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RV Fun - Things You Might not do with Ordinary Planes

AlexPeterson

AlexPeterson

Well Known Member
The class D, no radar tower controller says "66AP cleared for takeoff, advise when clear of class delta". Then I called back about 1.5 miles from airport announcing "clear of class D" after climbing out the top.

Runway 27 is 5000', and my parking is a left turn at the departure end of the runway. I'm cleared to land, but chose to fly at about one foot altitude for practice and to get closer to the hangar. So I'm flying along at 60 knots, 1' agl, about 2/3's down the runway (I really do recommend this as practice) when the tower calls "66AP, roll to the end, left turn to parking with me", I answer, "Haven't landed yet, but when I do I'll roll to the end.."
 
Come on, guys, I figured this thread would take off, pun intended. No one else ever had any fun in their RV??? You know, stuff you hear/do/see that typically wouldn't happen in a spam can due to measly performance, etc. ;)
 
Climb rates

Last Friday,
Jenny and I were talking to Atlanta center while heading northwest at 4500 feet toward Cleveland, Tennessee, VFR on top. Atlanta advises, "33PL be advised that minimum en route altitude is 5500 feet" since the mountains were nearby. I "rogered" him and pulled the nose up with full power and went to 6500 in slightly over a minute.

"That was quick" came the remark. "Yessir, it's an RV". "Figures," he said :D
 
with a friend in his RV6A several years ago.....Sarasota/Bradenton (a busy Class C)....cleared for T/O....controller says "two of us are building RV's. Fly past the tower so we can check out your paint scheme".

We did. They thanked US for a change!
 
A couple of weeks ago I took off about one minute behind a Mooney. When I over took the Mooney, I was a couple of hundered feet above it. Oh yeah, we were still in class D airspace. :) Oh yeah, I don't have fairings installed yet. :D
 
McFly said:
A couple of weeks ago I took off about one minute behind a Mooney. When I over took the Mooney, I was a couple of hundered feet above it. Oh yeah, we were still in class D airspace. :) Oh yeah, I don't have fairings installed yet. :D
Click to expand...

Now that's GOTTA feel good....
 
airguy said:
Now that's GOTTA feel good....
Click to expand...
Oh man, I love that. And sometimes if I'm feeling particularly nasty I'll "accidentally" call out my fuel burn on freq as I zip past that Mooney or Bo or 210 or 310. :D
 
Performance

Everyone in the "hot" airplanes at our airport seems happy to make the first turnoff on landing. It is also about the point they leave the ground on takeoff. The other day I landed, came almost to a stop, poured on the coal and was at about 5' when I got to the turnoff. The funny part--it isn't even all that difficult!

Bob Kelly, RV-9A
 
My wife and I were heading to dinner the other night and we were on with approach control into a class C, and called 20nm out. At the same time a Tiger called 5nm out, the controller cleared us to the base leg and made the poor tiger fellow turn upwind. The other pilot asked if he could just turn crosswind and the controller came back with "Negative you have much faster traffic on base" !! What can I say with the bit of tailwind we had we were doing a solid 205kts across the ground. It was a real fun moment to be putting the chocks down when the tiger finally came onto the apron :D
 
Coming back from dinner Tuesday night...

I was at 23 squared, not in a particular hurry. I was making 202 kts ground speed. This is the fastest that I have ever flown (as pilot). :cool:

It felt great. :)

Kent
 
It's fun to be asked to slow down when being vectored in the terminal area to avoid closing on traffic ahead - especially when the traffic ahead is a medium twin!
 
Or a light Jet..:)

Spoke to my RV4 owning crop dustin friend yesterday who i hadn't seen for a couple of years....He described how you do an "English Bunt" and poilitly offered to show me sometime...Gulp!

Think I'm washing my hair that day..:)
 
I was returning home from a formation practice a few weeks ago and was hopping over the top of PVD's Class C airspace. I was monitoring his freq, but not talking to him, when I overheard the controller tell another aircraft to "look for a light twin traveling eastbound at 5,500 exactly in the position over the ground I was at. I could see the other westbound traffic coming my way, climbing through 4,000.

I couldn't resist the temptation and key'd up saying "Actually, your looking for an experimental "light single" who has the westbound traffic in sight.

He ask what type and I replied "RV-4 sipping along at 7.5 gal/hr".
I was doing something like 170kts over the ground at the time.

Ya gotta love the combination of having speed and economy at the same time.
 
Sipping fuel

My daughter and I like to chase rivers to see where they go. Set up at 3500ft - alt hold on - 2100 rpm - 16in MP, and start leaning, and leaning. End up at 3.8 gal/hr and 125mph. The Dynon tells me we can go for 9 hrs like this.

I know we're going nowhere fast, but the but an hour flying is an hour for a 9 year old and her 41year old dad.........
 
