier the week we received our Full Authority To FLy = Private (non commercial no reward) Owners Training only. This airplane will NOT go into a school, only the 10 named owners are allowed to get instruction. Jippie our goal is met! Our Owners can now plan to start their Flight Training to realise "The Dream."
CLIMB Test
As part of proving flights to Satisfy CAA we had to do a climb test. So I logged a flightplan for sunrise Saturday from Springs our local airport to Secunda, a sector with little traffic.
We loaded the airplane to Gross 600KG (340KG Empty + 260 Payload [60KG FULL FUEL + 175KG Pilot and Pax + 25KG Baggage]) and set off.
Our airfield (5500ft) is close to an international airport, so our ceiling is limited to 7500 ft
We tried to get hold of Johannesburg International Airport Low Levels to activate our flight plan but they were not open yet, so we need to step up an airspace and resorted to contact JHB (FL115 and above) to activate it. We listened to all the big boys talking to JHB, International Boeing this and that etc here we were in our little RV12 talking "with" them. The little baby among the Big Brothers.
I expected to be routed 7500ft till outside the international airspace then to start the climb test, but a nice surpise awaited us.
JHB asked our intentions...I : "Experimental Aircraft ZU-XII on Proving Flight like to perform Climb Test to FL115 from 5500ft as per flight plan xyz toward Secunda"
JHB : "Squak XYZ and Stand By"...20 seconds later.."XII climb approved to FL115 through our aisprace towards Secunda"
Man did I hear correct, we were barely outside our airport still in Special Rules Area limited to 7500 ft ceiling and he allowed us to break the magical 7500ft ceiling. JUP I was correct!
Off we went with our little 100HP RV12 at climbing at 700ft/min through the TMA with the BIG boys talking on JHB all around us...Another Magical moment.
The Climb Test Results we got to FL115 fairly easily and our little fixed pitch RV12 was still climbing at +/- 250ft/min as the screen below is proof off at that level.
You can see it was 3 degrees C outside, also note all the temperatures and pressures were in the green after our extended climb from 5500 ft.
Not once did we have to worry about the temperatures and we could keep her at best rate of climb speed all the time. YIP we use Degrees C and Liters here...
SPEED Test
On the way back, now happy with the climb performance, we decided to do a quick speed run again, since we have been playing with the ground adjustable fixed pitch prop to get a a sweet spot and we think we have found it 70.0 degrees, but did not test the straight line speed again after finding the climb sweet spot.
The Results are below...just as Vans promised. The Dynon can if you feed it the correct QNH and it measures the outside air temperature work out TAS (True Air Speed).
We switched on the autopilot to keep GPS heading and altitude hold and pushed the throttle all the way forward and waited for everything to settle in.
Density altitude was 7910 ft and outside temps was 13 deg C and that rendered a TAS of 116Knots.
A quick glance to GPS ground speed less head wind component renders the TAS numbers corrolated correct. RPM was just into the YELLOW at 5610. Remember Rotax is 5500 continues and 5800 for 5 mins.
I was not too worried, because remember at 7000 ft we loose in anycase +/- 30% Horsepower since we are not turbo charged.
Now remember this is a Sport Plane limited to 120 knots. So Vans has hit the mark again. With our Wheel pants that will be fitted later (after training) we will definitely see a couple of knots extra taking us to 120 knots limit.
CONCLUSION:
So there you have it. The RV12 is a little 100 - 120 knot sport airplane with a 260 KG payload and still stay below legal 600KG you can build in your garage with little prior experience as our team showed you. It is a magical little sport plane, just right for its category, and a builders heaven.
Kind Regards
Rudi
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