Van's RV-7A HB-YMT » Operation

Trip to Samedan (LSZS)

Bernhard Daenzer — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 19:53:15 +0000

A week ago, we had great weather for a flight over the mountains… Decided to fly into Samedan (LSZS), a relatively high altitude airport. The RV outperformed most aircraft, even more so than at lower altitudes :-) Don’t understand all the fuss they make about this airport, sure it’s tricky with bad weather and sure it’s hot and high in summer, but the same physics apply as everywhere else. So the knee-jerk reactions to a few fatal accidents by the regulator is basically going to make the airport unattractive for most recreational pilots. Hope this wasn’t one of the last visits, as they want to make some (expensive and superficial) training mandatory. Encouraging people to fly more (and trying to lower costs in all aspects of private flying) would do more for safety than generating even more paper and special rules here and there. It’s still only physics that will get you!

Flying

Bernhard Daenzer — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 23:01:51 +0000

Approaching 30hrs!

Weather has been up and down recently, but we did get to fly during some awesome days.

Did the first oil change at 25hrs, not a problem.

Unfortunately, we did miss chapter D noise certification by about 1dB. We will certainly give it another try for chapter D next spring, but first we have to do proper analysis about where and how we can improve. So for now, we’re in chapter C, which essentially means slightly higher landing fees but other than that no major impact.

Noise Measurement

Bernhard Daenzer — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 19:00:01 +0000

Yesterday, we took part in the Noise Measurement at Grenchen (LSZG). Luckily, we have been progressing smoothly through the flight test phase, so we were ready for this already. There are only two events each year, one in spring and one during fall. The noise measurement is a mandatory requirement before eventually being able to get an unrestricted flight permit and being able to travel throughout Europe. The results aren’t out yet, though. Will be very interesting to see and also hoping for the quietest category D, in order to burden lower landing fees.
Also, if we miss significantly, this might mean having to reengineer the whole exhaust/muffler issue or even change props. But let’s hope this remains a worst case scenario.

Also, some great pictures from a few recent flights.

Flying :-)

Bernhard Daenzer — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 09:28:53 +0000

Just a short update and to apologize for the delay with videos and other reports…

We simply have been too busy flying :-) Something like 8 hrs in the last week… With all the planning beforehand and data evaluation afterwards, this amounts to quite a bit of work (although i hate the word “work”… it’s more like “fun”, but leaving little time for other stuff like screening and cutting videos)…

The RV-7A flies great and is everything we hoped for (and more…)

Weight and Balance

Bernhard Daenzer — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:04:04 +0000

Also, again using the guidance, help and advice from Max, we were able to complete the weight and balance measurement. This was actually an interesting one, as we had not really weighed the airplane before. The result wasn’t much of a surprise and neither a disappointment, just a tiny bit heavy at 1166lbs. (529kg). Considering the airplane is fully finished with paint and interior, just about as much electronics as we could fit and a relatively heavy constant speed prop/engine, this isn’t that bad. We certainly knew that we were going to be above 1100lbs. Still, because the RV has such a nice envelope and payload, this still leaves ample room for us medium weight europeans ;-) Now we just have to stay in shape *LOL*

This HB-YMT Mass and Balance.xls lets you play with some figures. It also checks the limit nosegear load as per Van’s and the Aerobatic limits. Feel free to reuse, many thanks to Carl Morgan (RV-7A, new zealand) for the excellent template!