Two nights ago I was coming back to home base of Anoka County after a short joy ride. I was descending at about 500'/min, indicating about 175 knots. Ground speed was 190+ knots. I was 9 miles out, called in "Anoka County, N66AP, 9er north, landing with Juliett". There was no one else on the radio, and my traffic monitor wasn't seeing anyone nearby. There was a little delay, and finally "N66AP ident". Tower came back "we are showing you at 190 knots, enter left downwind 36, cleared to land". I suspect the tower guy, who knows RV's well, just wasn't quite sure that the 190 knot plane was his target!
 
Sumfun

RV 6....While leaving El Monte (KEMT) on 19 and a right turn out and north departure, tower calls "traffic ahead is a 182 turning right". I replied, Roger, I will pass him on his left. This put me on the outside of the turn and I still went by him like he was standing still. D--n that felt good. RV7A time, I did Loveland fort Collins, FNL to Houston wieser EYQ the other day in 4.3 hours,,, try that in your spam can!
 
I love to read this stuff

Keep them coming boys, this is the best motivation I have gotten in weeks.:D
 
Sumfun again

Two weeks ago while giving a retired FA18 driver some tailwheel time in my 6, his father (retired navy F4) crossed in front of us1/2 mile out in his RV4 and what followed was a new lesson on what RVs can do....yanking and banking the likes of which I have never been in, up down,in out,father against son, both wanting to prove something. Rod, being older and wiser got us and we had to bug out, but wait, His passenger only weighed about 100 lbs? Is that cheatin or what,,,I have got to get a camera mounted and try that again Dave
 
Coming over the Smokies returning from Sarasota @ 10,500 wound up to 2600 rpm, the controller at Asheville queried me "What kind of experimental are you?"

I told him an Vans Aircraft RV7....he comes back with "Man that thing really moves! I gotta get me one of them!"

Made my day!
 
There I was ...

upside down in our waivered and NOTAMed aerobatic box, just over the top of loop when a Mooney comes blasting through the box below me. So I calmly rolled away from him then came about and intercepted him. I followed him until he reported his position on a nearby airports unicom, then I explained to him what he had done and that he ought to check NOTAM's a little more carefully next time.
 
"turbo Saratoga"

My only anecdote came when I was first bringing my "new to me" RV-8 from Tulsa to Virginia. on the second leg, I was handed off to Washington Center and I announce on frequency and dutifully tagged that first call with "experimental". center came back with a request for type of aircraft. I said "RV-8". "thanks" was the reply and then "we had you down as a turbo Saratoga". I can understand the confusion, I was at 11,500 and doing 187kts on radar :)
 
Final approach to Hobby here in Houston. Controller advises southwest jet that there is an experimental on final for the parallel two miles ahead. SW pilot reports no joy and asked if he needed to slow down. Controller comes back with, " the experimental has 10 knots on you, no factor".

Got to love the ability to do 160 knots on final and still pull it back to land at 65 knots. :D
 
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Oshkosh Departure

I was flagged on to rwy 18 behind a V-tail Bonanza. The Bonanza was cleared for takeoff, and when he broke ground, I was given the signal to begin my takeoff roll. With 51 gallons of 100LL, the wife, and all our camping gear on board, I applied full throttle. The Doll quickly accelerated to takeoff speed, and then passed the Bonanza before the end of rwy 18. From my point of view, the Bonanza was going backwards at a good rate speed! I wonder what he was thinking from his point of view.

Gotta love it!
 
Don't run over me

Departing from our non-controlled field at lake Norman I called my takeoff roll with intended west bound departure. A 172 that had departed about 5 minutes earlier comes on with "RV departing lake norman, don't run over me I am only about 5 miles West of the field.
 
Last year after the Weatherford fly-in we spent a couple days in ABQ. When leaving ABQ (Double Eagle EL 5837) heading back to South Carolina, ABQ departure asked if I wanted to go to the north or south around the imposing Sandia Peak at almost 12000 ft just east of ABQ. My response was "I think I'll just go over the top" which I did effortlessly. What a great plane that 7 is.:D

Ed Booth, Trenton, SC
builder/flyer RV-6, RV-7, RV-9A, RV-10
Owner/flyer Cessna 170-B
 
Sorry?

Last Friday as I'm holding short rwy 04 KTOP

Tower: "Why don't we see you in your VariEze anymore?"
Me: "It's sitting in a museum in Coffeyville, Kansas."
Tower: "Any regrets?"
Me: "Nope, this is an RV7."
 
Takeoff Climb Performance

One of the best parts of flying an RV is taking off on a normal length, typical airport runway and already reaching full pattern altitude and turning crosswind with still plenty of runway pavement under me.

In the poor old Cherokee 140, the crosswind turn at pattern alt was usually at least a half mile downstream of the departure end of the runway.
 
