acrobatic question

[fireandfly]

I have a "purchased" 6. It was the builders 4th RV he put together and was a quick build.
I was fortunate enough to have a well respected retired airshow pilot give me acrobatic lessons in my plane and in his Extra 300. Now it's practice time.
Do any of you have reservations on stressing the wings with loops year after year? I am fairly young (43 ) and hope to enjoy the light acrobatics the plane has to offer for some time, but I'm also the kind of pilot that is amazed a plane stays together in moderate + turbulance.

[Kahuna]

Originally Posted by fireandfly

Do any of you have reservations on stressing the wings with loops year after year?

No.........

[pierre smith]

Hi Fire (Please give a name )

As you probably know, a well done loop shouldn't pull more than 3 gs, half of the design load. Snaps are probably more hurtful if you do them too fast and pull over 4 Gs.....but they're not graceful, smooth maneuvers like Cuban 8s and Immelmans. I haven't seen or heard of a life limit on the 6 spars but call Van's.
Regards,

[Kyle Boatright]

In an early '90's RVator, Van's calculated that anodizing the RV-6 spars reduced their fatigue life to roughly 12,000 hours of aerobatics.

[fireandfly]

Thanks for making my loops less stressful. Jeff

[TerryWighs]

Anyone done any hammerhead stalls??? Is this an excessively high "G" load on an RV-8???

[pierre smith]

Terry,
If you stall the airplane in an extremely high nose-up attitude, the wing is unloaded during the stall and there are no excessive G's unless you recover in a steep dive and then pull the Gs. If you're talking about going vertical and doing a tailslide into a hammerhead stall, you stand a serious chance of elevator and stabilizer damage. If I recall correctly, its verboten by Van.
Regards,

[TerryWighs]

Thanks Pierre...I was worried about the forces after the vertical stall, as you addressed...

[Mel]

Technically a "hammerhead" is not a stall. It is a turn. You need to kick the airplane over BEFORE it stalls. If you stall it in this attitude, you risk a tail-slide. You DON'T want to do this. I have done extensive rear fuselage and empennage work on a -3 that experienced this. The rudder stops wrinkled the fuselage skins badly. It wasn't pretty.

[TerryWighs]

Thanks Mel....didn't know the maneuver was actually a turn??? Not going to be doing this one regardless...wouldn't want to bend up a perfectly fine tail.