f1rocket
Well Known Member
Cross Country Observations - RV-12
For those who have been following along, you know I am half way through my 4,400 nm journey and adventure to get my -12 painted. I spent four days in the airplane traveling from Indiana down through New Mexico to California and then up to Oregon, where it is now in primer as I write this. I have a couple observations regarding the cross country performance of the -12 that might be of interest to other owners. I invite others to share their experience as well.
1. You have to plan fuel stops very carefully. Since I have been heading West most of the time, the winds are against me. It doesn't take much in the way of headwinds different than forecast to cause me to fall short of my target airport. Especially flying in the Southwest, sometimes airports are few and far between.
2. I wish I had more climb performance but I don't want to give back any cruise speed. It takes a long time and a lot of fuel to get on top of turbulence or clouds.
3. Love the Dynon, but I wish it allowed me to manage my fuel to destination better. It gives me time to destination, but it doesn't tell me the fuel remaining when I get there. I have to switch to the engine display to get that and only when the destination is the final waypoint. I need to find out from Dynon whether there is something in the set up that I can do to get that.
4. I find that I hide the flight display when the AP is engaged and I use the larger map. I'd like to move the side bar info from that flight display to the map display. I end up pushing a lot of buttons on the Dynon.
5. The seats are very comfortable. I have the comfor foam upgrade and I highly recommend it. Also, I like to stretch out my legs into the passenger footwell at times so I'm diggin the lack of a center console.
6. Love the visibility. This airplane is a lot of fun to fly. Little slower than what I'm used to, but hey, at least I'm still flying.
7. The electric fuel pump is an issue. I've heard from too many other builders about problems and failures. Mine failed in less than 25 hours. I may have been guilty of running it too much when there wasn't any fuel in the line, which is a no-no, so I will be more careful with the second one. On my airplane, the engine will not run WOT at 8,500 MSL on just the engine driven pump. I think I had less than 10 gallons in the tank at the time so this may contribute to the wild pressure fluxuations.
8. For long flights, the lack of sound quality when playing music through the intercom is annoying. I think I have everything adjusted right but maybe I need to do more. There's not much base and the treble is tinny. It gets to me after a couple of hours. Minor point but I love to listen to music while flying so this a pain for me. Yes, I have stereo headsets and yes, they are set to stereo and not mono.
9. Can't reach anything in the baggage area in flight. If it's not next to me, then forget it. I'm either too big or too inflexible (or both )
10. The wing walk material is too small on the wings. I find that I am frequently stepping further aft than the aft edge of the material. I will fix that when it gets painted. I'll also be removing the round head rivets underneath and replacing them with countersunk rivets for a smooth wing walk.
That's enough for now. I have a few others but they are mostly Dynon related. I don't want anyone to take my observations out of context. They are not meant to be criticisms of the design or the avionics, just stuff I'm finding out as I actually use the airplane. These are just my observations and they may not be applicable to the way you use your -12. I really love my -12 and the Rotax has been great. I run it at 5400 to 5500 all the time. Fuel burn is a little above 5 gallons per hour.
Regarding the Dynon stuff, I'd love to hear from others on how you use it and whether you've experienced any of the same things? Thanks.
For those who have been following along, you know I am half way through my 4,400 nm journey and adventure to get my -12 painted. I spent four days in the airplane traveling from Indiana down through New Mexico to California and then up to Oregon, where it is now in primer as I write this. I have a couple observations regarding the cross country performance of the -12 that might be of interest to other owners. I invite others to share their experience as well.
1. You have to plan fuel stops very carefully. Since I have been heading West most of the time, the winds are against me. It doesn't take much in the way of headwinds different than forecast to cause me to fall short of my target airport. Especially flying in the Southwest, sometimes airports are few and far between.
2. I wish I had more climb performance but I don't want to give back any cruise speed. It takes a long time and a lot of fuel to get on top of turbulence or clouds.
3. Love the Dynon, but I wish it allowed me to manage my fuel to destination better. It gives me time to destination, but it doesn't tell me the fuel remaining when I get there. I have to switch to the engine display to get that and only when the destination is the final waypoint. I need to find out from Dynon whether there is something in the set up that I can do to get that.
4. I find that I hide the flight display when the AP is engaged and I use the larger map. I'd like to move the side bar info from that flight display to the map display. I end up pushing a lot of buttons on the Dynon.
5. The seats are very comfortable. I have the comfor foam upgrade and I highly recommend it. Also, I like to stretch out my legs into the passenger footwell at times so I'm diggin the lack of a center console.
6. Love the visibility. This airplane is a lot of fun to fly. Little slower than what I'm used to, but hey, at least I'm still flying.
7. The electric fuel pump is an issue. I've heard from too many other builders about problems and failures. Mine failed in less than 25 hours. I may have been guilty of running it too much when there wasn't any fuel in the line, which is a no-no, so I will be more careful with the second one. On my airplane, the engine will not run WOT at 8,500 MSL on just the engine driven pump. I think I had less than 10 gallons in the tank at the time so this may contribute to the wild pressure fluxuations.
8. For long flights, the lack of sound quality when playing music through the intercom is annoying. I think I have everything adjusted right but maybe I need to do more. There's not much base and the treble is tinny. It gets to me after a couple of hours. Minor point but I love to listen to music while flying so this a pain for me. Yes, I have stereo headsets and yes, they are set to stereo and not mono.
9. Can't reach anything in the baggage area in flight. If it's not next to me, then forget it. I'm either too big or too inflexible (or both )
10. The wing walk material is too small on the wings. I find that I am frequently stepping further aft than the aft edge of the material. I will fix that when it gets painted. I'll also be removing the round head rivets underneath and replacing them with countersunk rivets for a smooth wing walk.
That's enough for now. I have a few others but they are mostly Dynon related. I don't want anyone to take my observations out of context. They are not meant to be criticisms of the design or the avionics, just stuff I'm finding out as I actually use the airplane. These are just my observations and they may not be applicable to the way you use your -12. I really love my -12 and the Rotax has been great. I run it at 5400 to 5500 all the time. Fuel burn is a little above 5 gallons per hour.
Regarding the Dynon stuff, I'd love to hear from others on how you use it and whether you've experienced any of the same things? Thanks.
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