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Best type and location for static port(s) on a Rocket

Taildragon

Member
Hello Gents(and ladies),

Had my Rocket for nearly 4 years and just had a new panel installed with a new AFS 6600 along with a new Dynon autopilot. This was an upgrade from the original AFS 4500 coupled to a TruTrak DigiFlight II. The former autopilot worked surprisingly well, especially laterally, but had no altitude capture capability due to not being connected to the aircraft’s electric trim.

Previously the aircraft had an old piper blade style non-heated pitot/static blade mounted under the left wing. I opted to upgrade to the Dynon heated Pitot tube to take advantage of the AOA display possible on the AFS. The install shop decided to mount the 2 static ports just aft of the firewall abeam the leading edge of the wing midway up the side of the fuselage L and R respectively, much to my dismay.

Upon test flying I had erroneous airspeed readings higher than actual on the high end as well as considerably higher than actual on the low end. After disconnecting the static lines and venting them both inside the cabin the airspeed functionality seems mostly back to normal, but I don’t want to leave it vented inside the cabin.

Where have some of you other Rocket owners had success in mounting your static ports? Dynon install manual generally shows a diagram with them being installed on the L and R side midway back on the fuselage between the cockpit and tail section. My other option would be to add an additional drop down style pitot/static under the wing and utilize only the static portion out there. Aesthetically, I am not crazy about that idea, but I am open to other options that you may have found to work successfully on a Rocket. I do want to take full advantage of this autopilot/EFIS setup and that will require finding a good static source location externally in order to calibrate and tune this autopilot. For now the autopilot has great difficulty with all pitch modes, which I attribute at least partially to the static location.

Thank you in advance for sharing your airplanes static port location. I do fly this a/c IFR and would like things as accurate as possible.

Beau
[email protected]
 
Per -4 Plans

I can’t give you an exact measurement but most are per the RV-4 plans.
On my Rocket and my -4 they are located on each fuselage side about 2/3’s of the way from the rear seat bulkhead to the horizontal stab. Just aft of the bulkhead at that location.
The stock rivet static ports works well. Some fine tune them with a small dam at the leading edge of the port.
 

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....The install shop decided to mount the 2 static ports just aft of the firewall abeam the leading edge of the wing midway up the side of the fuselage L and R respectively, much to my dismay.

Wow. What were they thinking? Every time you've thought you'd heard it all. Pd (which measurement is converted to airspeed) is derived from Pt (pitot tube) and Ps (static port). If the reference is off, everything else is wrong. I'll take a picture and of the relevant drawings and send them tonight or tomorrow AM if someone doesn't beat me to it.
 
Mine are located in the stock location. Then I took a large head aluminium baffle rivet and removed the mandrel. Glued it on top of the static port hole and slowly filed the top after flight testing. G5’s tas is within 1 knot of the 4 way speed run data.
 

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What I thought. Shop took the lazy way and didn't run static to the aft area. I'd be inclined to request them to make your new avionics that you paid a lot for, work correctly and accurately. Fill the forward holes and paint them at some point.
 
Wow, thanks for all the great responses, especially the photos and drawings. With regard to the drawings and photos is it safe to say that the plumbing and installation of the static port was done prior to tail assembly? That looks to be extremely challenging to get to by crawling into the tail of an RV4/Rocket. I could probably get about half way down the tail, but not as far as those pictures show.

Beau

I will add that the shop is actively working to find an acceptable solution. I’m not sure they could get back that far either. Currently researching an under wing solution since there is already a static line running out to the ADAHRS which is easily accessible.
 
Mine are located in the stock location. Then I took a large head aluminium baffle rivet and removed the mandrel. Glued it on top of the static port hole and slowly filed the top after flight testing. G5’s tas is within 1 knot of the 4 way speed run data.
Thanks for this photo. May I ask what model autopilot you are using?
 
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Thanks for this photo. May I ask what model autopilot you are using?


Trio pro pilot. Works good, but not fond of the single button interface. I have dual garmin g5’s already installed. I will eventually install a gmc507 autopilot that feeds off the g5 with autotrim.
 

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Trio pro pilot. Works good, but not fond of the single button interface. I have dual garmin g5’s already installed. I will eventually install a gmc507 autopilot that feeds off the g5 with autotrim.

Completely understand as I replaced my TruTrak DigiFlight II for similar reasons. It worked quite well, but I was seeking an autopilot that could couple vertically as well as laterally. There is an upgrade that would have allowed this function but I chose to go with a new Dynon that will play nice with the new AFS 6600.
 
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