Hi all, Question for the collective wisdom,
I flew a couple of sets of Sawtooth Climbs yesterday, in fairly smooth air, and two different altitudes in my -8. I ran speeds in 5 knot increments from 70 knots to 115 knots. I was amazed at how little "curve" there was - while there is a slight peak at 100 knots (which is what I was told to expect to be the best rate of climb speed), the difference between all of the speeds is remarkably small - a range of difference of about 3 seconds for a 1000' climb. This tells me one of two things:
1) That within a speed range of about 80 to 110 knots the RV-8 will climb at about the same rate, so the climb speed isn't critical at all (and you might as well climb at a faster speed for engine cooling).
or
2) I have no idea what I'm doing, and my data has got to be screwed up!
I flew standard sawtooth runs, timing from 500 feet below test altitude to 500 feet above it, after stabilizing airspeed and power on target.
So has anybody else seen this lack of sensetivity to climb speed?
(I figure I don't really need to worry about Best Angle speed - this thing climbs so fast that I can't imagine havign to worry about short field procedures!)
Paul
RV-8, 180 Hp carbed, with Blended Airfoil C/S Hartzell
I flew a couple of sets of Sawtooth Climbs yesterday, in fairly smooth air, and two different altitudes in my -8. I ran speeds in 5 knot increments from 70 knots to 115 knots. I was amazed at how little "curve" there was - while there is a slight peak at 100 knots (which is what I was told to expect to be the best rate of climb speed), the difference between all of the speeds is remarkably small - a range of difference of about 3 seconds for a 1000' climb. This tells me one of two things:
1) That within a speed range of about 80 to 110 knots the RV-8 will climb at about the same rate, so the climb speed isn't critical at all (and you might as well climb at a faster speed for engine cooling).
or
2) I have no idea what I'm doing, and my data has got to be screwed up!
I flew standard sawtooth runs, timing from 500 feet below test altitude to 500 feet above it, after stabilizing airspeed and power on target.
So has anybody else seen this lack of sensetivity to climb speed?
(I figure I don't really need to worry about Best Angle speed - this thing climbs so fast that I can't imagine havign to worry about short field procedures!)
Paul
RV-8, 180 Hp carbed, with Blended Airfoil C/S Hartzell