RV-3 Taxi-ing Now

I have finally gotten my RV-3 restoration to the point where I can taxi it, etc. It has an O-290G that has basiaclly been converted to a "D" configuration, and I finally got my electronic tachometer to work yesterday, and it pulled 2290 rpm with a Sensenich 78 pitch prop. I'm just curious if any of you O-290 guys / gals out there are seeing similar static numbers.

Working towards a first flight (for me in it) in the next two weeks...

Doug
RV-3 restoration
RV-9A 2 Mazda 13B in limbo until the "3" flies!

Congrats!

Sounds like you've put a lot of work into her. I look forward to seeing pics / reports of first (for you) flight.

I have an O-290G with O-320 crank, sump, carb, gearcase etc. I have a Ted Hendrickson 68x68 prop and get a static 2260 RPM. I true out about 174 MPH, WO throttle, at 4000 MSL, 2650 RPM (in a Thorp T-18.)
Static RPM is a factor of blade area as well as pitch, also pitch is determined differently by each prop builder. Perhaps you do have more pitch than I do, and a skinnier 'tooth pick' of a blade so you can get a high static rpm.
Fly it, you may find it's just right, and tops out above 190 turning slightly above 2700 RPM?
You know there is only one way to find out....
I see you have a Mazda 13b project, so do I!

T-18 w/O-290G

SHIPCHIEF said:

I have an O-290G with O-320 crank, sump, carb, gearcase etc. I have a Ted Hendrickson 68x68 prop and get a static 2260 RPM. I true out about 174 MPH, WO throttle, at 4000 MSL, 2650 RPM (in a Thorp T-18.)...Fly it, you may find it's just right, and tops out above 190 turning slightly above 2700 RPM?
You know there is only one way to find out....
I see you have a Mazda 13b project, so do I!

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Scott: I hope it does the book numbers with all the fairings on, etc. Thanks for the information on your rpms, etc. I have been watching your project for many years on the Rotary list and plan on getting back at my Rotary 9A project after I get the "3" tweaked so it's basically a "daily driver"...

If we have another rotary fly in down at Charlie England's strip this Spring, I hope to be there in the "3"...TBD!

Blue skies...

Doug

More taxi testing

I went down the runway yesterday three times in :30, and I was surprised how fast the "3" taxis at idle (800 rpm). I will take my GPS with me next time out there, but it felt like a 30-35 mph taxi at idle. On a 70 degree day it took about :15 for my oil temp (O-290G) to start to register above 130, w/oil pressure at 80 psi. Once the temp came up to 150 degrees the oil pressure dropped down to 60 psi. Visibility is definitely a challenge and S-turning is definitely required to clear the nose when driving down taxiways. Marginal weather returning to Oklahoma this week, so will take the cowling off one more time prior to a couple more taxi runs and first flight in the near future.

Doug
RV-3A

Cannot wait to see it flying.

I'm surprised that you don't have better visibility over the nose with your height Doug! Are you sitting on the bare aluminum floor or something?!

Seriously, we are lucky to have the tall-man canopy in ours, which allowed higher cushioning, which gives us better visibility - but still not as good as in our -8.

Tall man canopy?

Please tell me more ! I thought several of the later built RV3 canopies looked differrent. I am just now starting to do some serious RV 3 research and dreaming.

Tail wheel kit

I saw somewhere that you can purchase an aftermarket kit for the tail wheel mount that raises the tail so you can see better over the nose. I think I saw it posted somewhere on this site..

Clsjets said:

Please tell me more ! I thought several of the later built RV3 canopies looked differrent. I am just now starting to do some serious RV 3 research and dreaming.

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Todd (of Todd's Canopies) made our Tall Man canopy - we got our kit second-hand, so didn't deal with him on it directly, but we're very happy with it.

RV3bpilot said:

I saw somewhere that you can purchase an aftermarket kit for the tail wheel mount that raises the tail so you can see better over the nose. I think I saw it posted somewhere on this site..

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There are a number of after-market tailwheels and forks that change the geometry (up or down) by an inch or two. I don't know of anythign that makes a dramatic difference that you can't get by scrunching up a bit in the cockpit.

I recently bought a canopy from Todd's and was satisfied with the canopy and the price and delivery.

Since I haven't started the fuselage yet, it's back in its box now.

Dave

How many inches?

the "tall man" canopy option that Ted offers, how many inches of head room does it really offer? I'm only 5'-8" tall, so I figure I can add quite a bit of cushioning as it is. However, I never considered that a few extra inches could help with taxi visibility. Paul, is it really so bad that a little tail waggle or "neck stretch" doesn't allow you to see when taxiing?

About that high taxi speed at 800 RPM idle:
For my T-18, I set the idle 'way down to a staggering 400 or so when warm.
It barely runs with the wood prop. I generally don't run it that slow, but it helps with the landing. I control the idle speed with the throttle and friction knob.
When landing, I can pull the throttle all the way back and the forward airspeed keeps the engine from slowing as much. It's high enough to prevent dying and allow a go around. Yet slow enough to allow a landing without too much float down the runway.
That's the curse of light weight high pitch props.
I know some consider this marginal, but I can't think an other way to get into those shorter strips.
I did recently replace one mag with a P-mag, which allows the engine to idle better, so that's something to consider for the future.

ppilotmike said:

the "tall man" canopy option that Ted offers, how many inches of head room does it really offer? I'm only 5'-8" tall, so I figure I can add quite a bit of cushioning as it is. However, I never considered that a few extra inches could help with taxi visibility. Paul, is it really so bad that a little tail waggle or "neck stretch" doesn't allow you to see when taxiing?

