The skins are thicker on the elevator, different counterweights and the rudder is a different design and much bigger.

As far as attaching, they are for the most part the same.
 
At the homecoming last year (08), I met a gentlemen that bought one of the last 6 kits. It had a 7 tail with the short 6 wings. When he asked what he had, I guessed right. I looked at the tail and thought 7, but looked at his fuel tanks and they were smaller.
Rick Maury
 
7 tail on a 6

I have done the 7 tail on a 6. The considerations are, if the new 7 tail had been previously installed on another airplane,the attach bolts may not align exactly with the existing 6 holes, the FG empenage fairing will need some modification. Of more concern is the W&B the 7 tail is heavier and the rudder has a heavy counter weight, this with a long arm will affect the W&B. Other than this it will work fine. Van's may have other concerns, but I have done it and the airplane fly's great.

Dick
 
RV 6

The last RV6s came with an RV8 style rudder, .020 skins.
The larger Rudder gives a little more stability and sliping power. I loged 998 hours with my RV6 with an RV8 rudder. Worked fine.
 
Don't know about the "A"s, but I know it works fine on the TD's....been there done that! Both planes in the pics are RV6's, one with the old tail and one with the large 7 tail.

Cheers,
Stein
tails3.JPG
 
sharpdoug said:
Stein, did the larger tail slow the plane down?
Click to expand...

Honestly I have no clue...that's the only tail that plane ever had on it so I don't know how it'd fly with the smaller one. The black airplane was pretty darned fast to begin with (faster than most) so it's not a really fair comparision between the two. Like all the planes I've built, it's faster than some and slower than others. No doubt the smaller tail is probably faster, but the big tail has less wag than the small one as well.

Either way I'm pretty happy with it! I do know that it'll handle a fair bit more xwind than the little bird. The short tailed one ran out of rudder at about 15-18kts of direct xwind whereas the 7 tail can handle a measured amount more. I flew an RV7 back from SoDak on Sunday, I copied the translated metar on my Iphone after I landed because it was well...something! The RV7 I was flying had the mid sized RV8 stab/rudder on it, so that one is right between the old 6 rudder and the big 9 rudder. I think it's the one I prefer the most now.

"Winds: from the S (180 degrees) at 22 MPH (19 knots; 9.9 m/s) gusting to 31 MPH (27 knots; 14.0 m/s)" Mind you our runway is 09/27.

Cheers,
Stein
 
Sunday crosswinds at MGG

Stein,
We gave 4 Young Eagles a ride in 2 6A's on Sunday about 9:00 am.
The wind sock was standing at attention at 195 to 170 degrees. I would estimate at least 15 K. We were very busy with our footies, and the knoll on the approch to 09 caused a horizontal rotor wind to make the bottom fall out just when you thought you had it aced. Fun stuff, and after the flights, of course the winds let up some.
Dale F. Field
N565DM
 
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