Bastien
Well Known Member
As some know I am a young builder/owner of a Van’s RV8.
After almost a year of flying, I am starting to show it around in France and Europe doing aerobatic contest, airshows and in two weeks the TAJP.
I wanted to create a thread about the TAJP to share this unique experience for young pilots in France.
Literally the TAJP is the “Tour Aérien des Jeunes Pilotes” or Young Pilots Flying Tour.
It is a two-week flying university for 45 pilots under 24 years old who have their PPL.
During these two weeks, pilots will overfly the country doing precision navigation maneuverability exercises, in flight photo recognition.
Before even thinking of doing it, two months ago, I had a first glance at the regulations, which were saying:
- Engine output <160hp
- Airplane should have a VOR
- Aircraft should not have an Autopilot on board
As the TAJP is something I always wanted to do, I wrote down a document to the organization to ask if it was possible to do the qualification flight and the TAJP if I pass the different qualification runs. In this document I explained why the Van’s RV8 isn’t a bad airplane for the TAJP.
Total, the petroleum company is one of the official sponsor supply all the airplanes in fuel during the event. In my opinion, the major problem with the airplane was the output, which is synonym of high fuel consumption. I insisted on the fact that even if the output is higher than 160hp, I can burn less fuel than the 160hp airplanes.
After two months waiting for an answer, I got a positive one from the organization but I have to limit my airspeed to 120kts.
I did some training with the 8 at 120kts and was amazed how confortable it is at this airspeed.
Time went fast and both qualification flight and theoretical tests went well.
The results were published two weeks ago and I will be part of the TAJP with the RV8.
The RV8 will be the only sport (and taildragger) airplane involved, others being Cessna, Piper and Robin, Tecnam P2002, APM20, Aquilla AT01.
Even if it is far from being the perfect airplane for this kind of contest due to relatively high speed/low visibility compared to Cessna I only considered doing the TAJP with the RV8 to have fun and increase my experience on this airplane.
I will try to do my best keeping in mind that I will be there more for joy than for wining a prize.
However, seeing the airplanes involved, I will try to be the airplane burning the less fuel during the TAJP just to prove that the Lycausorus/aluminium airplane can be better than rotax/composite ones.
On the qualification flight, I averaged 116,05kts @ 4,25GPH (including the full throttle TKOF/climb). I will work a bit on the cooling drag (again) before the TAJP to maximize my chances.
Even if the Avgas is supplied for free during the event. There is still some money to put out of my pocket to pay all the other things included in a flight hour.
Thus I looked for sponsorships to help me get the required money or aviation supplies for the event.
I was amazed to see how companies/people were interested in this project and helped me in this project.
The event is not started yet but I already want to give big thanks to:
-XtremeAir GmbH (Full composite certified unlimited aerobatic airplane company)
-Van’s Club de France (Van’s enthusiast group in France)
-Groupama
-Credit Agricole
-FFA
-GFO.AERO
-CRA Bretagne
-Boulangerie OCEANE
-Salle de sport Route 66
-I hope more to come
I will try to update this thread everyday during the TAJP to share this experience.
After almost a year of flying, I am starting to show it around in France and Europe doing aerobatic contest, airshows and in two weeks the TAJP.
I wanted to create a thread about the TAJP to share this unique experience for young pilots in France.
Literally the TAJP is the “Tour Aérien des Jeunes Pilotes” or Young Pilots Flying Tour.
It is a two-week flying university for 45 pilots under 24 years old who have their PPL.
During these two weeks, pilots will overfly the country doing precision navigation maneuverability exercises, in flight photo recognition.
Before even thinking of doing it, two months ago, I had a first glance at the regulations, which were saying:
- Engine output <160hp
- Airplane should have a VOR
- Aircraft should not have an Autopilot on board
As the TAJP is something I always wanted to do, I wrote down a document to the organization to ask if it was possible to do the qualification flight and the TAJP if I pass the different qualification runs. In this document I explained why the Van’s RV8 isn’t a bad airplane for the TAJP.
Total, the petroleum company is one of the official sponsor supply all the airplanes in fuel during the event. In my opinion, the major problem with the airplane was the output, which is synonym of high fuel consumption. I insisted on the fact that even if the output is higher than 160hp, I can burn less fuel than the 160hp airplanes.
After two months waiting for an answer, I got a positive one from the organization but I have to limit my airspeed to 120kts.
I did some training with the 8 at 120kts and was amazed how confortable it is at this airspeed.
Time went fast and both qualification flight and theoretical tests went well.
The results were published two weeks ago and I will be part of the TAJP with the RV8.
The RV8 will be the only sport (and taildragger) airplane involved, others being Cessna, Piper and Robin, Tecnam P2002, APM20, Aquilla AT01.
Even if it is far from being the perfect airplane for this kind of contest due to relatively high speed/low visibility compared to Cessna I only considered doing the TAJP with the RV8 to have fun and increase my experience on this airplane.
I will try to do my best keeping in mind that I will be there more for joy than for wining a prize.
However, seeing the airplanes involved, I will try to be the airplane burning the less fuel during the TAJP just to prove that the Lycausorus/aluminium airplane can be better than rotax/composite ones.
On the qualification flight, I averaged 116,05kts @ 4,25GPH (including the full throttle TKOF/climb). I will work a bit on the cooling drag (again) before the TAJP to maximize my chances.
Even if the Avgas is supplied for free during the event. There is still some money to put out of my pocket to pay all the other things included in a flight hour.
Thus I looked for sponsorships to help me get the required money or aviation supplies for the event.
I was amazed to see how companies/people were interested in this project and helped me in this project.
The event is not started yet but I already want to give big thanks to:
-XtremeAir GmbH (Full composite certified unlimited aerobatic airplane company)
-Van’s Club de France (Van’s enthusiast group in France)
-Groupama
-Credit Agricole
-FFA
-GFO.AERO
-CRA Bretagne
-Boulangerie OCEANE
-Salle de sport Route 66
-I hope more to come
I will try to update this thread everyday during the TAJP to share this experience.
