What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Time to climb

6 Gun

Well Known Member
After watching the YouTube on the time to climb record thought I might give it a try in the morning for the fun of it all.So I tried to find info on the different class of aircraft and the records but could not dig up info and proper way to conduct test any input would be appreciated and considered.It should be fun and the data will be useful.
Bob
 
FAI

Controlled by the FAI.

Try this page for a first cut. Modify selections with the boxes at the top of the page.

https://www.fai.org/records?f[0]=fi...ne%3Aname:World&f[3]=field_type_of_record:161

Have fun. :)

Rules here -

https://www.caf.hr/images/ostalo/fai/FAI_sporting_code_general_section.pdf

Need to find sub-class definitions...

Done - they are here - https://naa.aero/userfiles/files/documents/Downloads/sc_section_2_2018.pdf - on the US NAA site, who are the FAI representative in the US.
 
Last edited:
Oil on canopy?

The video was impressive, but what is the deal with the fluid on the canopy. It looks like oil to me.
 
Pretty cool to watch!

650 HP, 84" prop, a big honking turbo hanging in the wind..gotta watch the full you tube video showing ground run and such. I'm sure it spewed like a dragster engine, and at over 8000 RPM made a sound like a tuned up hooptie on nitrous.
 
If this is from the TTC run from around 10 years ago, they blew a PSRU bearing on the last run.
 
Last edited:
Wonder if anyone has ever flown an RV without a cowl prior to this flight? Seems flow over the tail and wing roots would be pretty messed up.
 
If you're talking about the rotary powered ttc rv, the stuff on the windscreen is oil. Bad vent design and exit point for the gearbox, spewed oil when he pushed over too hard for the decent. No one did the math on drag without a cowl at around 120 mph, or they would have used a cowl. They also failed to do the math on the need for a c/s prop.

The guy claiming to be their consultant is famous in some rotary circles and infamous in others.
 
You don't have to be shooting for a record, it's fun to do just for the fun of it.

Take off WOT, leave it there and let it rip, i've done it to 10,000 a number of times.

I knew Lyle Shelton years ago, he told me about setting a record with the Bear Cat, having it tied down and a ground assistant chopped the rope and off he went.

Not really necessary with any RV. :)
 
....No one did the math on drag without a cowl at around 120 mph, or they would have used a cowl....

Or perhaps they did the math and found that weight was more important than drag.

A long time ago a friend had a jet-powered dragster, no fairings at all, and the numbers we ran said not to add any. The added weight would have been slower than the aerodynamic drag.

Dave
 
I forgot; the rotary is a recent build and record attempt not the old Powersport attempt at SNF. And I know of at least one other rv ( also rotary powered) that's flown without cowl. A lot less risky with water cooling, because of the ducts on the heat exchangers.

Charlie
RV-7 Renesis rotary fwf in progress
 
Last edited:
At SnF, that RV-3 was flown by the late Alan Tolle. He beat Bohannon's time handily in the prelims, but didn't make it to the finals due to mechanical problems.
 
At SnF, that RV-3 was flown by the late Alan Tolle. He beat Bohannon's time handily in the prelims, but didn't make it to the finals due to mechanical problems.

Are you talking about Bohannon's TTC records in Flyin' Tiger? I fail to see how an RV-3 could come anywhere close to a 425+ hp IO-540 and later 500+hp turbocharged IO-555 powered modified RV-4 with more wing area and higher aspect ratio. With the atmo engine, it averaged over 4200 fpm to 9800 feet.
 
Climb

You don't have to be shooting for a record, it's fun to do just for the fun of it.

Take off WOT, leave it there and let it rip, i've done it to 10,000 a number of times.

I knew Lyle Shelton years ago, he told me about setting a record with the Bear Cat, having it tied down and a ground assistant chopped the rope and off he went.

Not really necessary with any RV. :)
If I remember correctly Lyle did standing start to 10'000' in 90 seconds in Rare Bear. Despite all the hoopla recently about speed records IIRC Lyle's speed record in the Bear will never be beaten because of changes in the record categories. Lyle's record was "retired".
 
Bear

Also Rod Lewis, the current caretaker of the Bear, has been making noises about a redo of the speed record in the new category.
 
