Looking into RV-6A as a fairly new pilot

Turbo

Oh boy, you've switched from which tail to where to put the third wheel. Another topic with many impassioned viewpoints.

I went -A for a couple of reasons:
Forward ground visibility instead of serpentine at my airport. (we have a lot of non-pilot traffic sharing the taxiways and they don't all understand that planes come first in our environment)

Speeds are almost the same between the 6 and 6A for each engine.

Next question: Slider or Tip-up?

Thankfully we won't have to get into High-wing vs Low-wing in a Vans forum.

All kidding aside... keep asking questions, challenge things that seem to be out of sync, take your time, and have fun. (maybe those are in reverse order)

Turbo69bird said:

I may consider flying with someone locally in a tail wheel version (if I can locate one) to see how it is landing it vs a tri gear. I've never been in anything tail wheel yet.

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Rather than simply going along for a ride in a tailwheel RV, I'd suggest an actual tailwheel lesson in something like a Decathlon. That will give you a much better perspective on whether or not you find tailwheel airplanes enjoyable and want to pursue the endorsement. That's mostly what it comes down to. People fly tailwheel airplanes because they find them more fun, or just like the kind of airplanes that happen to have tailwheels to begin with. If you are dispassionate about the trike vs. tailwheel issue, then maybe you should seek the path of least resistance (nosegear). They both accomplish the same thing. Although you should read up on RV nosegear flipovers so that you understand the issues if you are going to buy a nosewheel. Pilots ground loop tailwheel RVs on occasion. There about equal numbers of tailwheel vs. trike RVs successfully flying around.

And as already mentioned, on any forum you will get a range of opinions, and information of varying accuracy. You must weed out the good information from the bad. I think you got enough input on the rudder subject to make that call.

Yep, just going for a ride with a proficient tailwheel pilot won't tell you anything about what is involved in landing a taildragger. My landings are so smooth in the RV-6 you wouldn't even be able to tell when we make contact with the runway!

Flying with an instructor will demonstrate the very different techniques needed for a tailwheel aircraft and the necessity of getting your feet involved.

Keep an open mind, at this point in your aviation journey if can be difficult even determining which questions to ask.

Dad left the farm at 18 and joined the RCAF. In 10 hrs he soloed the Harvard. These days you have to be warbird ace to fly one! Every experienced instructor I know who has instructed in both says that from scratch it takes the same amount of time to solo a tailwheel or tricycle geared airplane. Anyone can do it.

As for tail size, the RV series of airplanes have huge vertical tails. If you want a laugh compare the side view of an RV to a sonerai. I would guess the RV has 4 times the area. The thing that will make the difference regarding your survival in a stall spin scenario is not the tail size. It is your training, your proficiency and how well you know your airplane and your limits. If you get blown off course during your turn to final you can pull harder and flirt with disaster or go around and try again if you are not feeling brave that day. It is all up to you.

You can crash pretty much any airplane if you are poorly prepared and or wreckless or fly even the most demanding airplane safely if you are well trained and open your personal envelope carefully. Get good training from an old guy who has seen it all and who knows the RVs well and go practise hard and cautiously and build your experience gradually. Don't try tight strips with obstacles or crosswinds untill you have some time in type. Once you do have some time then go get some advanced dual for those types of conditions to open your personal envelope safely i.e. tight strips, crosswinds etc.

These airplanes are so capable. You won't learn everything that can be done with them in 5 hrs of transition training. By all means get it, but don't stop there. Practise, learn, then learn some more. The most important thing is to find a good mentor. It makes a huge difference.

Btw tailwheel is WAY more fun in my opinion. I was almost 50 when I learned it. I'll never go back. Just my opinion, worth what you paid for it.

Taildragger

I have trained low time pilots in both the Pitts S2B and The Sukhoi SU29. Average for the Pitts is 10 hours of which about half is spin training. I trained a fairly low time pilot with zero tailwheel experience in the SU29. He did exceptionally well and I could have turned him loose after 2 hours but the insurance required 10 hours of training. On the other end of the spectrum are the low information pilots who will never be safe, regardless of where the third wheel is.

Taildragger

There are quite a few flight schools in the Northeast that do taildragger checkouts. I would strongly recommend that you get 5 hours in anything from a Cub to a Decathalon, if you're a reasonably proficient pilot you will then be able to look at RV6 taildraggers from a totally new prospective.
See if you can find an old Atlantic Flyer, they used to list taildragger flight schools.

Taildraggers

DO NOT fly a Pitts, it will be a $90k mistake, that is the low end of the price range for an S2B which you will be obsessed with buying after just one flight.

rvbuilder2002 said:

Jeff,
I can't speak for anyone else that posted info in this thread that is contrary to what you seemed to want to believe, but my intention was only to give you correct information.

