First Demo in N912RV

I had the priviledge of being the first official demo ride in New Blue on Monday afternoon. I was the first demo by pure dumb luck. Mitch Lock was supposed to go to an east coast EAA chapter meeting on Saturday but bad weather kept him grounded. I ended up being first. Better to be lucky than good I guess. I am a Navy Test Pilot by trade with most of my expereince in rotory wing aircraft. I started building my RV-12 based on a lot of reaseach my growing enthusiasm for the concept of the E-LSA class as I view it s my insurance policy against 1) when I get forced into managment and have to stop flying (which is happening as we speak and 2) sometime after I retire and get paranoid I might lose my medical. Now that I have flown the aircraft I am even more enthusiastic and want to start building twice as fast. Unfortunately for me building twice as fast means building one-fourth as good.

I really can't say enough good things about the aircraft. The intergrated avionics are better than most military aircraft and simulators I have flown and tested. We are really getting a lot of bang for our buck with this kit. Voice alerts for stall, aircraft limits, terrain alerts, the darn thing even gives you accurate verbal glideslope calls. The "stall - stall" voice even sounds like the "stall - stall" voice in the V-22.

On taxi out, we were fourth in line at the holdshort. Everybody else was opening their doors and sweating their ar#e off but with the air vents on the sides just behind the prop, even at idle, we had plenty of air to cool us off.

I very much like the light control forces and very consistent force gradients, almost helicopter like. If I were to design a sitck-force per g at cruise speed to my own liking it would be a lot like the 12. Had no issues going right to 60 deg AOB and loading her up. No tendency to dig in and no tendency to overbank on you. It's not common for a reversable control system to have such good and consistent mechanical characteristics and control harmony across the range of operating speeds like this one has. Being pushrod controlled, there was absolutely no freeplay in lateral lateral control. There was a small amount of freeplay in longitudinal control but the freeplay and the breakout force at all speeds appear to prevent overcontrol and pilot induced oscillations as lateral and longitudinal control power is quite high. I actually think reducing the very small amount of freeplay would endup making the aircraft to prone to pitch PIO. There was a very notable increase in breakout and force gradient in lateral control with flaps down. I would not call it inharmonious with pitch and the increased force gradient reduced any PIO tendency getting to final. Very stable and difficlut to excite long term mode and a very highly damped short term mode. It had some of the best pitch pointing accuracy I have ever seen. You can fly this thing within 1 deg of attitude and 2 kts of airspeed without looking at that big beautiful glass display. When referencing the glass display you can almost use the thing with the accurate pitch pointing as a vertical speed command. My one complaint about the dsiplay is that the VSI pointer and AOB pointers really don't stand out enough. The best comment I can make about the handling qualities comes from something that happened to us on climbout from a low approach. Midfield as we started up at 75 kt climb speed a huge flock of birds bloomed just to our left and crossed the runway. They broke into three large groups in front of us. Break left, break right, pitch down, pitch up in rapid succession and then climbout at over 900 FPM with two heavy guys on a high density altidue day. I never would have been able to avoid those birds in a Cesana 152. You would not have been able to get such a quick and perdictible roll and pitch response at climb speed and power.

There is plenty of room in the cockpit and Mitch and I only bumped elbows once when we both reached down simultaneously to retract the flap handle.

She's faster than you might think. No problem truing out at the LSA 120 KTAS fully loaded on a pretty high DA day.

No aircraft is perfect and there were a few nits. The aircraft had a slightly irritating structural resonance somewhere at climb power. The huge stabilator/huge trim tab combinaiton may surprise you in a trim runaway. I simulated a trim runaway by laying on the forward detent on the trim switch and was surprised at the reaction. The aircraft is hard to slow down and get down from a high hot approach even with two notches of flap. If you get high and hot just go around early and save youself the trouble. After the thrid pass, I think I had all the gains mapped and gave Mitch a setup he could land without too much float. Oh yeah, she might float a bit. After touchdown, aerobraking was very effective in slowing the aircraft.

Mitch had the canopy latch modification installed. No isses with the canopy. I actually think Mitch may have develped the latch.

If I remeber more I'll add it later.

Post Flight

Well Thanks for that feedback Rob much appreciated makes one want one even more!! Cheers.!

Nice write up.

Thanks

Now you guys know...

...without a doubt, Van's brilliance. When you see a writeup from such a qualified, educated Test pilot, holding nothing back, you can smile at the decision you made.

Thanks for the writeup,

Thanks for the insightful, thorough and succint report! Sounds like a wonderful airplane . . .

RV-12 at Sky Manor Airport

This past Saturday I was able to meet Mitch Lock at SkyManor airport and fly N412RV. . Here is my general impression of the RV-12.

First Mitch is a gentlemen and an excellent ambassador not only for Vans but for sport aviation in general.

Second, none of the pictures on line do N912RV justice. You have got to see this plane in person to see how nice it really looks. The one item that has never bothered me is the look of the pulled rivets. The plane is obviously well engineered and was expertly built by Mitch. I was concerned the 0.025? thick skins would feel flimsy compared to the normal 0.032? thick skins on other RV?s but they feel fine.

Third, if you live on the east coast you simply have to come to EAA 643?s flyin next year. The planes, the people and the airport are all good and a must see. Tom Poberezny even came to the event this year.

