I spent some time looking at individual RV accidents from the accident database but one at a time did not give me a feel for what was going on. So I started downloading the database into an excel spreadsheet so I could analyze it.
Not done yet, but I thought I would share. I have spent more time creating the database and less evaluating the data.
I have broken it down by model number. I have entered data for everything except the RV-4. Anyone want to volunteer to enter the data for the RV-4. I started with the RV-7 and was not including all the data that is in the other models, plan to update.
Some quick observations:
1) If you have an inflight emergency, fly the airplane! A significant number of stalls when multitasking with an emergency in progress.
2.) You can see some differences in accident types based on model and pilot personalities associated with model type.
3.) Overall reliability between models is very similar, about 0.995 reliability per year. Some assumption made here, mainly looking at the last 5 years of flight data and not the early years. Rational was it was hard to estimate the number of flying aircraft in the early years.
4.) Failures of the airframe inflight are almost nonexistent. When they do fail, they are the result poor decision making. Example: Flying into an embedded thunderstorm. One exception was some of the early RV-3 wing structures before the service bulletin was issued.
5.) Nose wheels fail on rough terrain and hard landings, ( not sure of influence of after-maket improvements.)
Here is the link.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw5FR8nYTWEIeGVXdzJvdjJpV28
Not done yet, but I thought I would share. I have spent more time creating the database and less evaluating the data.
I have broken it down by model number. I have entered data for everything except the RV-4. Anyone want to volunteer to enter the data for the RV-4. I started with the RV-7 and was not including all the data that is in the other models, plan to update.
Some quick observations:
1) If you have an inflight emergency, fly the airplane! A significant number of stalls when multitasking with an emergency in progress.
2.) You can see some differences in accident types based on model and pilot personalities associated with model type.
3.) Overall reliability between models is very similar, about 0.995 reliability per year. Some assumption made here, mainly looking at the last 5 years of flight data and not the early years. Rational was it was hard to estimate the number of flying aircraft in the early years.
4.) Failures of the airframe inflight are almost nonexistent. When they do fail, they are the result poor decision making. Example: Flying into an embedded thunderstorm. One exception was some of the early RV-3 wing structures before the service bulletin was issued.
5.) Nose wheels fail on rough terrain and hard landings, ( not sure of influence of after-maket improvements.)
Here is the link.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw5FR8nYTWEIeGVXdzJvdjJpV28
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