Chukill

Chukill

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I loved my RV8 and RV10, but I never thought of either as a "bush plane". The reason was my lack of confidence in the strength of the gear. Fine for smooth ground, but not sure that I would abuse it regularly with sod or other rough surfaces. I know people do use them on unimproved surfaces, so no flames on that issue please, but I wasn't comfortable with it. These are not Cessnas that are built for the abuse of student pilots, and other harsh uses.
The primary appeal to me of the RV15 is the bullet proof landing gear, as my new mission is operating off a rough runway.
So, why not use the technology of the RV15 gear (or Mike Patey's Scrappy), on other model RVs as an option?
The ability to land the plane three point with the gear absorbing the stress and NOT rebounding, would make rough field operations much easier on the equipment.
I am a potential builder of an RV15, if it ever comes to be in my lifetime (I'm 72). In the mean time, I would like to consider the option of building or converting an RV14 to a rough field, FAST and aerobatic airplane. Is it possible to engineer a drop in assembly of such a gear for the RV14? The RV10 I built, has main gear that bolts to the wing spar. Could that mounting point be used to install a scaled down RV15 type of main gear? The design could be tweaked to minimize the extra drag of the beefed up gear with the proper fairings I should think.
Vans promotion of the RV15 as being a good "rough field" airplane is testimony of the concept and if a third party engineered such a gear, maybe Vans would support it as an option.
As more airports are converted to shopping centers, the added utility of being able to safely operate on non runways is becoming a real asset in my opinion.
 
Well airplanes like ”Scrappy” prove that with enough work, you can adapt anything….but the gear on the RV-15 is so completely different than that on a -14 that the modifications to the fuselage structure woudl be pretty extensive. The -15 gear lives between teh floor and the belly, and that space doesn’t really exist on a low-wing RV.
 
Ironflight said:
Well airplanes like ”Scrappy” prove that with enough work, you can adapt anything….but the gear on the RV-15 is so completely different than that on a -14 that the modifications to the fuselage structure woudl be pretty extensive. The -15 gear lives between teh floor and the belly, and that space doesn’t really exist on a low-wing RV.
Click to expand...
I agree that adapting an RV15 gear to a RV14 is not going to work. What I want to consider is a completely re- engineered gear that could be made to tuck up into the area forward of the spar and provide the same type of damping that the RV15 gear provides. If additional sheet metal work and attach points are required, an RV builder should have no problem installing them, but maybe only easily if it's on a new build.
If we can put a man on the moon...eh never mind.
 
So why not design it yourself? It seems likely that Vans has other items of much higher priority than a niche application like you suggest, so doing it yourself will likely get it sooner as well.
 
I guess I would ask your definition of "rough field"? I embrace the innovative thinking but my experience would say it is more about landing speeds than landing gear (obviously it takes both).

To your point, rough fields beat up airplanes.

And what Mel said.
 
I had a similar thought recently. I was reading about the Bushliner 1850, a Canadian kitplane that started off as a clone of the 180/185 but has evolved into something substantially bigger and better, including a six-seat option. My thought was: Man, that airplane with RV-15-style gear would be AMAZING.

The one thing to keep in mind is that, "RV-15-style gear" means not just the landing gear legs, but the metal "box" between them that contains the linkages and the shock absorbers. I forget what the height of that box is, but I think it's taller than the space that most single-engine airplanes have between the floor and the belly. And it presumably limits your ability to route systems through the belly area, e.g. wires, control pushrods...

That having been said; Integrating that package - or an appropriately-scaled derivative - into another airplane should be doable. For example, adding the RV-15 main gear "box" to an RV-14A could probably be done (Same fuselage width, right?) with enough structural reinforcement and, in the worst case, would leave you with some ugly doublers... and a bulge on the belly, kinda like an inverted speed bump, which is non-ideal but less ugly or draggy than a belly pod, especially since you could have a gradual ramp down from the firewall and another back up to the tail cone. (I'm not sure you could do it to a taildragger 14 because it would have to stick further down out of the belly, and right by the firewall, so the "speed bump"/ramp would have to be steeper...). Probably impractical, but if you're really dedicated...

After the RV-15 kit becomes available, I would not be surprised if Van's decides to license their patented RV-15 main gear design to other airplane companies. It's just so compact and elegant. I thought the presentation at Oshkosh, when they launched it (2022?), was super impressive.
 
Chukill said:
I loved my RV8 and RV10, but I never thought of either as a "bush plane". The reason was my lack of confidence in the strength of the gear. Fine for smooth ground, but not sure that I would abuse it regularly with sod or other rough surfaces. I know people do use them on unimproved surfaces, so no flames on that issue please, but I wasn't comfortable with it. These are not Cessnas that are built for the abuse of student pilots, and other harsh uses.
The primary appeal to me of the RV15 is the bullet proof landing gear, as my new mission is operating off a rough runway.
So, why not use the technology of the RV15 gear (or Mike Patey's Scrappy), on other model RVs as an option?
The ability to land the plane three point with the gear absorbing the stress and NOT rebounding, would make rough field operations much easier on the equipment.
I am a potential builder of an RV15, if it ever comes to be in my lifetime (I'm 72). In the mean time, I would like to consider the option of building or converting an RV14 to a rough field, FAST and aerobatic airplane. Is it possible to engineer a drop in assembly of such a gear for the RV14? The RV10 I built, has main gear that bolts to the wing spar. Could that mounting point be used to install a scaled down RV15 type of main gear? The design could be tweaked to minimize the extra drag of the beefed up gear with the proper fairings I should think.
Vans promotion of the RV15 as being a good "rough field" airplane is testimony of the concept and if a third party engineered such a gear, maybe Vans would support it as an option.
As more airports are converted to shopping centers, the added utility of being able to safely operate on non runways is becoming a real asset in my opinion.
Click to expand...
I'd help you design and build this but you moved too far away. ;)
 
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