RV-7 forward visibility

[dougweil]

Hi guys:

For those of you flying the taildragger RV-7...

Has anyone compared the forward visibility of the RV-7 vs. the RV-6. Personally I have flown the tri-gear RV-7A a lot. I also flown the RV-6 quite a bit and consider it lacking somewhat in forward vis. To me the RV-7A seems to sit high and has good over the nose visibility. The seat position seems high and the canopy headroom seems better than the RV-6. But I have never sat in a RV-7 and was wondering if it has better over the nose visibility than the RV-6. Is the headroom of the tip up different than the slider?

Just curious.. currently flying an RV-4.

 

[N941WR]

I can't say anything about the -7 but my -9 has much better visibility than the -6 I flew in. I suspect the -7 would be better than the -9 since it has shorter gearlegs.

I can see over the nose in the -9 w/o any problem.

 

[DaX]

I've flown in a -7 and a -7A - both sliders. The headroom seemed fine. In flight, I didn't notice any difference in over the nose visibility. Maybe some people use thicker seat cushions to get a higher seat in the plane (at the expense of head room)?

 

[JonJay]

I have flown both. The 7 does have slightly better visibility over the nose on the ground than the 6. In the air, there is no percievable difference.
A recent CFI passenger of mine called the 6's visibility on the ground a downright "liability". However, we both fly Bucker Jungmann's, which are completely blind on the ground and on final, so I reminded him that it is all relative.
Landing the 6 forces you to use your periferral vision, which you should be doing anyway, but unlike the Bucker, you do not need to slip it to see the runway.
So, as far as low wing taildraggers go, the 6 does not have the best forward visibility on the ground but it is very manageable in my opinion.
Personally, I think that adds to the alure of the 6, the best RV model ever produced ('cause I built and own one!!)

 

[Mel]

Check the tailwheel!

You guys are overlooking the most important factor in ground visibility. I have the "Aviation Products" tail wheel and it greatly improves over the nose visibility from Van's tailwheel.
I do maintenance on a -6 that has Van's tailwheel and the difference is night and day.

 

[dougweil]

RV-7 vis

Good point Mel, I owned an RV-4 (before I built my current -4) which had an Aero Products t/w and it did bring the nose down (of course in the -4, the forward visibility is excellent anyway). I would imagine the Bell t/w would provide the same improvement.

 

[dan]

I use the Doug Bell tailwheel fork on my RV-7, and as Mel notes, there is a difference. It's night and day clearance-wise, but NOT night and day visibility-wise, though. I'm talking about MY setup, not everybody's, so YMMV. Here are actual measurements:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Note that the front of the cowl was lowered only 1/2". Only a 0.6 degree difference in attitude. Can you really detect SIX TENTHS OF A DEGREE? I could sense a slight improvement, but not much. Biggest change I noticed was tailwheel hitting slightly (and I mean only slightly) earlier in my average 3-point landings (which I hardly ever do anyway).

I would argue that the BIGGEST factor in over-the-nose visibility is seat cushions and how high up you sit.