OK now for a brief flight review with lots of disclaimers. I normally fly a Cessna 150. I also like any plane I fly in for 15 minutes so a short hop is not a good basis to judge a plane but here are a few observations about my flight in the 12. Take them for just that ? casual observations from a 150 flyer after a 15 minute flight.

The interior is 44? wide at the shoulders and whereas that?s not cavernous it?s plenty of room for a sport plane. Speaking of the interior Vans planes tend to be, well, sparse and utilitarian. Mitch says a finished interior is in the works and for the 11 pound total penalty it will be a welcomed addition to give the interior that finished look. The one thing I paid close attention to is checking for even a hint of the smell of gasoline (with the tank inside the cabin) and I am happy to report there was absolute nothing. If you didn?t tell your passenger about this feature they would never know. The seats are comfortable.

All RV?s are relatively small and short coupled so maneuverability on the ramp is excellent. This same small size seems to give RV?s a ?busy? feel on take off. Mitch, being an expert RV pilot gave the 12 a little nudge here and there as we tracked straight down the runway for a takeoff in about 600 feet or so. After a short climb out he retracted the flaperons and handed the plane over to me. We were climbing at 75 knots at around 750 to 800 fpm. That?s with two people and ? tanks or about 100# below gross weight. I watched Mitch fly several other people and the climb angle on the 12 was not as steep as some of the other planes taking off. I would have like to see what the 12 could do when climbing at best angle instead of best rate. During the climb the nose was just on the horizon for me so visibility over the nose was good in the climb. The climb was solid and I never felt like we were mashing through the air. I like a plane with a good solid ROC.

Visibility in cruise is fantastic. Saturday was a stellar day and the sky was filled with planes. In the 12 we spotted them miles away. Good visibility is a great safety feature. It took me awhile to get the right image over the nose and place the nose far enough below the horizon to keep the airplane from climbing. You definitely have to trim this airplane but it happens quickly. A couple of taps of the trim button and the plane quickly trims to speed and flies well hands off. We trued out at 113 knots (130 MPH!) with the Rotax humming along at 5200 RPM and sipping 5.2 GPM of high test auto gas. What?s not too like about that? Mitch thinks wheel pants may add up to 5 knots. That would put it right near the LSA limits.

This is the second Rotax I have flown behind. Although I would still prefer an engine that turns less than 5000 RPM in normal cruise it?s just a number thing. I wish all the other aircraft engines I have flown behind were as smooth and quiet as the Rotax..

We only did one stall, power off full flaps. The wing quit flying at 41 knots indicated and the nose dropped well through the horizon and the left wing dropped a little. It wasn?t violent but it seemed a bit more abrupt than the RV-9 I flew a few years back. Recovery was quick and easy by releasing backpressure and adding power.

Although Mitch was probably wondering why I was wallowing around the sky I felt very comfortable with the RV-12 right away (unlike the PIO?s I experienced in my first flight in an RV-4). The controls were very positive and smooth but did not seem overly sensitive to me. I wished I could have trained in this plane instead of in a C-150. I hope Van decides to produce these planes so they end up in flight schools some day.

Here?s a note about a glass cockpit. The good news is the Dynon provides a lot of information. For example it gave us indicated airspeed and also calculated true airspeed as well. The bad news for me is I am still used to analog gauges so when I started looking for rate of climb it took me a few seconds to find it. I think once you fly behind the glass for awhile it will become second nature but it will take some getting used to.

Back to the airport and we entered the pattern and started to slow down. Mitch handled the landing. Visibility in the pattern is outstanding. You never lose sight of the runway or traffic in the pattern. Although the flaperons lower the stall speed they didn?t seem to provide much drag. Have you noticed most videos of the RV-12 seem to be ?wide patterns?. In a 150 you can drop the barn door flaps and descend steeply toward the runway. In the RV-12 the approach is shallower. We were at 75 knots on base with the Rotax at 2500 RPM and descending 600 fpm. We crossed the fence at 60 knots and Mitch greased it on the runway. He claims the 12 is the easiest of all RV?s to land. You just have to control your airspeed well on final ( I think the same applies to all RV?s)

So what?s my first impression? Well, the RV-12 is a plane that fills a specific niche market. It?s a light sport plane with the emphasis on sport. Good climb, good cruise, good handing, good visibility, good looking, economical to operate, etc. What?s not to like?

Price for one. But that?s relative and not Vans fault. Aircraft are expensive. Aircraft engines are almost ? the cost of the plane! Still you can buy a really nice used C-172 for $60,000 and fly it tomorrow. ? However, if you always wanted to assemble a kit plane and you want or need a light sport plane then this plane has to make the top of your list. In that market it?s still a bargain. I think the best option for the RV-12 is to find yourself a partner and then for $30,000 each you get one sweet plane to share. You also get someone to help you build the plane as well.

Limitations? I get the feeling it?s a plane that going to feel more at home on a paved runway than a grass strip. Van has demonstrated that with proper technique he can land all his planes on grass runways but the small landing gear and short prop clearance on the 12 just give the appearance that this plane was designed primarily with paved runways in mind.

So, am I ready to sell my 150 and cough up the $60,000 for the 12. Not quite yet. However if my partner in the 150 wanted to partner in the 12 and split the cost I?d be ordering the kit tomorrow. Hey Dave we need to talk??