SquawkVFR
Member
I recently purchased an RV-7A that has an airworthiness certificate which includes the usual charachteristics, such as Vso, Vx, Vy, weight, and CG. The builder did not certify it for aerobatic manuevers. I didn't build the plane, but it's been flying for several years and been through a decade of condition inspections and pre-buys. However, that doesn't tell me anything about its aerobatic manuever capability. At some point, I'd like to get training and eventually be able to fly appropriately-rated aerobatics this airplane.
I understand I can contact a FSDO to arrange a test flight to demonstrate aerobatic manuevers, but I'm a little hesitant to do so without doing some ground load testing of the structure first.
I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere before, so please let me know if this exists somewhere that I've not yet seen. But what I would like to do is conduct some ground load testing on relevant surfaces and structures prior to testing in the air. The last place I want to learn about an insufficient load capability of an aircraft structure is in-flight.
With all that being said, is there a way to test structural loading on the ground prior to an aerobatic flight test?
I'm thinking if you're a structural engineer, you ought to be able to determine the rated loads based on G-rating and then apply a static load to those structures to verify the rating. Shooting from the hip, I'm envisioning anchoring the gears to the ground and applying a uniformly distributed load to the underside of the wings and the top side of the horizontal stabilizers simultaneously to whatever the equivalent of 6Gs would be. Then to confirm 3G negative loading, apply a uniform load to the top side of the wings and bottom of the horizontal stabilizier.
I'm just spitballing here to start a conversation. Let's discuss...
I understand I can contact a FSDO to arrange a test flight to demonstrate aerobatic manuevers, but I'm a little hesitant to do so without doing some ground load testing of the structure first.
I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere before, so please let me know if this exists somewhere that I've not yet seen. But what I would like to do is conduct some ground load testing on relevant surfaces and structures prior to testing in the air. The last place I want to learn about an insufficient load capability of an aircraft structure is in-flight.
With all that being said, is there a way to test structural loading on the ground prior to an aerobatic flight test?
I'm thinking if you're a structural engineer, you ought to be able to determine the rated loads based on G-rating and then apply a static load to those structures to verify the rating. Shooting from the hip, I'm envisioning anchoring the gears to the ground and applying a uniformly distributed load to the underside of the wings and the top side of the horizontal stabilizers simultaneously to whatever the equivalent of 6Gs would be. Then to confirm 3G negative loading, apply a uniform load to the top side of the wings and bottom of the horizontal stabilizier.
I'm just spitballing here to start a conversation. Let's discuss...