...copy/pasting text from the front of vansairforce.net so it'll be in the archives here. What an awesome plane!!!
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/VansAirForce/JayPrattRV4
I'd say 99% of my RV time over the last seven years has been in my RV-6. I've been lucky enough to get to fly a few of my friend's planes, but not as much as you might think. Flown Ross' RV-6 a few times, two of Jay's RV-6s on more than one occasion, Scott's RV-7 for a couple dozen hours or so, Alex's RV-10 for a bit from the left seat and some time in the yellow RV-12 prototype with Gus. Notice a pattern? All side by side. All left hand on control stick (I flew the -12 from the right seat if memory serves).
In the right hand control stick column I don't have much data to present - only a little time up front in Danny's 'Beautiful Doll' (some with him in the back and some solo) and a solo hop in Jay's RV-8 Borrowed Horse). That and a few flights with me in the right seat of my RV-6. Nothing to write home about. Not exactly Bob Hoover.
Yesterday I had a plan A and a plan B. 'A' was to push out the site, get some paperwork done, call an advertiser or two, then head out to the airport to help Jerry move a motorcycle up/down a trailer. Plan 'B', if 'A' didn't end up happening, was to fly over to Jay Pratt's place at Hicks and take him up on his offer to fly his newly acquired/fixed up RV-4. The motorcycle move didn't pan out, so I launched for the six minute flight over to Hicks around 0900.
Finally got a RV-4 in the logbook - yesterday I flew one for the first time. It flies considerably different than my RV-6, and it 'had me at hello', as Rene said. Of course, Jay being Jay, he said to leave my plane there and take his for a week. That guy is a national treasure, IMHO. I deferred and only took it up for about .3hrs. If my RV-6 were an automobile, that RV-4 felt like a motorcycle. I bet if you stepped from a RV-10 into this thing and took it up, it would feel like you were going from an automobile to a jet pack. What a blast!!!
The roll rate was amazing. Hypersensitive compared to the -10 I flew, and much faster than both the -8, -7 and -6's in my logbook. Flying along there dumb and happy, I kept twittering the stick back and forth in about a six inch arc, just marveling at the responsiveness. Motorcycle on a curvy road. I think I did ten rolls. What really struck me in a positive way was being on the centerline instead of a foot or so to the left of it during those rolls. It made a difference that I appreciated. Rolls felt more like 'rolls'.
In pitch it was a little heavier than my -6. I suspect with a pax in the back it would feel about the same.
Viz was outstanding. Although I didn't take any measurements, I suspect you sit a little closer to the leading edge in the -4 compared to the -6, and the view over the wing in a shallow turn was almost straight down. Having a view on the right side for a change was a nice surprise. You know that feeling in your brain when you fly a strange airplane? My brain did that when I looked down on the right side <g>.
Jay's RV-4 is a fixed pitch 160hp model with electric flaps and manual trims. One non-standard mod it has is a counterbalanced rudder. Slippery compared to Flash with its C/S prop. I had a FP prop on it for a few years and remembered the larger patterns that it called for (later). Of course I forgot about it on the first landing attempt in this plane and dang near landed south of Fort Worth. I'm accustomed to my -6 falling like a rock on the final turn and this plane just never fell. My ham-fisted technique didn't help, either.
The manual pitch trim was in a spot I hadn't expected - outboard of the throttle. You can see it the pictures below as the blue-knobbed lever on the far left. As I came into the pattern and throttled back to what I thought would be a nice setting for that leg, I found my fingertips resting just on the trim knob. Right where you would want them. A slight tweak and the trim was nailed for that setting. Definitely one of those 'less is more' setups, one which I now prefer to my electric trim (go figure).
The sight picture over the nose is amazing. Not trying to wear out the analogy, but it's like sitting on a motorcycle as you crest the top of a hill. You can just SEE over the nose, and of course this made flying much more pleasant. One of the pictures below shows the view over the nose - just look how much ground you can see down both sides and out front.