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No two -3's are alike, so it is hard to say Mike - but it takes very little waggle to see around the nose in my experience.

As Paul says, given the vagaries of the plans / parts, none will be alike.

If you want a "tall" canopy, Todd gives you one route. There would also be quite a lot of "room" available in the standard canopy, when you fit it, to give you max vertical space above your head.

Bear in mind that altering the tail geometry also alters your 3 point landing attitude. Raise tail = flatter attitude = faster landing speed.

Visibility

Ironflight said:

I'm surprised that you don't have better visibility over the nose with your height Doug! Are you sitting on the bare aluminum floor or something?! QUOTE]

Paul; I am a bit, but it has a low profile canopy to begin with, so there isn't much room to see over the nose...Maybe a leading edge video camera someday like the back up cameras on all the new Vans and cars...

Do your brakes require alot of force to engage? I'm think I'm going to have get a hold of the plans for the brakes and see if the geometry is off by a bit on these...

Doug

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Our brakes are quite effective Doug - the'll hold the wheels until they start crow-hopping with the 160 HP motor.

Less taxi, more flying...

dlomheim said:

Working towards a first flight (for me in it) in the next two weeks...

Doug
RV-3 restoration
RV-9A 2 Mazda 13B in limbo until the "3" flies!

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Doug,
Now that you have a static number (anything over 2000 is OK) and you ground ran it for 30 seconds at WOT with the tail tied down all you have left is one thing...
You taxi out and take off...

V/R
Smokey

PS: I shared a hangar with an early RV3 back in the 90's and flew it quite a bit, it sported an 0-290G with a Sterba wood prop. 2200 static, 2800WOT Sea Level/155Knots.

155 kts...

smokyray said:

PS: I shared a hangar with an early RV3 back in the 90's and flew it quite a bit, it sported an 0-290G with a Sterba wood prop. 2200 static, 2800WOT Sea Level/155Knots.

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Thanks Smokey...hopefully we'll get some weather that will cooperate in the next week and I'll finally put an hour on it getting the rings seated in, etc. If I can get 155 kts that will fine with me as well...but the Van's book numbers were a top end of 195 w/125 (I think), so why was that one down so much? From what I've seen in past years with the other models, it was pretty easy to come pretty close to the factory numbers...

Take care,

Doug

I'm not sure why Doug hasn't posted here yet, but, I know he flew the 3 a week ago Sunday (I think). He's got maybe 3-4 hours on it now. He's been wanting to bring it home from Shawnee the last few days.

"I'm not sure why Doug hasn't posted here yet, but..."
Sure we do. He's busy having the time of his life!
He can tell us about it later when he cools off a bit.

Doug stopped by the house this evening. He has the 3 in his hangar, he brought it home yesterday. He seemed pretty excited.

RV-3 update

Yesterday I took some leave in the afternoon and went out to the airport with my daughter and we put the cowling back on and pulled it out for it's second flight (for me). It was a bit hard to start this time since my Odessey battery was pulling down to 7.5 volts while cranking, so will have to take a look at it and may see about a warranty replacement if it doesn't improve since it is less than 1 yr. old. Anyway, it finally started so I taxied out to the active, did a run up and blasted on out of there. One of the coolest things (I think) about the "3" is that it is so eager to climb when you get the power into it. If you want to climb at a best angle of climb, you also really have to pull the nose way up on the horizon and I did this briefly to see what it looked and then lowered it and accelerated to a shallower 115 mph climb which makes for much better visibility over the nose. After getting it up to altitude and did some stalls and happy to see that it didn't have a tendency to drop either wing, but I still had to hold a touch of right stick to keep the wings level while cruising around. I did a little bit of slow flight, and found that I was stalling with full flaps at about 65 mph IAS, so that sort of confirmed for me that my airspeed is indicating about 10-15 mph too fast. I have seen some guys add a half moon shaped wafer in front of their pitot tube pull rivet, but I can't recall if this is to fix an AS indicator that is too fast or too slow...do any of you recall which it is?

Anyway, I next proceeded to shoot about 5 or 6 touch and goes and tried to work specifically on doing wheel landings since that is what I need the most practice at, etc. I did okay on these and only bounced one into the air a bit, and rather than try and tame it I simply added power and went around as RV's do so effortlessly! Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about having a good feel for the aircraft so I headed back to my home field (2OK2) which is 2700 ft long but only 30 ft wide. On my first approach into there I knew I was carrying a bit too much power on final, but pressed on anyway just to test the gusty wind conditions that had picked up in the last :15 or so. After floating about 1/2 way down the runway it was missed approach time, so I went around and really dedicated myself to landing and establishing a good approach speed and position on final and made an acceptable landing while only using about 700 ft or so of the available space.

After spinning in place taxied to my hanger which has housed my RV-9A project for the past 12 years, and shut down. It really was a great feeling to finally land an aircraft of my own at the airport after having lived there for the past 16 years. Dreams can still come true! I still need to do some tweaking on the 3A since my CHT (only on #4 cylinder) will still not climb above 200 degrees, while my EGTs (on all four pipes) immedately peg out at 1700 F once I advance the power above 2100 rpm or so.

Once I'm finished doing the final tweaking on the 3A I hope to get back to work on the 9A project and get the Mazda 13B engine finally humming along...

Sorry about the rambling...

Fly safe out there!

Doug

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/9q781beus6pm4m4/J10WFSTpYr