What's new
Van's Air Force

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

Another RV-6 First Flight

After 2yrs of fairly regular building, my RV6 Slider Kit#22874 got its maiden flight on August 12th 2014 at 4:30 p.m. at KOGD. I spent the prior week training with Mike Seager for 15 hours in the RV7 for transition and tail wheel endorsement giving me the confidence for the first flight.

I had one small squawk with my electric rim tab motor setting backwards (up trim was down, down was up) that took a minute or so to realize this and adjust for it and then no other issues at all in the 30 min flight. (Easy setting on Vp-50 unit to reverse direction of trim).

N846RJ is an RV-6 Slider with a Superior fuel injected 0-360, fixed pitch Catto 3-blade prop, GRT Sport EFIS with AFS 2500 engine monitor and SL30 Nav/Com and Vertical Power VP-50 unit for electrical management.

Now it is off to the rest of my Phase I flight testing and enjoying the fruits of my labor.
 
Well done. Now call Van's and let them know so you can be counted in with the world's most popular kit aircraft ever......... the RV6,A

The 7 will take years to catch up.
 
Well done. Now .... be counted in with the world's most popular kit aircraft ever......... the RV6,A

IMO the best of fleet and the best ever kit aircraft, but I am biased.

My own aircraft flew for the first time in mid 2010, at which time the RV-6 empennage kit had been long discontinued and mine was close to the 2400th RV-6 recorded on Vans Hobbs meter.

4 years and 132 more completions later the '6 would still be the envy of most other kit manufacturers.

Congratulations, you will love it.
 
Last edited:
Yes, looking forward to your reports as I'm very interested in your engine/prop setup. I'm thinking of the same combo instead of the CS, saving money and maintenance costs. I am wondering about CG though with the lighter prop.

Hope you are having fun
 
Phase 1 testing progress update 13hrs in

Phase 1 testing update- 13hrs into Phase 1 over 10 flights (I fly in Utah airport elevation 4500ft, density altitude in summer is frequently 7-8 thousand at airport elev so performance can suffer a bit.)

Weight & Balance Final tally: 1065 lbs (Left: 504, Right: 498, Tailwheel: 63)
Configuration is RV6 Slider XPIO360 180HP Fuel injected- No paint, but have gear fairings and upper intersection fairings installed along with the old one piece wheel pants, no lower intersection fairings. It was my intention to replace the old style wheel pants with the newer ones to get some more speed but they are growing on me and performance isn't too bad so I will probably keep them and have them painted with the plane.

After calibrating my GRT sport TAS settings, I found my top speed is 203 mph TAS (8000ft 2720 rpm) Catto 3 blade (68 x 76) and it cruises nicely at 2600 is around 185 mph. My climb rate testing shows (@10,000 ft density altitude) ~1200 fpm @ weight of 1417lbs. The FPM climb @ 80, 90, 100, 110mph was fairly close in initial testing). Prop RPM was around 2230 and manifold pressure 22.5 on these climbs so I'm only getting about 120hp at this density altitude.

Before Phase 1 started, I spent 15 hours transition training with Mike Seager near Portland OR and getting my tailwheel endorsement at the same time. This time in the factory RV7 with Mike (O320 CS prop at sea level) is the only RV time I have to compare with for my plane. That experience contrasted to my plane so far is that I have slightly higher top speed with the 180hp, slightly less climb performance and slightly more float on landing with the fixed pitch prop but overall similar feel and performance to factory RV7. (expected)

Overall, I was probably the most concerned about landings in the tail dragger on my on my first few flights, however I found my landings have been pretty good (so far). However on my takeoffs I have been drifting slightly left and the mains were skipping slightly on runway before getting airborne. I've been working on my right rudder inputs when lifting the tail each takeoff and I also noticed yesterday that where I thought was my neutral stick position for the control stick was actually slightly nose up on elevator when I checked during run up before closing the canopy. After adjusting for this on my latest takeoff roll, I had a much better takeoff with no drift or skipping with better control inputs. I will continue to practice that some more. Fortunately at KOGD we have long and wide runways available for this new tail wheel pilot to practice on.

I haven't had any temperature problems, my temps have been good so far with low 400 CHTs on takeoff and then mid to high 300s in cruise and relatively equal temperatures. Oil temp stabilizes in the 180's. I continue to adjust the low/high ranges on my engine gauges a bit with more experience with the plane. With these glass panel digital gauges it is easy to get to consumed with minor variations of the numbers rather than trends.

