[Nuisance]

A couple of notes from the race that might interest the non-racers as well.

Jon Ross beat me by 0.16 mph in a near identical RV8. He used 2 gallons less of fuel, which makes me think he is better at leaning the engine at sea level than I am. Hence my thread/question under "Traditional Engines". We both have parallel valve IO-360s.

Dick Martin was 10 mph faster than I, but he burned 41 gals. So, he just used more power. If we use the cube law, my airplane and his are roughly equally efficient. (We both have RV8s, but Dick has the IO-390 angle valve engine).

Dave Anders and I used the same amount of fuel (35 gals.)in the race. He went 34 mph faster (no, I didn't drop any decimal points) than I did. Dave has a very slick RV4. He also has a lot of horsepower, but couldn't use it all, since he only has 42 gals of gas on board.

If Dave and I flew the same speed on a cross country, he would use much less gas than I.

So here is the point of racing...once a year we have fun and try to beat each other, but the rest of the year we enjoy the fuel savings.

John

 

[flyeyes]

Interesting post, John.

I enjoyed talking to you briefly that Sunday at Fond Du Lac, as we all waited for OSH to open up.

As another couple of data points, you may remember me (unpainted RV-8) and Jerry Carter (yellow RV-8A), who wound up arriving about the same time as the racers and getting parked in the middle of the gaggle with you.

Jerry and I flew almost the same distance as the race (KTKX-KFLD), about 460 nautical miles, plus a little detour to RIPON before turning back to the pattern at FLD.

We were definitely not racing, and were in economy "fun flying" mode at 7500 feet. IIRC, our TAS hovered around 158 knots, give or take, and most of the trip I was flying off Jerry's wing.

Jerry was running ROP with his carbed 0-360 (powersport, "H" pistons, mags), and I was running about 25-50 degrees LOP with my angle-valve IO-360 (stock pistons, one electronic ignition).

We both topped off in Kennett ($3.40/gall) and again in FLD. I burned 23.5 gallons for the leg, and Jerry burned 28.5.

Obviously we took longer to cover the distance, but I think it's interesting to compare the range of possibilities.

James Freeman

 

[Bob Axsom]

Speaking of AVC Performance

Speaking of performance, I took the reported AirVenture Cup results from the EAA and sorted all planes by average speed. Some may find this interesting (FM = Formula, FX = Fixed Gear, Bl = Blue = 360 cu.in., Rd = rd = 320 cu.in.):

Bob Axsom

Overall Finish/Race #/ Aircraft Type/Race Class/Speed MPH
1 5 Lancair Legacy Unlimited 297.36
2 74 SX-300 Sport 288.74
3 10 SX-300 Sport 278.81
4 30 SX-300 Sport 278.53
5 3 SX-300 Sport 278.16
6 9 Quest. Venture Sport FX 263.24
7 70 SX-300 Sport 258.18
8 75 Glasair III Sport 257.6
9 28 Glasair III Unlimited 250.19
10 54 Cozy 540RG Unlimited 247.58
11 40 Velocity XL-RG Sport 247.54
12 73 Glasair I TD Fm.FX Bl 244.93
13 4 RV-4 Fm FX Bl 244.01
14 111 Vari-EZ Sprint 241.64
15 91 Glasair I TD Fm FX Bl 241.47
16 46 White Lightning Unlimited 240.95
17 46 White Lightning Fm RG Bl 240.95
18 36 Lancair 360 Fm RG Bl 240.82
19 77 Lancair 360 Fm RG Bl 236.38
20 96 Lancair 360 Fm RG Bl 236.38
21 94 Lancair 320 Fm RG Rd 232.84
22 89 Bohannon B-1 Unlimited 232.52
23 13 Berkut 360 Fm RG Bl 232.36
24 32 Velocity XL-RG Sport 230.87
25 0 Lancair 360 Fm RG Bl 223.94
26 21 RV-6 Rocket Sport FX 221.85
27 33 RV-8 Sport FX 220.9
28 79 Vari-EZ Sprint 220.07
29 81 Cozy MkIV Fm FX Bl 212.07
30 27 RV-8 RV Blue 210.26
31 18 RV-8 RV Blue 210.12
32 29 Osprey GP-4 Fm RG Bl 205.46
33 93 Long -EZ Fm FX Rd 205
34 45 RV-10 Sport FX 203.31
35 24 Velocity XL-RG Sport 203.04
36 55 Velocity XL-RG Sport 202.46
37 22 Quickie 200 Sprint 202.03
38 19 RV-8 RV Blue 201.47
39 16 RV-7 RV Blue 200.76
40 63 RV-3 RV Red 200.31
41 43 RV-8 RV Blue 200.07
42 90 Lancair 235 Sprint 195.27
43 86 Sidewinder Fm FX Rd 195
44 84 RV-8 RV Blue 194.37
45 71 RV-6A RV Blue 193.42
46 48 RV-6 RV Red 193.37
47 95 Lancair 320 Fm RG Rd 193.09
48 17 RV-6A RV Red 193
49 34 RV-4 RV Red 192.21
50 64 RV-7 Sport FX 191.47
51 72 RV-4 RV Red 190.76
52 53 RV-6A RV Red 187.11
53 42 Velocity 173RG Sprint 181.97
54 76 RV-6 RV Blue 179.56
55 99 Long-EZ Fm FX Rd 174.38
56 80 Seawind Sport 171.25
57 41 Long -EZ Sprint 154.8
58 51 RV-6A RV Red 139.45
59 7 Glastar Sprint 133.9
60 52 Glasair II SFT Sport FX DNF

 

[aadamson]

Question for Bob

Bob, do you know if that - line 6 questair venture was really a fixed gear version or was that some sort of misprint. They are traditionally RG and I didn't know they even made an FG. To allow one to run in FG and "promise" not to raise the gear seems a little unfair. Plus his speed implys that he's an RG.

Curious, cuz I may have to try the Sport FX next year in a *real* fixed gear legacy with IO-550 ...

 

[Bob Axsom]

It was a fixed gear

It is a fixed gear. Jack Cox wrote it up on the last Sportsman Pilot. The owner pilot lives at Spruce Creek near Daytona. The nose gear retracts but the main gear are fixed and faired. It is one of a kind I believe. I took a photo at Dayton that included it.

Bob Axsom

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