Jerry Kinman
Well Known Member
Nope, this is not the usual report about the high speed performance of the RV family like you are used to reading about but just a reminder of one aspect of our performance envelope that doesn't usually get much attention. With today's skyrocketing fuel prices our flying habits are starting to feel the pain in our wallets but with a little juditious power management our little RVs can deliver some surprisingly good cross country fuel economy. During our last LOE trip Jay Pratt, Pat Stewart and I departed RV Central at Ft. Worth Hicks in formation with identical powerplant/prop combinations (RV-6, RV-8A, RV-8) and arrived at our weather alternate (KHOB) after 2.2 hr and after topping off there was less than 0.4 gallons difference between each aircraft. Unfortunately, weather conditions forced us to take alternate transportation to LOE-5 and on our return flight to T67 we again selected an economy cruise with our little carburated/magnetoed O360A1A's and we were home in just under 2 hrs recording exactly 7.5 galllons per hour/25 miles per gallon. That was with a miserly 5 to 10 kt tailwind component. All you builders out there, keep at it and you will reap many rewards. See following inflight panel pic and run the numbers if you wish. http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/9439/pa1600414bf.jpg