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clime out at 2.500 ft/min

After only a couple hours on the hobs I intended to make a high altitude flight, to check the performance and handeling. Flying at 1.500 ft, I requested climbing to FL60. After ATC kept me on 1.500 ft for a while due to departing traffic at Brussels, they finally cleared me to FL60. Immediately I pushed the engine controlls full forward and pulled the stick back to 80 KTS. It did only take about 30 seconds for ATC to call: PH-VAN, initial climb to FL40 only! what kind of aircraft is this??

It felt so good to reply: Van's RV-9A and it took me 5 years to built it!

Regards, Tonny.
 
Neal@F14 said:
One of the best parts of flying an RV is taking off on a normal length, typical airport runway and already reaching full pattern altitude and turning crosswind with still plenty of runway pavement under me.

In the poor old Cherokee 140, the crosswind turn at pattern alt was usually at least a half mile downstream of the departure end of the runway.
Click to expand...

Isn't that the truth! I fly a Cherokee 140 and it's a great plane to learn to fly in but I can't wait until I'm finished with the 9A. And if that isn't incentive enough, I may be flying into 14A and may have another RV to watch out for. ;-)
 
Twin vs RV

I was flying aerobatics in the local training area one day and heard an aircraft checking in on the frequency to get clearance to cross the area.
He got his clearance and ATC adviced him that it was a small airplane (me) who was above him in the same area. He acknowledged.

I spotted him below me, called him up and asked if I could join on his wing for few minutes for some formation-practice.
He came back in a rather cocky and annoyed voice and said: "well, this is a twin (he put pressure on the word "twin") and we are flying at 150 kts!"

I couldn't resist that one and answered: "that's ok because I can slow down some!" :p
He came back with a much lower and puzzled voice: "what kind of an aircraft are YOU flying??"

I almost growed through the canopy when I replied: "homebuilt Vans RV-7!"
He didn't say another word until he left the frequency.... :D

PS: I was VERY tempted to swop down, increase to 200 TAS, pass his wing, do a roll in front of him and then pull up again... but exercising good airmanship, I ofcourse resisted that urge... ;)
... but that sure would've been a thing I couldn't have done with an ordinary plane....
 
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I took a friend of ours, non pilot, up for an evening flight. The conditions were beautiful, dead calm. Ahead of us I spotted the flight school's 172. I have a good relationship with the instructors and radioed that I would be passing on the left side. As we approached the aircraft I told my passenger that this was an airplane that was used to teach people how to fly. As we were passing, she asked the question " They teach them how to fly backwards!!!?"
 
The Only Way to Fly

One time when coming out of Twin Oaks (7S3) Or after the monthly pancake Bkfst we were # 2 after a V-tail Bonanza. I waited till he was airborn with his gear up before I rolled...
Within about two miles, before we got to the Newberg ridge we were 500 ft above him going past him and still climbing.
Must be he was sight-seeing.....
Jim
 
Many years ago, I'd just been released by Joshua Approach to contact William J. Fox Field (where I learned to fly and still do). I was descending out of 10.5K for 3.5K, straight in approach, at top of the yellow arc in nice, smooth air.

I was about 17 nm out when I checked in, and Fox followed with "...Plan on #1 for the runway". A Baron called in right after me reporting that he was 10nm out for landing. The tower replied back, "...Plan on #2 for the runway."

The Baron shot back immediately, "You do know that I'm less than 10nm out now", and the Tower didn't miss a beat: "Yes, I do (pause...) And you can still plan on landing #2 behind the RV".

I was on the ground when he entered the downwind :D Rosie
 
We had left just Monterey enroute that we were asked to climb to 7500 expeditiously. Well with already some speed and going full power we made it to the 7500 in no time which we got a response back ?that was an impressive climb?

But what I gets me going the most, is when we are talking with other pilots of 182, Moony and the likes about speed and fuel burns. No contest there.
 
ACT - Southwest, you have a RV7 at your 12 o'clock, 8 miles, one seven thousand feet, same direction.

Southwest - "cool"
 
Took off behind that fancy new cessna skycatcher they do training in out of Twin Oaks the other day and gave them plenty of room. Even still, I was above and ahead of them pretty quickly. The student in the skycatcher made a radio call "2miles east 1,500 feet, looking for the RV", which I replied "2.5 miles southeast 2,200 feet. Traffic no factor". Then the instructor got on the radio, "So not fair!".