Are you talking about Bohannon's TTC records in Flyin' Tiger? I fail to see how an RV-3 could come anywhere close to a 425+ hp IO-540 and later 500+hp turbocharged IO-555 powered modified RV-4 with more wing area and higher aspect ratio. With the atmo engine, it averaged over 4200 fpm to 9800 feet.

With Regard to the rotary RV-3 flight, Alan was using nitrous and putting out around 600hp. In an RV-3 that made a very impressive power to weight ratio that is partly responsible for sparking the rotary enthusiasm that grabbed me.

The current project in that video is even more impressive, Top fuel in a rotary engine powered rocket (I forget which kind) built from the ground up for the TTC. They are nipping at the heels of the bearcat record and will most likely beat it by the time they figure out the last few bugs. You cant really appreciate it in the video, but that plane is capable of doing over 100KTS almost straight up. I dont think they have plans to take it to 40k' like the Bohannon records, but they have a much higher power to weight ratio.

Plane is based at Santa Paula, CA.
 
... They also failed to do the math on the need for a c/s prop.

...
I believe a well executed FP prop would work better than a CS prop. You are only doing one thing with it and granted, the air gets thinner as you climb but at the RPM's a rotary can spin, it probably favors the FP prop. With the CS prop, the blue knob would probably remain in all the way anyway.

In such a plane, where weight is so critical, that three bladed Catto would come in at around 15 lbs +/-. Besides, it is a rotary, there is no fitting for a CS prop and an electric prop, just like a hydraulic prop just adds weight.
 
I believe a well executed FP prop would work better than a CS prop. You are only doing one thing with it and granted, the air gets thinner as you climb but at the RPM's a rotary can spin, it probably favors the FP prop. With the CS prop, the blue knob would probably remain in all the way anyway.

In such a plane, where weight is so critical, that three bladed Catto would come in at around 15 lbs +/-. Besides, it is a rotary, there is no fitting for a CS prop and an electric prop, just like a hydraulic prop just adds weight.

...did it with Catto, let it wind up to 2450 or so, maintained rpm in climb rather than speed. Did ok, made it to 10 grand in about 8:30. Interesting but no barn burner, another guy did it in less time then with CS.
 
any links to the videos you guys are speaking of?

Here is a detailed video of the the project: (kinda long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LFXE6EBLLs

Here is a video of an early partial power climb to over 10k, just under 6k'/minute. (the record is just over 6k'/min and they are at partial power here).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueI4xhgTGv8

I cant find the youtube of the one they are talking about with the oil on the windscreen, but the second one tells the story. (it was from several months ago). They have the oil seepage issue worked out...

By the way, this is a mostly stock 2-rotor Mazda 13B engine with a large turbo and modified just enough to accept top methane fuel. The short block engine weighs less than 200 lbs. The gear box is taken from a turbo-prop.
 
Gear box

If the gear box is from turbo prop they need to talk to Hartzell about a special prop made for the record.
Bob
 
I believe the current official 3000M FAI TTC record for C-1b was held by a turbo Legacy at 1:59.5.

Is the rotary one official now?
 
Last edited:
I wonder if it would be interesting to see other RV records by model. Might be a fun thing to compare our own numbers.

They get posted somewhere then lost. Would be good to have a single organized page somewhere.
 
Climb

Went to the airport to have some fun this morning it was 47*F and calm warmed up and hit the stop watch on my phone and hit the gas off on the way to 10k started at 100mph around 2800'was at around 1800'at 10k TT 5:30 a little longer than hoped for but had 30gal of fuel on board and about 15lb of junk in plane which is a RV6 like to hear from other members.
Bob
 
Went to the airport to have some fun this morning it was 47*F and calm warmed up and hit the stop watch on my phone and hit the gas off on the way to 10k started at 100mph around 2800'was at around 1800'at 10k TT 5:30 a little longer than hoped for but had 30gal of fuel on board and about 15lb of junk in plane which is a RV6 like to hear from other members.
Bob

Field elevation is kind of important. I can best almost anyone's time to reach 10,000 MSL if they start at sea level and I start from Leadville :)
 
I believe the current official 3000M FAI TTC record for C-1b was held by a turbo Legacy at 1:59.5.

Is the rotary one official now?

Thats an impressive time! Is that Lee Behel?(great guy) No, the rotary has not worked out the bugs and done the official trial yet.
 
Back
Top