A friend visited us this past weekend, flying up in his club's Tomahawk. When he left, I decided to escort him on his way in the RV6A. I gave him a couple minute's head start, and took off, keeping him in sight. OAT was around 90F, so I knew I wouldn't be able to stay behind him at only 70 knots long before engine temps climbed. After a minute or two, while he was climbing at 70KIAS, I sped up to 120 or so and zig-zagged behind him, all the while climbing above him. I reported to him that he was looking at a headwind of 30 knots at 3.5'k. I climbed to 5.5'k and reported to him that the headwind diminished to about 10 knots there. I then descended back to his altitude, flew on his wing at 70 knots again for a minute, then buggered out back to base.
Here's the ground track:
One does tend to forget just how much more capable these RV's are as compared to most spam cans. And, this was all likely at a fair bit less fuel burn.
How to "Keep Up" with a Piper Tomahawk
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