Like many RVs mine is unique in many ways, but the static port was not one of the items that was ever noticed. It's just a hole.
My RV always seemed slow compared to others published numbers and Van's. This always bothered me...did I buy a dud? Ultimately I was happy with real performance, ie the gas milage being better than my car and my commute taking 1/3 the time. However, I searched for every bit of aerodynamic issue with the aircraft - wing, flight control, and gear fairing rigging, all to no avail. The pilot static and altimeter test also good.
Then I see a thread in the -9 forum about someone in like circumstance. The community to the rescue! Everything pointed to the static port! I remembered it was pointed out in my pre-buy that I didn't have the Van's pop-rivet port, so I took a 4-leg WOT test drive at 8500', captured G3X screen shots of my metrics and then plugged my data in the NTPS spreadsheet provide here. Well...I was indicating ~10 too slow...what was 148 KTAS was actually 158! Within 2 knots of the published Vans numbers!
So...how do I fix? Well, I'm not smart, but I can copy! I just modified the flush port to install a unset large flange 1/8 rivet like the one Van's provides. Retested, and my IAS and indicted TAS are now within 1 knot. Happy Days!
However...my IAS, and to a larger extent, my ALT and VS is jumping around a tiny bit. Very small deviations, but not very agreeable with my autopilot. Any idea what would cause this?
My RV always seemed slow compared to others published numbers and Van's. This always bothered me...did I buy a dud? Ultimately I was happy with real performance, ie the gas milage being better than my car and my commute taking 1/3 the time. However, I searched for every bit of aerodynamic issue with the aircraft - wing, flight control, and gear fairing rigging, all to no avail. The pilot static and altimeter test also good.
Then I see a thread in the -9 forum about someone in like circumstance. The community to the rescue! Everything pointed to the static port! I remembered it was pointed out in my pre-buy that I didn't have the Van's pop-rivet port, so I took a 4-leg WOT test drive at 8500', captured G3X screen shots of my metrics and then plugged my data in the NTPS spreadsheet provide here. Well...I was indicating ~10 too slow...what was 148 KTAS was actually 158! Within 2 knots of the published Vans numbers!
So...how do I fix? Well, I'm not smart, but I can copy! I just modified the flush port to install a unset large flange 1/8 rivet like the one Van's provides. Retested, and my IAS and indicted TAS are now within 1 knot. Happy Days!
However...my IAS, and to a larger extent, my ALT and VS is jumping around a tiny bit. Very small deviations, but not very agreeable with my autopilot. Any idea what would cause this?