rgmwa

I wonder what it cost. It weighs as much as my plane and is bigger as well. My plane’s wingspan is 27’. This model is about as big as a C152.

I built mine and I’m confident it was done to a high standard and with care and attention to detail. It was also inspected several times during the build by my SAAA tech counsellor and obviously again by the CASA Approved Person before it was given its special certificate of airworthiness. It’s as airworthy as any commercial aircraft despite the warning sticker on the instrument panel and the ‘experimental’ banner on the rear bulkhead.

RV-12 school builds are well-established in the US. Some in NZ as well that I'm aware of. I was one of about 15 or more mentors on the SAAA's build a few years ago that involved about 5 schools across Australia. In Perth, they ran two build sessions per week. I only helped out once a fortnight but one or two dedicated mentors were there for virtually every session and really made the project happen. The students were 15/16 year old's divided into about half a dozen teams. Our build started half way though the year and went into the next year with a new lot of students so they had to start from scratch to learn the basic skills. I was surprised by how awkward and uncoordinated some of the boys were in handling basic tools. They could barely use a screwdriver and we had a pretty high attrition rate as they soon realised that building a plane was essentially a slow and boring process with lots of repetitive tasks. A few were interested enough to see it though, and one young kid in particular was very keen and capable and was still there at the end. In the first year we had two girls in the group and they ran rings around most of the boys. They listened, read the plans, followed instructions and were careful and precise in their workmanship. The same could not be said for some of the boys who were careless and disinterested and didn't take it seriously, but they didn't last long. We built the main fuselage and firewall forward while other schools did the tail cone, empennage, and wings. Some SAAA Chpt 24 members at Jandakot jumped in at the end to finish off the engine, avionics and fibreglass work. The students weren't allowed to do fibreglassing or priming due to the hazardous materials issues. Overall I'd say the quality of workmanship was probably no better or worse than many other homebuilt aircraft. It was obviously assessed as being airworthy anyway. These were just my observations and I don't know how the other schools went. It eventually all came together thanks to the hard work of a small core group of mentors. The plane was/is called `Miss Tori". I don't know who owns it now but it was a very well equipped aircraft with dual Garmin G3 screens, autopilot, lights etc.

Finding it might answer the question of what happened to it, but not why it happened.

Thanks for the explanation. I see what you're getting at now. Service ceiling is the maximum density altitude at which an aircraft can maintain a minimum practical rate of climb which might be 100 ft/min for a typical GA aircraft.

Perhaps `better' needs to be better defined.

Flying faster also increases form drag and the most efficient speed will be the speed at which the combined parasitic and form drag is lowest. I wasn't sure that you can say that flying faster will always be more efficient except that flying faster will get you to where you're going quicker and that's probably more efficient (especially if you can go `downhill' all the way and use gravity instead of engine power).

Flying faster will create the required lift at a reduced angle of attack and reduce the associated drag on the wing.

... and more power required to overcome drag so more fuel used.

Hey Max, this series is a pretty monumental effort on your part. It must be a full time job to research and put it all together.

Agreed. We could do without all the tit for tat bickering that goes on here at times. It’s supposed to be about aviation not recrimination.

Thanks, but it's such a nice pristine looking motor that I'm a bit reluctant to part with it at the moment. I bought it some years ago thinking I might try RC. I bought a Pilot C182 kit (60in span) way back in the late 1970's that I finished to covering stage but never fully completed as life got in the way. The plane gradually deteriorated through family life and several house moves, but I still have the original plans and hardware, so I could scratch build it. I bought a JR F500 R/C set about the same time as the OS intending to rebuild it, but so far it's still a future project. I uploaded the plans to this very useful site in 2014. Just checked again now and see that someone has very helpfully scanned and scaled the part profiles. Scroll down to the end of the link to download the plans. Oz : Cessna 182 Skylane plan - free download OUTERZONE.CO.UK

We used OS motors, mostly. I still have an unused OS40 FSR in the box and a 0.15, 0.25. and 0.35. One of our group was into team racing and used a couple of Super Tigres or Oliver Tigers. Can't remember which now but his planes were works of art. I flew one of his models once while he was tuning it for competition and we clocked it at 131kph.

Yes Nev, it would be much harder in bad weather or at night and the turns are no steeper than we all do in a normal circuit, but to someone like me who doesn't have your many years of experience flying all kinds of aircraft in all types of conditions and into difficult airfields, it's still pretty impressive. Having said that, I think I could get the RV in there in good weather.

Yes, I missed that the first time I watched it, but I’d be tempted to add it to the checklist too. The airport is at 7300 feet, just to make it more interesting.

Nice flying! Not much room for error. I'd find it challenging enough to land here in the RV, let alone an airliner, but they make it look easy. Make it full screen for a pilot's eye view:

It would have been one of these according to a list of the fighters they have in their airforce:

I have one of those in my RV-12 and it works very well. Best of both worlds. Available from Aircraft Spruce although I got mine direct from MacFarlane in the US who manufacture them. Vernier-Assist ™ Throttle Controls For Dual Carb Rotax 912 / 914 | Aircraft Spruce Australia WWW.AIRCRAFTSPRUCE.COM.AU Vernier-Assist ™ Throttle Controls For Dual Carb Rotax 912 / 914 This type of control has all the fine adjustment benefits of an old style...

Some nice work being done here:

Duck tape and duct tape are different products, but duct tape is commonly used for both. It is also a brand. It is water resistant. Agreed.

Not quite, Nev. It was originally called `duck' tape because it was cloth/canvas based. It became popularly known as duct tape after the war when it was used for sealing metal ducts.

Friends of mine have just restored a Bowers Bi-Baby and have sealed the lower wing gaps with ordinary silver duct tape. Seems to work. The Bi-Baby is flat out at about 70kts.

It ducks under the gap, Nev.

Anything that won't peel off under the airflow. Duck tape, `100 mile per hour' tape, etc.