The second TnG was better and the third was almost acceptable. I went for a wheeler and flared about where I would in my -6, but I guess you sit a little lower in the -4, because I missed the 'wheel kiss' and Jay said I floated a third of the way down the runway about four inches off the surface. I bounced the cr@p out of it, of course, with Jay and Roy watching. Ugh.
Jay calls this RV-4 his 'airport courtesy plane', and he has offered its use to a few of us. Like I said....national treasure. If I already had a RV flying and somebody offered me my choice of a flying RV-4 or RV-8 to go with it for free, I think I'd take the -4 (sorry Danny!). I'm 5'10" and 170lbs, so my not-so-tall-or-wide frame fits really nice, and I must admit being drawn to that little cramped fighter feel. I've got some buddies that flew the A-4 (Heinemann's Hot Rod) back in the day, and to hear them describe what it was like to get into one and close the canopy turns my noodle in a RV-4/3 way. It's hard to describe, it just felt RIGHT closing that canopy and sitting there snug in a tight-fitting aluminum cocoon. Would I want to fly it to Idaho like this? No. Would I want to go do loops and rolls and twenty TnGs for an hour? Absolutely!!! It has an autopilot, but you gotta know I didn't think about turning that thing on for one second.
I could *feel* the lightness in the maneuvers. This thing just oozes 'flip me over and over on a warm summer evening'.
Jay's been telling some of us that he'll sell it eventually somewhere in the $49K range. It's worth it. If I had an extra fifty large in my pocket I'd hand it over to him in a second. Susie might feel differently <g>.
I've never felt so right about building a -3B as a second airplane to go along with my -6. I can only imagine how much fun formation and acro are going to be in that thing.
March 18, 2009....my first RV-4 PIC time. Right there for a few minutes I felt like a bona fide Mustang driver, instead of a Tweet guy <g>. A good day, indeed!
I hope Jay doesn't sell this -4 too soon. I wanna fly it some more, and I think I owe him a couple lunches.
The RV-4 rocks.
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/VansAirForce/JayPrattRV4
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/VansAirForce/JayPrattRV4
I'd say 99% of my RV time over the last seven years has been in my RV-6. I've been lucky enough to get to fly a few of my friend's planes, but not as much as you might think. Flown Ross' RV-6 a few times, two of Jay's RV-6s on more than one occasion, Scott's RV-7 for a couple dozen hours or so, Alex's RV-10 for a bit from the left seat and some time in the yellow RV-12 prototype with Gus. Notice a pattern? All side by side. All left hand on control stick (I flew the -12 from the right seat if memory serves).
In the right hand control stick column I don't have much data to present - only a little time up front in Danny's 'Beautiful Doll' (some with him in the back and some solo) and a solo hop in Jay's RV-8 Borrowed Horse). That and a few flights with me in the right seat of my RV-6. Nothing to write home about. Not exactly Bob Hoover.
Yesterday I had a plan A and a plan B. 'A' was to push out the site, get some paperwork done, call an advertiser or two, then head out to the airport to help Jerry move a motorcycle up/down a trailer. Plan 'B', if 'A' didn't end up happening, was to fly over to Jay Pratt's place at Hicks and take him up on his offer to fly his newly acquired/fixed up RV-4. The motorcycle move didn't pan out, so I launched for the six minute flight over to Hicks around 0900.
Finally got a RV-4 in the logbook - yesterday I flew one for the first time. It flies considerably different than my RV-6, and it 'had me at hello', as Rene said. Of course, Jay being Jay, he said to leave my plane there and take his for a week. That guy is a national treasure, IMHO. I deferred and only took it up for about .3hrs. If my RV-6 were an automobile, that RV-4 felt like a motorcycle. I bet if you stepped from a RV-10 into this thing and took it up, it would feel like you were going from an automobile to a jet pack. What a blast!!!
