Butterflies make RV-10's a whole lot faster!!!

[glenmthompson]

Currently flying Jim in his Butterfly painted 331JH to visit his family and to attend his 60'th high school renunion. We are waiting for the WX to get above 1000 BKN at LIT and I just had to log on and tell the world what this plane is doing right now.
First, I must say (DUH!), I have had no fear about spreading some of the less than perfect RV 10 facts, ie..hot tunnel, somewhat indequate elevator authority at fwd cg's and what appeared to be slower than advertised numbers...Well, God has smiled on 331JH and I flew it in total awe and amazement yesterday as we flew from southern Fl to LIT. The plane now has been painted, flaps and ailerons tweaks, "gills" added to side of cowling (read - tunnel MUCH, MUCH cooler since now TONS of hot air now leaves the sides instead of all out the bottom of the cowl).,installed a small rudder trim tab to have a perfectly centered ball. On this trip, elevator was perfectly level with stab at 160 mph IAS, read, a lot less drag I assume.
Now in my normal bullet statement style what I/we observed.
****GTOW right at 2500 lbs, did not calculate CG, but felt pretty far aft, but obviously from past flying not at aft limit.
**** The UNBELIEVABLE data I/we collected.:
****3500 ft, WOT,2450 RPM 27" MP, leaned best power( listen..... low comp. pistons, so do not have a fit)...Oh my God R U ready????
191 KTAS ! ! ! That is 219 MPH TAS!!!!
****8500 ft, WOT, 2350 RPM, LBP( leaned best power), 181 KTAS, or 208 MPH TAS! A good bit faster than what Vans says we should be getting, and we have only 260 HP!!!!
***** Efis 1 TAS was confirmed and verified accurate by flying into the wind (referenced by winds on E-1), then 180 turn to take TAS/GS average. (No more boxes for me) I had my 296 also, to confirm any difference in ground speeds...there was none BTW. I also noted that the winds on the E-1 were/appeared to be dead nuts accurate based on TAS/GS calcs.
***** I had to reach under panel and pinch off tube running to stby A/S ind. due to the fact it bleeds down slightly, allowing some pressure in pitot line to lower the CAS in the E-1......Yet another discussion I guess for the Inst. forum.

Now, Jim just advised me we now have VFR weather and we are leaving to take more data and have more fun. OH, BTW, we Flew from West Palm area to Little Rock in 5.7 hrs, burned 81 gallons, and abused the heck out of our facial smiling muscles!!!!!
My quick opinion of all this is first it takes quite a while to accelerate to these speeds on autopilot in smooth air, and additionally, we lost 4 KIAS knots instantly when it got bumpy. This extra patience along with the more broken in engine, aft CG and paint and tweaking is my first guess why we are SOOOOOO MUCH faster now. Of course, other than devine intervention...
I am hurridly writing this to get it on the web so if there are any on the fence buyers who are not pleased by mine and other slow RV 10 reports, they can temper their 10 purchases with this info.
All I can say is.......I am amazed and am so sincerely sorry for EVER doubting Vans. I for one am eating a small portion of crow and sincerely apologize for ever doubting this unbelievable plane and company.
Also, Craig at Catto tells me that Noel Simmons is getting HUGE speeds out of his Catto 3 blade fire breathing Lycosorous, I hear even faster than these speeds..(Ok, I also hear 310 HP, but hey, who's counting?)....Where are those posts?
More to come......
Glen

[attson]

Glen
thanks for the post and more to the point the reassurance about the speed numbers...now you need to go to work to get the insurance premium down then you'll be my hero....
FWIW i got my first quote for the RV10 with 130K hull value is $2,800/yr ..premium for a comparable certified plane (ie. same hull value, retractable, same pilot) is half of that...there goes the economic advantage of an experimental
Son RV10 airframe completed

[yooper]

You're going to get a comparable certified plane for $130,000?

TDT

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by glenmthompson

The plane now has been painted, flaps and ailerons tweaks, "gills" added to side of cowling Glen

Flap and aileron tweeks??????

You have always said the airplane was rigged perfectly, and that it was just plain slooooow.

Glad to hear you are getting better than advertised speeds.

[PJSeipel]

Got any pictures??

[attson]

I meant comparable in price for insurance evaluation purpose

[brenthg]

Originally Posted by PJSeipel

Got any pictures??

[glenmthompson]

Originally Posted by rvbuilder2002

Flap and aileron tweeks??????

You have always said the airplane was rigged perfectly, and that it was just plain slooooow.

Glad to hear you are getting better than advertised speeds.

.
.
.

In reference to one of my first posts regarding my whining about the speeds, was a note that the plane had a slight roll to the left, very slight....ball slightly, ever so slightly touching the left lubber line, and the ailerons were about 1/4" below the wing tips. I had a small discussion also with someone concerning how his plane sped up once his ailerons were rigged correctly. Hmm, who knows, maybe the slight reflexing of the flaps to match the lower ailerons was a big difference? I cannot help but think too the pretty good aft CG we had mad a difference. When I was testing the plane, I loaded the CG to the aft limit, but did not do any REAL speed checks at the aft limit, just speed checks with an "after" CG.
The final numbers to fly from West Palm beach to 8K2 (Harper Kansas with a tour over Anthony Kansas, and a 180 turn to check TAS, are as follows.... 9.3 hrs total flying time, 113 gallons of liquid gold, 2 quarts of oil, alot of sore facial muscles, and an easy 201 MPH TAS the whole way! (Autopilot contributed significantly IMHO to the higher TAS, providing an overall more stable platform.)

[Mike S]

Glen, in the interest of saving a lot of folks the trouble of looking up your original numbers, what was the perf of the plane before the paint, & rigging changes?

Thanks, Mike

[glenmthompson]

Originally Posted by Mike S

Glen, in the interest of saving a lot of folks the trouble of looking up your original numbers, what was the perf of the plane before the paint, & rigging changes?

Thanks, Mike

Max I could get before all the above mentioned changes was 194.8 MPH TAS at any altitude or power setting or RPM. I am still freaking amazed, and am looking for an anomoly we all have missed. I still feel absolutely terrible about spreading (very loudly I might add) less than advertised speed news about this unbelievable plane!!!!
The new numbers were proven in 2 legs, with seperate GPS's and flying legs into and out of a headwind, twice. Wow, this crow tastes pretty good actually!
Glen