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New Ground Speed Record

Tony Kirk

Tony Kirk

Well Known Member
Patron
2 (TWO) KTS GS! This is a new record for me. šŸ˜

The winds were howling yesterday and I think I was actually going backwards at one point. Here I'm at 3200 feet and still over the airport! There was no traffic in the area so I was just out having fun testing the low-speed vertical performance.

Maybe I shouldn't play around so much, but this thing is a ton of fun to fly! I'm sure loving this RV-12!

PXL_20260108_181840873.jpg

If you're still building, keep popping those rivets!
 
You could set a destination & see if you can make the ā€˜time to destinationā€™ increase as you slow to 0mph. Question, what would it (TTD) read if ground speed was negative?
 
I'm amazed you can take the photos while flying, stalling, holding still or going backwards like that!
 
Ralph Inkster said:
You could set a destination & see if you can make the ā€˜time to destinationā€™ increase as you slow to 0mph. Question, what would it (TTD) read if ground speed was negative?
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What is hate about GPS speed is that it is constantly telling you your ground speed, i use to only get that information after calculating to distance between two points and the time it took to travel it, and usually momentarily disappointed. Now it is a constant reminder and disappointment. Seems like most of my cross countries are with head winds.
 
Norman CYYJ said:
What is hate about GPS speed is that it is constantly telling you your ground speed, i use to only get that information after calculating to distance between two points and the time it took to travel it, and usually momentarily disappointed. Now it is a constant reminder and disappointment. Seems like most of my cross countries are with head winds.
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Like the old days, when we walked to school uphill in both directions.....
 
Norman CYYJ said:
What is hate about GPS speed is that it is constantly telling you your ground speed, i use to only get that information after calculating to distance between two points and the time it took to travel it, and usually momentarily disappointed. Now it is a constant reminder and disappointment. Seems like most of my cross countries are with head winds.
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True airspeed is relatable to other pilots & that bit of bragging rights.
Ground speed & time to destination never fails to impress the rest of the non flying world. Never ceases to amaze folks when we get to destination in 1 hour compared to the 3 hour drive, & also that we were also bucking winds to boot!
 
larrys said:
I'm amazed you can take the photos while flying, stalling, holding still or going backwards like that!
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Ha! Thanks. It really wasnā€™t all that difficult. It was pretty smooth despite the heavy winds. I had half flaps, and power on to maintain level flight about 5 knots above stall speed. Note my pressure altitude was 12,900. Winds were about 55-60 knots or so.

It was kind of funny because it was a last minute change to my mission. I had planned on doing some aerobatics and Itā€™s quite helpful to know the winds in an effort to remain in the aerobatic box. So I checked the winds and noticed the very high winds at altitude. Folks on this site had been bragging about their high ground speeds then. I had never achieved those speeds in my 8, so I thought I would give it a shot. I got up to 239 knots in level flight at 13,300 PA. After that was when I thought, ā€œgee, how slow can I getā€ and then turned the airplane around into the wind. Thatā€™s when I snapped the picture. I got 261 knots in the decent.

Itā€™s amazing. After 45 years of flying, I can still easily get thrilled.
 
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