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11-23-2011, 10:07 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, WA USA
Posts: 908
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My friend's plane was just a standard RV-4 with a big honkin' heavy engine simply bolted onto the nose without much other consideration. It was basically an overweight, noseheavy "How quickly to you want to hit Vne?" machine that, while beautiful to look at, lacked certain grace, was a bit ill-mannered on landings if you tried to 3-point it, and roasted cylinders and exhaust valves pretty regularly.[/quote]
Ya this is not the way to go and definitely not what Lee did when building the - 4 I now own.
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11-23-2011, 10:54 AM
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Bismarck, ND
Posts: 212
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I don't mean to hijack this thread because I have a RV7A, but I do have the IO-360-A1B6. At least it started as an A1B6 until I sent the crank in and it was condemed due to a crack.
Since I was quoted north of 18grand for a replacement crank I replaced it with a ECI AEL36101-1 crank that does not have counterweights. The counterweights are in the neigborhood of 12 pounds. I was concerned about nose heavy, so I went with the skytec flyweight starter, plane power alternator, superior cold air sump, and the Catto 3 blade prop.
It was quite light on the nose and now I worry about aft cg when it comes back from paint. I just sent in the Catto prop for re-pitching and it only weighed 23 pounds in the box. One of the reasons I went with the Catto was that it absorbs a lot of vibrations and the counterweights that are no longer there are for 6th and 8th order harmonics that affect some prop installs.
I had a 68 x 74 prop, and I will be getting back a 68 x 75. I was turning over 2900 rpm in cool air. we will see how that works out.
__________________
Larry Buller
RV7A slow build, Tip up, IO360 200hp, Catto 3 blade, Dynon Skyview, arinc 429, ems, SV transponder, Garmin GNS430w, Aera 560, Dynon D6.
FLYING!
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11-23-2011, 02:30 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Vancouver, WA USA
Posts: 908
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SD-8 Only
I forgot to mention one more little trick to save weight, my -4 uses an SD-8 alternator from B&C in place of the vacuum pump and has no traditional alternator. Might not work for some but for my simple day night VFR airplane it works just fine.
Last edited by Russ McCutcheon : 11-23-2011 at 10:06 PM.
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11-26-2011, 12:00 AM
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 210
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I'm happy with mine
I bought my RV-4 in May 2006 from the original builder. It had about 300 hours on it then. After my flight this afternoon it shows 1079 hours on the hobbs. IMHO, the airplane is a delight to fly even though the numbers do tend to show a forward cg when I run W&B.
I did a refit in 2008 in which I removed the vacuum system and gyros, installed a new glass based instrument panel, installed a lighter starter and alternator, removed the inverted oil system, and generally cleaned up the wiring and plumbing. At that time, I also replaced the Concord battery with an Odyssey PC680 and moved its mount from behind the baggage compartment to between the rails behind the firewall. Even with the battery move, the CG didn't shift much due to the other weight I had removed from the front. I didn't notice much (if any) change in flying characteristics.
I really love the short takeoffs, quick climbs, and easy high-speed cruise. If I were building another RV-4, I'd put a similar engine in it. However, I'm not likely to do that since I just started a Harmon Rocket build.
Here's my weight and balance spreadsheet:

__________________
Kevin Cameron - Fresno, CA - E79
N493DB RV4 Flying IO-360-A1B, 10:1, Straight-Bore cylinders, Gapless Piston Rings, Hartzell CS Prop,
AFS3400-EE, TruTrac DFII VS, Aera 660, GTX 335, GDL 52R,
XM Radio, SL30, SL40, PMA9000EX, MicroTrac 300 APRS
Last edited by kcameron : 11-26-2011 at 12:02 AM.
Reason: typo
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