TS Flightlines

TS Flightlines

Well Known Member
Advertiser
Not being an owner, and viewing things from the sidelines, I was wondering what kind of ranges that some of you were getting in your RV's. If and when I'm able to do something, my RV would be used for both business and pleasure. I'm still very torn between a 7A, 9A and now a 10. (No offense Jay!)
I know alot of you fly long distances, so I was wondering about the ranges that you can typically go; weather permitting. Vans says between 700-800 miles average for their planes. Are you guys seeing the same?
Tom
 
TS Flightlines said:
Not being an owner, and viewing things from the sidelines, I was wondering what kind of ranges that some of you were getting in your RV's. If and when I'm able to do something, my RV would be used for both business and pleasure. I'm still very torn between a 7A, 9A and now a 10. (No offense Jay!)
I know alot of you fly long distances, so I was wondering about the ranges that you can typically go; weather permitting. Vans says between 700-800 miles average for their planes. Are you guys seeing the same?
Tom
Click to expand...


Easily doable in a RV-10. Range is usually a function of bladder control than fuel available. There are too many variables to give more specifics. Are you WOT or LOP? One might get you there quicker, but your range will be reduced.

A RV-10 would be a great tool for your business. Just think of all the hoses you could haul to an airshow to sell.
 
Quoted ranges do not meet the sanity test

With the standard fuel tanks, on any of the models, with normal (not optimistic) fuel consumption, and landing with reasonable reserves (hour or more), plan on three hours and about 450 nautical miles or so, before refueling.

Yes, people do all kinds of things to stretch their range, and on good VFR days, may do so, to their comfort level.
 
Quoted numbers are in statue miles to dry tank, per some pre-determined rough fuel flow that you should be able to beat.

Those numbers are realistic (ie they can be achieved without any special tricks). Also, using typical OWT wasteful engine management you can easily come up way short of the quoted range (aka 150kts on 10gph).

But it gets old sitting in the darn thing for 5 hours :) You wanna get out after 3-3.5...
 
My range

Flying to Oshkosh in my -7, together with a friend in his -9A, our longest leg was just over 500nm, 3.3 hrs, and my bladder was about to explode when we landed. We landed with just over 8 gals left, which is about as tight a reserve as I'd like, especially given the tail-heavy nature of empty tanks in a -7 with a light prop. I was running ROP (<50 hrs on a new engine) at about 2400 rpm, fixed pitch Catto prop, 180 hp IO-360.
 
When I am flight planning, I usually look for fuel points at about 550 nautical miles for the -6, and 650 nautical miles for the -8. This gives plenty of pad for adverse winds and reserves. Both planes can fly farther than that to dry tanks, but there is no reason to stretch when you don't have to!

(I have taken off eastbound from the west coast, with tailwinds, and seen some amazing range numbers on the EFI with the -8...in excess of 110 nautical miles on several occasions! Once I took ff from Casa Grande, and after climbing to 13.5K, the computer said I could make New Orleans. last January, climbing out of Big Bear Lake in California to a similar altitude, I could have done Austin, TX with reserves....)

Paul
 
from my gps logs...

From the longest 20 legs over the past year...
covering 13,289 miles in 68.6 hours

AVERAGE
664 miles in 3.4 hours

Longest distance in one leg of 785 miles (just 3.3 hours)
Longest time in flight of 4.2 hours (only 656 miles)

I usually rough plan for a 3 hour leg and adjust as needed for bladder and conditions. I really don't like going beyond 3.5 hours in a leg; it is just too much without a stretch for me.
 
Last edited:
With zero wind, 600 NM is comfortable in my -6 running at about 60% power. That averages around 7.5-8 GPH, leaving me a 45 minute - 1 hour reserve at ~155 knots.

Bladder and derrierre' limits are often reached before fuel limits.
 
Very limited XC experience in my RV. But I have found 3hrs is good and 3+45 is long.

Longest leg was 604nm in 3.2hrs. Longest time was 3.7hrs(521nm) at 500-1500agl to beat the headwinds getting beat up....ugh! So far I've never landed with less than 12 gallons in the tanks.

So I'll go with Paul on this one. 500-600nm is a good planning tool depending on the winds that day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.