Part Owner!

On our way back from Phoenix yesterday, a buddy and I stopped by Riverside to do a quick pre buy look at a low time 310HP Rocket on behalf of a friend. Long story short, it was a cash sale and the buyer came up a bit short. So I kicked in the last $20.00 to make the sale. I was now part owner of a Rocket!

The fun didn?t end there though. Since the airplane was going to be kept in my neighbor?s hangar at my strip 50 miles to the north (until the new owner finishes his PPL checkride and gets a bunch of follow on training), and I was the only one in our group with any Rocket PIC time (1 hour), I was quickly pressed into duty as the delivery pilot. Since it has been well over a year since my one and only flight in a Rocket, I did 3 touch and go?s with the former owner in the back seat to make sure I was comfortable. It flew like a dream and my initial hesitation concerning the 50 mile flight and landing on a 30 foot wide runway solo quickly evaporated.

So with my buddy leading the way in ?my? -8, I fired the big six in the Rocket for a flight of 2 departing Riverside to the north. This is a fairly light Rocket anyway, and my first solo takeoff was pretty spectacular to say the least! I thought the 200HP -8 was a good performer (and it is), but the Rocket simply leaves it in the dust.

Anyway, the flight home and landing were uneventful. I found it to be a very easy to fly (but very fast) airplane.

Fun stuff! My only regret is that the -8 may not be fast enough any more!

BTW, shortly after landing, the new owner came over with $20 bucks, so my part ownership lasted only one flight.

Michael-
I bet you DO get to fly it once in a while---dont you ??

Well I sure hope it works out that way, but I'm not sure. The delivery flight was kind of a last minute thing, so continued access is going to depend on insurance and messy things like that.

New owner

''(until the new owner finishes his PPL checkride and gets a bunch of follow on training), ''

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New PPL

Sounds like a very very good idea..

Yes, he's certainly shooting high, but he's a sharp kid, a good stick, and has the right attitude. He's in full recognition that his new toy is a whole different animal than his Cherokee 180.

He will have plenty of experience in a variety of tailwheel airplanes before he ever straps into his Rocket solo.

I think I would have told him my share wasn't for sale

Yep,
Now you know why It's extremely hard to go back once you've flown/owned a rocket.
Welcome young Jedi to the best kept secret.

So true Jeff.

It's funny how quickly your perspective changes. The -8 seemed like a viable airplane for my mission. And then came the Rocket. The -8 has been sitting in the hangar for two weeks now without flying. It almost seems too weak and frail for me to work up the motivation to fly it.

Unfortunately, any Rocket I buy will also become "slow" and I'll be looking for more down the road.

Speed is life...

Toobuilder said:

So true Jeff.

Unfortunately, any Rocket I buy will also become "slow" and I'll be looking for more down the road.

Click to expand...

Michael, After retiring from 20 years flying the F-16, everything seems slow, especially RV's and Rockets (I've owned both).

That doesn't mean I'm going to stop flying them...

V/R
Smokey

PS: I sold my HR2 in lieu of building a lightweight/very low cost RV and to get out of debt and cut expenses. Do I miss it? A little, but not the expenses, and the payments...It's all relative. The RVX is a much better dog-fighter and acro machine than my HR2, that alone is worth it.

smokyray said:

PS: I sold my HR2 in lieu of building a lightweight/very low cost RV and to get out of debt and cut expenses. Do I miss it? A little, but not the expenses, and the payments...It's all relative. The RVX is a much better dog-fighter and acro machine than my HR2, that alone is worth it.

Click to expand...

Depends on the mission. If yanking and banking was the primary objective, then a 150 HP single hole Pitts would be in my hangar (and one will, someday). But my "RV mission" is long cross country flights, high, and on autopilot. Thats got Rocket written all over it.

I think I have enough experience in a variety of airplanes to tell that if I was restricted to only one airplane, the RV-8 would be it...

...Thank God we are not restricted to only one airplane!

My Pacer project will satisfy the "flying truck" requirement; the Hiperbipe satisfies the "yank and bank" requirement; all I need now is a cross country missile.

I started with a Citabria and thought I would own it forever, then I had a ride in a RV4. Built one and thought I would own it forever, then I heard about the Harmon Rocket II. Built one and thought I would own it forever, then I built another one, making some changes that I wanted on the first one. Followed by a straight wing F1, build exactly the way I wanted my rocket to be. Then Mark came out with the EVO and asked me to test fly it. Now I have my own EVO and I might just keep this one forever. This is my SEVENTH flying season with this plane and although I keep making changes to the plane I can not see myself changing planes. There is no faster single engine aircraft that I can keep on my grass strip, and if you want a high and fast rocket, the EVO rocks. Hopefully we will see these back in production again, it is an amazing wing, and really does take the rocket to another level. No matter how much horsepower you throw at the standard wing rocket it tops out in that 255mph range. We have not yet reached the potential of the EVO wing, Mark is fine tuning his EVO and has made some impressive gains, and I am sure he can get a bit more out of that bird. I have reached my personal maximum racing speed and I am going to turn my efforts towards high altitude efficiency for future challenges.

...Except for the fact that the Evo wing is about 60 pounds too heavy...

...See, it never ends!

I will admit to being disappointed when I weighed my wings the first time. This wing is way over-built, you could walk on these wings and not leave a mark. The carbon fibre version that Mark is working on should solve the weight issue. With full fuel I can carry 282 pounds of combined passenger and baggage. Based on race records, the EVO is 10 to 15 knots faster, and these are low altitude numbers, the higher you go the greater the difference. On a three hour flight at 12 to 13K I burned 30 gallons of fuel and my straight wing friend used 40 gallons. Also with real slotted flaps the stall speed is 5 to 10 knots slower at the bottom end.
And yes, it is more expensive, that is if you can find one for sale! Do not get me wrong, I love the sport wing rockets, they are number two on my list of favorite airplanes. Third place would be my RV4 followed closely by the 90HP champ that I currently have access to.