Max G pulled

[RVG8tor]

For those of you flying your aerobatic RVs, what is the max G you have pulled? I know doing maneuvers you will be in the 3-4 g range but what have you pulled either on purpose or recovering from a messed up maneuver. I am interested in that I would like to do some Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) with my RV when it is finished and I am curious what the average G is. There is a video form yesterday or today of an RV-4 fighting a Glass Air. In the video it looks like the RV-4 was not putting his lift vector in lead enough and was giving away some nice guns shot for snap shots. My thought is he was not willing to pull the G required to get his nose in lead. I am sure others would like to hear the numbers. What I wonder is even though the airframe can handle 6g do pilots avoid this upper limit by a wide margin. The fighters I flew had G limits but we flew the plane to those limits. The airframe could handle more but the limit was there for fatigue life of the airframe, even still with age problems arose with wing spars. Thanks for the info

Cheers

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by RVG8tor

For those of you flying your aerobatic RVs, what is the max G you have pulled? I know doing maneuvers you will be in the 3-4 g range but what have you pulled either on purpose...

I pulled 6 during testing. It took me a few tries because the airplane bleeds speed quickly at high gee loading. I finally got there by flying a little inverted to keep the speed up.

[DanH]

Can't comment on the G's available, but I'll bet a bunch of us civilian pukes would like to read written descriptions of how to fly the Basic Fighter Manuevers.

[asav8tor]

I am unaware of a -4 or -6 wing spar failure. The rear -3 spar attch point issue has been addressed. The -8 main wing spar on the aircraft you are building is significantly different in that it's built from far fewer parts. New CNC machining enabled them to build a much cleaner, lighter, and in theory and static load test, strong enough spar.

What I have not seen discussed is the merits/disadvantages of mill steps in the new designs and the implications (single point failure). The second issue is the widespread lack of understanding (in the GA community) that the Gs you read on the G meter do not represent the Gs forces experienced in all areas of the aircraft in all situations (roll coupling or rolling G). None of this really matters much in that you can fly the RV quite aggressively in formation or aerobatics and pull no more than 3 or 4. But your question is max pull to the limit all the time. You will not find a consensus on that. If you want to fly that way I would limit the rolling G.

[frankh]

My Dynon G meter shows +5.0 and -2.3G...(The -2.3 was during an inverted spin attempt)

It is not necessary to pull 5G, I think that was when I screwed something up early in my practice..

I never see over 4 these days

[Mel]

Most I've seen on my -6 is +4.4, -1.

[RV8iator]

Pulling G's while rolling is really important to understand. With the ailerons deflected and pulling 6 g's the real g-load on the outboard portion of the rising wing is greater. Never see much about this in civilian writings but it is a limiting factor on military airplanes.

[gasman]

Originally Posted by DanH

Can't comment on the G's available, but I'll bet a bunch of us civilian pukes would like to read written descriptions of how to fly the Basic Fighter Manuevers.

Dan... Look for the sixth and final issue 1998 of THE RVator, that I received on 2/4/99..
On page nine will get you started.

[Bugsy]

I enjoyed watching the RV4 Dog fight but also noticed the lift vector lead turning every set up. Funny you said that because while my kid and I were sitting their I comented look where his lift vector is. Led to some high aspect engagements which just put the G load higher on later. I doubt youd have to max perform an RV to have some fun like in the video. I dont want to bend this thing just have some fun. Cool video, can't wait to give it a try.

By the way, who won those set-ups, the RV or Glassair?

[L'Avion]

As my G-meter doesn't record, checking with my formation mate (RV-4, N8DU, retractable gear), whom I regularly follow in some very interesting in-trail action, finds his G-meter recording +5 each episode.

Barney
N44LR, RV-4 flying
N234FT, RV-3 putting the wings back on