The VAF forums are a great resource of information and learning about everything RV.
Unfortunately, despite good intentions of many people that are trying to help, a lot of bad advice and incorrect information is spread within the forums also.
That leaves someone like you in a difficult spot. The best you can do is research not only what you are reading, but also what the information source is.

Good luck in your search for an RV. As already mentioned, as long as you are able to find a well built one, you can't really go wrong with any of them.

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Thanks, I agree you can't always believe everything you read. It's tough to pick through what's what, and I appreciate that each person really loves their type of plane.

I get it. I'm sure they are all good, and each has their fit.

Maybe some tail wheel training wouldn't hurt. I have read about the nose wheels collapsing, I know there's a stronger front support set up, but I've also seen some nose wheel guys landing and keeping a ton of weight on the nose wheel.

Turbo Eddie has pounded it into my head to keep the weight off the nose wheel trust me. Lol

Part of my issue with buying, is knowing I on my own cant recognize a quality build from a poor build. I've read a lot if build threads, but I don't think you really "get it" until you've either owned or built one.

As for going around on a poorly lined up base to final, I always go around if it's overshot at all. I'm probably a little bit of a freak about base to final, cross control stalls etc. it's the aspect of flying that most concerns me. I never had that concern until I did some spin training in a 172. It recovered fine, but it was only a couple of spins, just enough to make me nervous about spins. .


I've run fast boats, fast cars etc, but I feel both of those are Much more forgiving than flying, at least in the area of mistakes made becoming deadly. Of course I've been doing both of those all my life.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist too so I never truly feel as though I know enough about any given topic. Flying is especially so, because there's such an enormous volume of information to learn.

At 100 hrs I realize I'm a puppy in the world of aviation, and I've got a respect for what can happen to those who don't get/stay sharp.

The vans has so many great attributes and I learned those from Turbos standard 6 tailed 6a. It's a pleasure to fly in that plane. So please don't anyone think I'm knocking the standard 6. Best plane I've been in to date.

I had all of 120 hours in a C150 before jumping in my new completed 6A.. 100 hrs of that was in the 70's when I took training & got my ticket... Family, job, $, etc. prevented me from flying until in the 90's when I finished my RV6A... At the time I took it to the airport for final assembly, I put in 20 hours of refresh/BFR training.. right there at the airport I had my plane at... I had a high time pilot friend of mine to do the test flying. He put it through the paces and determined it was a good stable bird... I jumped in and haven't flown anything else since..
Now I have 780 hours on it and 900 hrs for me... Go for it!

N111BN said:

I had a birdstrike at about 500' in a turn (see it here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPoFH5ON_E ) and you really don't have time to pull hard IMHO. My RV6 is a small tail and I didn't spin in. To me a larger tail in more likely to put you in a spin in that situation as you would need to be flying uncoordinated to start with. I wouldn't worry about a bird strike so much for a spin on a turn to final - I would worry about overshooting final more and that is a training issue.

I don't think insurance would be too much more for a 6 vs 6A. My first tailwheel airplane was a Cessna 180 and I only had 5 or so hours tail wheel when I got it (and about 500 hours TT). The insurance was about $1500 I think.

RV6s are pretty tame tail wheel airplanes in my opinion. Get tail wheel time now and it will make you a better pilot for the rest of your career. Just keep a tail wheel airplane straight and you will never ground loop - it is pretty simple really.

Find a good RV6 or RV6A and you will have lots of fun!!

Nigel
KCCR

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Just bought a 6A myself. Insurance is $1500. Before buying, I checked insurance and a 6 was $2400. That's current data from AOPA.

Italiancowboy said:

Just bought a 6A myself. Insurance is $1500. Before buying, I checked insurance and a 6 was $2400. That's current data from AOPA.

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That's good information. We can speculate all day long, but that information shows the difference. It is possible that a high time tailwheel pilot would get quotes closer together, but this is current and real data. I assume the hull value was quoted at the same value? How much total time, how much time in make/model and how much tailwheel time do you have?

Jesse said:

That's good information. We can speculate all day long, but that information shows the difference. It is possible that a high time tailwheel pilot would get quotes closer together, but this is current and real data. I assume the hull value was quoted at the same value? How much total time, how much time in make/model and how much tailwheel time do you have?

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Yes, same hull value in both cases.
I have about 250 total hrs and 2 in TW (RV-7).

Before getting the quote, the agent stated that I'd get better rates with the tric and that proved to be the case. She said TW time had some effect, but there's always a healthy difference.