I'm just smiling
I'm proud of you and your RV-6A. We built our RV-6A and I do all the speed testing at 6,000 density altitude, WOT, max RPM (~2720), leaned for best speed, three legs (360, 120 and 240), trimmed hands off level flight autopilot controlled direction and altitude, 20 second interval recordings of stabilized speed with no variation of more than
+ 1 kt and results processed in the NTPS spread sheet. My initial speed was 170.67 kts and with a lot of experimental speed mods the best speed I have seen is 184.4 kts. So your speed is certainly in the ballbark. Before the 2010 AirVenture Cup race from Mitchell, South Dakota to Oshkosh I was concerned about my ability to make it without the tip tanks (a 1.5 ft wingspan penalty) so I did test the fuel burn under these conditionsat 6,000 ft density altitude and the result was just under 14 gph so I rounded up and determined the ground speed I would have to maintain to make it with a 0.5 hr reserve with the no tip tank capacity. It worked out fine. I will now go to the SARL site (
www.sportairrace.org) and get the RV-6A race speeds in kts from one of the records and stats files and reprint them here (the RV Reds are 320 powered and the RV Blues are 360 powered):
AirVenture Cup 2008 7/27/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 194.56
Rocket 100, 2010 11/20/10 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 192.80
Texoma 100, 2008 4/20/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 188.36
Tennessee Valley Air Race 2010 10/30/10 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 187.52
AirCap 200 8/24/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 185.16
Rocket 100 2008 11/23/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 183.83
Taylor 150, 2011 4/2/11 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 183.41
Taylor 100 2009 3/16/09 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 182.35
BCAF 150, 2008 5/4/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 181.45
Grace Flight 2010 10/2/10 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 181.23
Memphis 100 2008 10/19/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 180.26
AirVenture Cup 2007 7/23/07 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 179.99
AirVenture Cup 2010 7/26/10 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 179.83
Tennessee Valley Air Race 2009 6/14/09 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 178.98
AirVenture Cup 2007 7/23/07 RV Red RV-6A Klusmier, Larry 178.90
Colorado 150, 2008 6/29/08 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 178.63
West Texas 100 6/6/10 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob 178.04
Memphis 100, 2007 10/28/07 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 176.86
Rocket 100, 2007 11/18/07 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 176.33
Wichita 300 7/17/07 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 169.91
Great Canadian Air Rally 2010 8/22/10 RV Blue RV-6A Kukura, Dave 169.62
Taylor 100 2007 5/20/07 RV Blue RV-6A Axsom, Bob & Jeanine 168.72
Big Sky Air Race 7/9/11 RV Blue RV-6A Klewin, Kurt 165.48
West Texas 100 2009 4/12/09 RV Blue RV-6A Nymeyer, Rance 164.12
Rocket 100, 2011 11/19/11 RV Blue RV-6A Moore, Mike 163.43
TVA II 2009 10/18/09 RV Red RV-6A Phillips, Mark 162.66
Texoma 100, 2008 4/20/08 RV Red RV-6A Heathco, Charlie 161.75
Memphis 100, 2007 10/28/07 RV Blue RV-6A Lee, Ron 158.66
Lone Star Air Rally 5/14/11 RV Red RV-6A Bivens, Darrell 154.86
Great NW Air Race 6/13/10 RV Red RV-6A Hungelmann, Bill 152.37
Lone Star Air Rally 5/14/11 RV Red RV-6A McGinnis, Patrick 144.92
Please come join us in a race this year. In addition to the AirVenture Cup race in late July:
Texoma 100 Air Race
31 March, 2012
Sherman, TX (KGYI)
Taylor 150 Air Race
14 April, 2012
Taylor, TX (T74)
Hill Country Air Race
21 April, 2012
Llano, TX (KAQO)
Big Country Air Fest & Air Race
28 April, 2012
Abilene, TX (KDYS)
Lone Star Air Rally
19 May, 2012
Galveston, TX (KGLS)
Memorial Day Air Race
26 May, 2012
Terrell, TX (KTRL)
Big Muddy Air Race
9 June, 2012
Carbondale, IL (KMDH)
Great Northwest Air Race
16 June, 2012
Ephrata, WA (KEPH)
Big Sky Air Race
7 July, 2012
Three Forks, MT (9S5)
Indy Air Race
11 August, 2012
Indianapolis, IN (KTYQ)
Pappy Boyington Memorial Cup
18 August, 2012
Coeur d'Alene, ID (KCOE)
Limestone County Airman's Classic
1 September, 2012
Mexia, TX (KLXY)
Ozark Air Race
8 September, 2012
Cassville, MO (94K)
Pagosa Springs 150 Air Race
22 September, 2012
Pagosa Springs, CO (KPSO)
Tennessee Air Race
29 September, 2012
Tullahoma, TN (KTHA)
Northwoods Air Race
6 October, 2012
Waupaca, WI (KPCZ)
Cleveland Air Race Revival
13 October, 2012
Cleveland, TX (6R3)
Thunderbird Air Race
13 October, 2012
Wickenburg, AZ (E25)
Maryland Air Race
20 October, 2012
Maryland (TBD)
Jasper Air Race
27 October, 2012
Jasper, TX (KJAS)
Rocket 100 Air Race
17 November, 2012
Taylor, TX (T74)
Bob Axsom