N916K said:
I understand that Vans intent was to build a normal category plane to compete with Cessna 152's, but market placement has nothing to do with capabilities. I just would just like to see the test data for the RV9. It sure seems like quite a few people know what the RV9 structure is capable of and sense I actual fly an RV9, I would like to know what the data is also.
Don't you think the guys at Van's that designed the airplane know what the airplane is capable of?
People blindly except that an RV-9 has all of its parts properly designed so that the wings wont fall off when they fly it, but then the same people second guess the designers when they say not approved for aerobatics!
If you wont believe this, then you probably shouldn't be trusting your life to all of the other engineering eather.
As far as what it is capable of...I have seen photos of a Boeing 707 prototype inverted over Seattle while doing a barrel roll.
I don't know about you, but that does not prove to me that any ATP airline employee pilot type guy would have done just fine providing his passengers with a little extra excitement during there flight (when 707's were being used for passenger service).
Bottom line is this...
The RV-9 is capable of aerobatics, just like most any other airplane (even the Boing 707).
If you choose to do aerobatics you should know that you are doing so with a much smaller safety margin than you would have if you did aerobatics in an airplane that has that approval (the reason that FAR 23 certification requirements for aerobatics approval requires a +6/-3 G. limit load rating, among other things, isn't so that people flying the airplanes can go out and do 6 G. loops all day. It is so that they have a good safety margin for the level of G's that
typically get applied when doing aerobatics).
No one would buy RV kits if they were designed as 2.5 G. airplanes. Why? Because you would have to be much more careful when you flew them (even in normal flight conditions).
If you do aerobatics in an RV-9 it is the same as buying that 2.5 G. airplane.
You are flying it at a reduced safety margin and if you accidently screw up... that margin might not be enough!
(P.S. Not meaning this as a flame job directed at you Cam, just tired reading all the second
guessing the designer posts in this thread)