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Articles on Flying RVs by Richard VanGrunsven

RV8JD

RV8JD

Well Known Member
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A lot of wisdom here. I have over 800 takeoff/landings in my RV-6A, and just re-reading the "Taking Off" article I picked up some good reminders of managing the transition from surface to air. Thanks for making these all available in one, easy to access, place!
 
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In the early RV4 era Van was still advocating self taught aerobatics. He moved away from that quite early. Aerobatic Epistle is an excellent reference against self taught aerobatics. When I was instructing aerobatics I had a trainee who had lost control of his RV6 "teaching himself aileron rolls". "Almost 300 m/h, almost hit the ground and some absurd G load".
As far as I can determine there has never been a catastrophic structural failure in an RV6. Not true of some of the other RV's.
 
jrs14855 said:
In the early RV4 era Van was still advocating self taught aerobatics. He moved away from that quite early. Aerobatic Epistle is an excellent reference against self taught aerobatics. When I was instructing aerobatics I had a trainee who had lost control of his RV6 "teaching himself aileron rolls". "Almost 300 m/h, almost hit the ground and some absurd G load".
As far as I can determine there has never been a catastrophic structural failure in an RV6. Not true of some of the other RV's.
Click to expand...

As has been discussed before, there's a decent chance that the RV-7 structural failures were caused by over-speeding i.e. going beyond VNE. Self-taught aerobatics is one way to substantially increase the risk of that failure mode. I've only had maybe three hours of aerobatic training, all in an RV-6, all at a nice high altitude ("three mistakes high", as they say... no chance of having to pull too many Gs to avoid the ground). My instructor clearly communicated the importance of thinking about whether a maneuver might get you going faster than you started it (e.g. a split-S) and how such maneuvers had to be started at slow speeds and performed expediently without too much hesitation. "Don't over-speed the airplane!" was probably my primary concern the whole time. And, of course, I felt like I was much more likely to get maneuvers right if my instructor shows me first and is sitting next to me the first few times I do them. All of which is to say: Exceeding VNE is a very scary thought, and self-taught aerobatics is a very scary thought; I don't understand how people still do them. (But they do). I've done my share of stupid/irrational things, but still, man.
 
I do not advocate overspeed, just be aware it does happen and not infrequently. The RV7 accident near Atlantic City was extra tragic to me because I had exchanged some emails with the owner pilot. We did not discuss aerobatics.
He had repeatedly gone way over Vne with the airplane.
My take is that if you insist on doing this you MIGHT survive with a RV4 or RV6. Unlikely with the RV7 with the original or RV9 rudder.
 
The Atlantic City RV7 final report was published some time ago so the no speculation rules should not apply. The first point of failure was the rudder which broke in half.
There were radar derived speeds as well as testimony from friends who had flown near the pilot while he attempted rolls. Pretty strong evidence that he had been routinely exceeding Vne. The only other significant issue is that the rudder had previous wind damage which had been repaired by the non builder owner/pilot.
 
Thanks for that list Carl.
I read them all as they came out, oldtimer here. And I will now re-read them. Memory refresh ain't bad for sure ;)
 
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