Immediate plans: Continue flying my Phase 1 testing plan, and start expanding the envelope on weights to gross and some higher climbs (I've been to 13,000 but need to mount my oxygen bottle for higher altitude testing). I also have a two axis GRT auto pilot wired but not no servo's installed yet since I wanted to get a feel of the controls before installing autopilot servos. I'll get the autopilot installed about 1/2 way through my Phase 1 hours and incorporate that into my final testing. I'm also going to relocate my ELT antenna, (I place my ELT on the floor near the firewall to keep weight forward and ran a short wire to the ELT antenna extending below the fuselage below the pilots feet near the firewall but I think it gets too much prop blast there with the long antenna so I'll extend the antenna wire and move it to rear top deck in front of vertical stabilizer). I'll use the forward hole for an external ADSB stubby ted antenna I plan to use later.
 
Good for you Russ. I just bought a 7 in August and love to hear other new-guy stories too. I was a little strong with the ailerons durign training instead of using my feet for heading control. Working through it just like you. Feels great to be a plane owner though. Enjoy the new 6!
 
The most popular kit aircraft

Congratulations Russ, you are my inspiration ! :D Enjoy the fruits of your labor and fly safe! :)
 
The most popular kit aircraft

Congratulations Russ, you are my inspiration ! :D Enjoy the fruits of your labor and fly safe! :)
 
Russ:

That is quite an accomplishment. It is hard to imagine all the emotions that must come with that experience. I would really like to build one some day when I have the time and space. Great work and stay safe!

Hank
 
And that is a wrap - phase 1 completed

L29WUW2TDwu


Just wrapped up my Phase 1 testing, I took some time to install new GRT autopilot servos to go with my GRT Sport EFIS, surprising how easy it was to setup and install and test fly with the grt servos. The default settings worked great, maybe a little sensitive but easy to adjust. It was such a joy to hand fly I almost had second thoughts but I'm sure it will be nice on the cross country flights.

I will start getting estimates on painting and I still need to custom make and install wheel pant intersection fairings (I have the old one piece wheel pants).
 
Out of Paintshop tomorrow - too pretty to fly

I had chosen to paint after my 40 hours flown off and I am also lucky enough to have a paint shop on field. After 8 weeks in the paint shop, the painting is done and I pick up my plane from the paint shop tomorrow. I removed and added all the flight controls, fairings, and parts myself so the shop just completed the prep work and spraying. I've very pleased with the result, putting the parts back on and feeling the smooth shiny parts makes me a little hesitant to fly and get dirty, I'm sure I'll overcome that in a day or two.

Since I'm not very creative, I chose to copy someone else's paint scheme I found it after choosing my colors from internet searches (an rv6 plane in France F-PJLL), All in all, it met my expectations. They say imitation is the best form of flattery so thank you to F-PJLL for posting the images.

Phase 1 - pre paint
10huo0x.jpg

As it sits in the paint shop now...
14dmyoo.jpg

2ia9blx.jpg

2v2e2ck.jpg

Should be back in the air next week!
 
Last edited:
Love that paint job!

Great job, congrats and thanks for sharing. We who are behind you take great inspiration from this at a time when the last rivet went wrong and the part cant be found,and you think Why am i doing this..... then a post and pic like this!

Thanks again as i pick up my drill to drill out that rivet and look harder for that part.

Dave
 
Beautiful paint job.

Out of curiosity given that you have the empty weight unpainted, would you be kind enough to publish the empty weight with paint as an estimate of weight increase?

Cheers
 
She finally has a twin in the US !

Or at least a real family ressemblance :)

Hello Russcoburn, that's great !
I am the french builder/owner of F-PJLL. She is located close to Bordeaux along the Atlantic coast in Andernos airfield "LFCD".
I am very happy and flattered that you have chosen my paint scheme.
Congratulations, and I wish you a lot of pleasure and nice flights with your beautiful bird

Greetings from Bordeaux !

Lionel LAURENT







 
Thanks for the post and sharing the paint scheme pictures. I used one of your in-air pictures as my inspiration while building. (I used one of your pictures as my desktop wall paper on my computer desktop to remind me of the finished product goal and keep me motivated.)

I was able to get over my first flight post-paint getting it dirty fears and got her up in the air last weekend (no scratches :) It is very satisfying to have a painted plane to be proud of and flying now.
 
Back
Top