Good times! :D
 
So Cool, my RV9

A couple of days ago my wife and I were returning from Sanford FL cursing at 7500. Just South of JAX, we saw a piece of traffic on the screen that was not moving relative to us. Turns out it was a Barron (unknown what type) going to SAV. He stayed right at the same position for the entire rest of the way to SAV. We were also stopping there to have lunch with our son. It was so cool to be doing Baron speeds on 8 GPH. Then come home and land on the 1250 foot grass strip and park it in our hanger beside the house. Try that in any spam can faster than 80 kts. Broken airplane.
 
pierre smith said:
Last Friday,
Jenny and I were talking to Atlanta center while heading northwest at 4500 feet toward Cleveland, Tennessee, VFR on top. Atlanta advises, "33PL be advised that minimum en route altitude is 5500 feet" since the mountains were nearby. I "rogered" him and pulled the nose up with full power and went to 6500 in slightly over a minute.

"That was quick" came the remark. "Yessir, it's an RV". "Figures," he said :D
Click to expand...

Alright, I'll bite. (not RV related)

About 4 months ago, climbing out of Buckley level at FL200, Denver said I could have FL360 if I could get there in less than 4 minutes.

45 seconds later I reported level at FL360, and you could hear the controllers in the back ground laughing, and he made some comment about judicious use of afterburner. ;)

And Mike, the Baron (aside from being one of the nicest flying airplanes I've ever flown)... can do it with 6 people, pressurized. ;)
 
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Caught Up

Friends left OK for SNF at 9AM in their Coyotes, but I had to work until 2. "We'll be thinking of you" they said. Caught up with them at Perry Fl.
 
converted Friend

About 3 thee years ago, a friend and I went to a flyin. He was flying his wag aero cub. I in the 4, when we left there he headed straight home I flew to another airport to get fuel about 30 miles out of the way, as i was calling downwind to our home airport, he was just geting back also, about a month later he sold the cub and bought a RV4. he's never regreted it.
 
Sig600 said:
And Mike, the Baron (aside from being one of the nicest flying airplanes I've ever flown)... can do it with 6 people, pressurized. ;)
Click to expand...

Your right, the Baron is a great airplane, and I have flown lots of spam cans from 150's to G450's. All a great pleasure to fly, but you will find out when you get yours done, that the RV grin is almost impossible to wipe off. The Baron (or any other light twin) can't do 8 GPH and turn around and land in 6 or 7 hundred feet and do aerobatics to boot. Besides most of what I have flown to this point in my life has been for someone else, going where they wanted to go. The RV is OURS, and we go when and where we want to. A HUGE and very pleasant difference.
 
mkbreezy said:
Your right, the Baron is a great airplane, and I have flown lots of spam cans from 150's to G450's. All a great pleasure to fly, but you will find out when you get yours done, that the RV grin is almost impossible to wipe off. The Baron (or any other light twin) can't do 8 GPH and turn around and land in 6 or 7 hundred feet and do aerobatics to boot. Besides most of what I have flown to this point in my life has been for someone else, going where they wanted to go. The RV is OURS, and we go when and where we want to. A HUGE and very pleasant difference.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was flying a Colemill BE55 for a client and while I loved flying it, I did not envy his fuel bill (and this was in the late 90's). 28gph was not uncommon throttled back.

I do have a sizeable chunk of time in the EAA's 6a's and even with small motors and fixed pitch props, those were still a hoot (even if it did involve cleaning up kids vomit here and there). Can't wait to get ours in the air with all the goodies, then go where and when we want! Getting paid to fly, so that we can pay for our own flying... It's a viscous cycle :D
 
Curse

Well you know how it is with auto correct, or was it a freudian slip (forward I'm sure). You decide.

BTW tell me if you will about big tires. What size, do you operate with no wheel pants, can you show pictures, etc? I think bigger tires would help on this strip, but I don't want to lose too much speed.

Thanks
 
Mike,

I had custom axles (an inch longer than normal to take 6" wheels) built and am using Matco wheels. The big tires I use are 800x6 and do not have wheel pants but I've been thinking of modifying some RV-10 pants eventually....

Here's a photo of me landing at my buddy's place in BC (59 35.72N, 134 11.97W):



And on the ground you can see the larger tires more clearly:



Some custom gravel deflectors (I did not use these in BC this year):



I lost about 12 mph in cruise compared to the normal tires with wheel pants, which I figure wasn't a bad tradeoff overall. I might get half of that back if I build the fairings, so I'm not sure its worth the $500 for the RV-10 fairings.

Another place I took it this summer is the airstrip at Rackla (64 13.33N, 133 12.43W - note that the google earth photo was taken in winter so doesn't really show the airstrip well).

The -9B lands very sweetly, easy to plop onto a fairly short field. I certainly wouldn't do gravel bars and very rough strips, but for anything partially graded, it seems ok so far.

I have the standard 6" tailwheel, but am upgrading to an 8" pneumatic wheel for next summer.

cheers,
greg
 
BIG tires

That really is very cool. So far I'm not having any problems here at the farm, but if I do, I may pm you for some further details. Thanks so much for posting your pix and details. Great backcountry mod.
 
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