amirgreenfield
I'm New Here
Anyone can tell me anything about inverted flight fuel supply in RV14?
as long as the fuel tank has a flop tube for pickup the rest of the EFII system doesn't care/know
I don't think you need anything beyond stock for occasional loops and rolls?
.. which brings up the question on how to keep the stock brake reservoir from leaking ..
I don't think you need anything beyond stock for occasional loops and rolls?
.. which brings up the question on how to keep the stock brake reservoir from leaking ..
I wonder if you'll be happy with how the -14's airfoil works inverted. I recall years ago hearing Van say that one reason he selected the 23000 series NACA section for the 3/4/6/7/8 models is because it works reasonably well inverted. I suspect the -14 airfoil won't do too well inverted since it had very different design goals (originally designed for the -10). Anybody have any data points on how it flies inverted?
The mission of the 14 is more geared toward comfortable XC and oh by the way you can also do loops, rolls, and spins, but if you're wanting to do more serious acro including negative G I'd recommend a 7 or 8.
It may not cruise efficiently under negative G but that doesn't mean the airfoil will not work fine inverted for the brief periods of negative G that RV pilots will ever do. What do you mean by "work well"? I guarantee it will fly inverted just fine. Just takes some forward pressure is all. RV pilots aren't gonna care about how efficiently the RV airfoil pushes around a corner under negative G, since about 0.01% of RV acro pilots have ever even done that anyway. These are not advanced level airplanes. A J-3 Cub also flies OK inverted. The low negative G potential of the RV is more of a limitation than the airfoil.
I think Mark's comment is related to the fact that the RV-14 has a different airfoil from the rest of the aerobatic RV's. Until someone tests it (Van's did not) it is an unknown what the inverted flight characteristics will be.
Did Vans ever do full testing on the other RV models? Don't recall seeing Van ever publish flight test info on all the inverted spin modes for the 3/4/6/7/8. I know he farmed out regular upright spin testing on the RV-6. Never saw anything in more depth.
I think Mark's comment is related to the fact that the RV-14 has a different airfoil from the rest of the aerobatic RV's. Until someone tests it (Van's did not) it is an unknown what the inverted flight characteristics will be.
Right. I don't know what kind of inverted aerobatic flying the OP has in mind, or what his experience level and expectations are. So I was simply pointing out that the -14 may not be the best platform if he's serious enough about doing sustained negative G flight to bother putting inverted fuel & oil systems in it. I've no doubt it will fly inverted though...
No RV is anywhere close to the "best" aerobatic platform, and I'd definitely be willing to bet that the -14 will serve any RV acro pilot just as well as any of the others. Why speculate that it "may not" be? That's just baseless discouragement.
Rick, you'd lose that bet for sure! The -14 most certainly will not serve any RV acro pilot just as well as any of the others. The reason Vans offers so many aircraft models is to cater to the different desires and priorities of the sport pilot community. As already pointed out the -14 design is more geared toward comfortable XC and like all designs there are resulting compromises and trade-offs. It has heavier control forces and is not as agile as the other single and two-seat aerobatic RV models. And yes it has a different airfoil originally designed for a 4-seat, non-aerobatic XC aircraft, so it's not 'baseless discouragement' to question whether it's the best RV to build if inverted flight is an important goal of the OP...it's relevant information that he may not know, and might appreciate learning. If he chooses to proceed with a -14 with inverted systems, great...he'll do so knowing that he may be the first and hopefully he'll give us a PIREP on it when it's flying.