The roll rate was amazing. Hypersensitive compared to the -10 I flew, and much faster than both the -8, -7 and -6's in my logbook. Flying along there dumb and happy, I kept twittering the stick back and forth in about a six inch arc, just marveling at the responsiveness. Motorcycle on a curvy road. I think I did ten rolls. What really struck me in a positive way was being on the centerline instead of a foot or so to the left of it during those rolls. It made a difference that I appreciated. Rolls felt more like 'rolls'.
In pitch it was a little heavier than my -6. I suspect with a pax in the back it would feel about the same.
Viz was outstanding. Although I didn't take any measurements, I suspect you sit a little closer to the leading edge in the -4 compared to the -6, and the view over the wing in a shallow turn was almost straight down. Having a view on the right side for a change was a nice surprise. You know that feeling in your brain when you fly a strange airplane? My brain did that when I looked down on the right side <g>.
Jay's RV-4 is a fixed pitch 160hp model with electric flaps and manual trims. One non-standard mod it has is a counterbalanced rudder. Slippery compared to Flash with its C/S prop. I had a FP prop on it for a few years and remembered the larger patterns that it called for (later). Of course I forgot about it on the first landing attempt in this plane and dang near landed south of Fort Worth. I'm accustomed to my -6 falling like a rock on the final turn and this plane just never fell. My ham-fisted technique didn't help, either.
The manual pitch trim was in a spot I hadn't expected - outboard of the throttle. You can see it the pictures below as the blue-knobbed lever on the far left. As I came into the pattern and throttled back to what I thought would be a nice setting for that leg, I found my fingertips resting just on the trim knob. Right where you would want them. A slight tweak and the trim was nailed for that setting. Definitely one of those 'less is more' setups, one which I now prefer to my electric trim (go figure).
The sight picture over the nose is amazing. Not trying to wear out the analogy, but it's like sitting on a motorcycle as you crest the top of a hill. You can just SEE over the nose, and of course this made flying much more pleasant. One of the pictures below shows the view over the nose - just look how much ground you can see down both sides and out front.
The second TnG was better and the third was almost acceptable. I went for a wheeler and flared about where I would in my -6, but I guess you sit a little lower in the -4, because I missed the 'wheel kiss' and Jay said I floated a third of the way down the runway about four inches off the surface. I bounced the cr@p out of it, of course, with Jay and Roy watching. Ugh.
Jay calls this RV-4 his 'airport courtesy plane', and he has offered its use to a few of us. Like I said....national treasure. If I already had a RV flying and somebody offered me my choice of a flying RV-4 or RV-8 to go with it for free, I think I'd take the -4 (sorry Danny!). I'm 5'10" and 170lbs, so my not-so-tall-or-wide frame fits really nice, and I must admit being drawn to that little cramped fighter feel. I've got some buddies that flew the A-4 (Heinemann's Hot Rod) back in the day, and to hear them describe what it was like to get into one and close the canopy turns my noodle in a RV-4/3 way. It's hard to describe, it just felt RIGHT closing that canopy and sitting there snug in a tight-fitting aluminum cocoon. Would I want to fly it to Idaho like this? No. Would I want to go do loops and rolls and twenty TnGs for an hour? Absolutely!!! It has an autopilot, but you gotta know I didn't think about turning that thing on for one second.
I could *feel* the lightness in the maneuvers. This thing just oozes 'flip me over and over on a warm summer evening'.
Jay's been telling some of us that he'll sell it eventually somewhere in the $49K range. It's worth it. If I had an extra fifty large in my pocket I'd hand it over to him in a second. Susie might feel differently <g>.
I've never felt so right about building a -3B as a second airplane to go along with my -6. I can only imagine how much fun formation and acro are going to be in that thing.
March 18, 2009....my first RV-4 PIC time. Right there for a few minutes I felt like a bona fide Mustang driver, instead of a Tweet guy <g>. A good day, indeed!
I hope Jay doesn't sell this -4 too soon. I wanna fly it some more, and I think I owe him a couple lunches.
The RV-4 rocks.
Pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/VansAirForce/JayPrattRV4
