Van's Air Force
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F-4 Raider Comes to Life.
- Thread starter Xkuzme1
- Start date
rvmills
Well Known Member
Big Congrats Tinker! Looking forward to the flying reports and performance numbers! Have fun!!
Cheers,
Bob
clam
Well Known Member
Congrats! More photos and description please ... brag away. I'm interested in this animal.
Xkuzme1
Well Known Member
I couldn’t be happier with the way it flew
A couple electrical squawks which are easily remedied in an hour.
Takeoff was uneventful. I have an RV-4 which I love, but it’s a delightfully twitchy SOB. The F-4 had no twitchiness around any axis at all. Was both incredibly sold and nimble. I have to say that I was impressed with the overall balance of the plane.
It’s got a 228hp IO-360 with about 3 hours in it. So it I was trying to find a balance of keeping my power up to heat up the engine for break in vs pushing first flight limits.
Taking off the first time, the airplane is rigged perfectly. Hands off with NO roll rate at all. Looking back at the elevator, the elevator horn vs the horizontal, there was only about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch difference. With a little weight in the back I think it’ll be perfect.
I cannot get over the handling characteristics of this plane. Both light, nimble, and stable. Again, I think I was expecting RV-4, which it was not. Huge improvement.
I have a ground adjustable GT - 3BL prop, which I have adjusted to a rough pitch of 73° giving me a static run up of about 2150 rpms.
Once in flight, my plan was purely to get it off the ground, fly for 30 mins about 2500 feet above my airport, and get the engine hot, fly a number of box patterns to calibrate the airspeed, and land.
At the prop setting I have, I was roughly turning 2600 rpms but my manifold pressure was all the way down to 20 inches. So obviously I have it way under pitched. With the current setting of pitch, I was averaging 150kias in my box pattern at roughly 55% power (estimated). So power wise, there is a lot left on the table. I’ll have to play with the pitch a bit.
After I landed I did a mag check and it good.
After it sat, I started back up and it was acting up. I think there is something stuck in the #1 fuel injector. Easy fix hopefully. Either that or oil is getting past rings and fouling the plugs. Most likely it’s FOD from 6 years of building.
All in all, a very successful flight. The airplane exceeded all my my expectations in every way.
X
A couple electrical squawks which are easily remedied in an hour.
Takeoff was uneventful. I have an RV-4 which I love, but it’s a delightfully twitchy SOB. The F-4 had no twitchiness around any axis at all. Was both incredibly sold and nimble. I have to say that I was impressed with the overall balance of the plane.
It’s got a 228hp IO-360 with about 3 hours in it. So it I was trying to find a balance of keeping my power up to heat up the engine for break in vs pushing first flight limits.
Taking off the first time, the airplane is rigged perfectly. Hands off with NO roll rate at all. Looking back at the elevator, the elevator horn vs the horizontal, there was only about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch difference. With a little weight in the back I think it’ll be perfect.
I cannot get over the handling characteristics of this plane. Both light, nimble, and stable. Again, I think I was expecting RV-4, which it was not. Huge improvement.
I have a ground adjustable GT - 3BL prop, which I have adjusted to a rough pitch of 73° giving me a static run up of about 2150 rpms.
Once in flight, my plan was purely to get it off the ground, fly for 30 mins about 2500 feet above my airport, and get the engine hot, fly a number of box patterns to calibrate the airspeed, and land.
At the prop setting I have, I was roughly turning 2600 rpms but my manifold pressure was all the way down to 20 inches. So obviously I have it way under pitched. With the current setting of pitch, I was averaging 150kias in my box pattern at roughly 55% power (estimated). So power wise, there is a lot left on the table. I’ll have to play with the pitch a bit.
After I landed I did a mag check and it good.
After it sat, I started back up and it was acting up. I think there is something stuck in the #1 fuel injector. Easy fix hopefully. Either that or oil is getting past rings and fouling the plugs. Most likely it’s FOD from 6 years of building.
All in all, a very successful flight. The airplane exceeded all my my expectations in every way.
X
Attachments
Congratulations Todd! Beautiful airplane you have there!!! v/r,dr
Roadjunkie1
Well Known Member
Could you expand on how your -4 is twitchy and the difference with the F-4?
How so? The reason I am asking as I find the -4 a very responsive, stable aircraft without being 'twitchy'. What differences did you find between the two, specifically? Curious minds want to know......especially -4 minds!
CONGRGATULATIONS, by the way!! Pretty airplane!
Xkuzme1
Well Known Member
I love flying the -4. Calling it twitch might be a tall statement. It’s delightfully exceptionally maneuverable characteristics can sometimes (after 9 years of flying her) can be extremely labor intensive after long periods of time. The unstable nature of the 4 is also its charm. Look left, and you’ll turn left, even if you didn’t intend to do so, LOL.
The F-4 I found more enjoyable. Slightly more stable but still had the desired roll and pitch rates upon request. Keep in mind, I’ve got 30 mins of flight time in it
X
vfrazier
Well Known Member
The F1s and the F4s share the same fuselage, which evolved from the RV-4 , but it's definitely not an RV-4 fuselage any longer.
Speaking of longer, it is about 7 in longer than an RV-4. One could speculate that the extra length makes it less twitchy in pitch.
Also the Rocket and Raiders have slightly shorter wings (typically), which means slightly shorter ailerons as the flaps remain the same and the fuselage is slightly wider also. Less twitchy too?
I generally credit the F1 Rockets with being more solid feeling due to the increased span loading, but the F4 Raiders may share some of this also.
All speculation, but I do have a little bit of knowledge about these airplanes.
Speaking of longer, it is about 7 in longer than an RV-4. One could speculate that the extra length makes it less twitchy in pitch.
Also the Rocket and Raiders have slightly shorter wings (typically), which means slightly shorter ailerons as the flaps remain the same and the fuselage is slightly wider also. Less twitchy too?
I generally credit the F1 Rockets with being more solid feeling due to the increased span loading, but the F4 Raiders may share some of this also.
All speculation, but I do have a little bit of knowledge about these airplanes.
