Note: This is the old stuff.  This page is not being updated.  New pilot reports are on the Pilot reports page.

Vince Frazier's F-1H Rocket Crazy Horse flies!!!

10-8-04:  Some digital cameras have a delay while they focus.  Here's what you get when you take a photo of a Rocket fly-by when using such a camera.   DOH!

Ready to go!

Jim Truitt's RV-8A chase plane. John Crabtree also chased in his RV-6.

Smoking an RV-8A

Fighting the urge to do a few rolls.

WHEW!

 WOOO HOOOO!!!

  Tammy's happy!  She should be... it's really her airplane!  I'm just the builder/pilot.

   Vince and John give the traditional (for us anyway) post-flight double high fives.

After a successful first flight, it's important to drain a few adult beverages.   Several more met their doom at Hornville Tavern after dusk.

Did I shut everything off?

Crazy Horse flies!!!

10-08-04:  No, not crazy horse flies that you find in a barn yard,  not even Crazy Horse the notable P-51....  I'm talking about MY Crazy Horse Rocket.  It flies!  (Well, it's not quite a Mustang... but it's as close as I'll get unless I hit the lottery!)

About 6 weeks ago I realized that I was 99% done with the plane.   I began an insane schedule and long hours of work to finish up that last 1%.

Assuming that the plane was 99% complete 6 weeks ago, multiply the time I've spent since then by a factor of 100 to estimate the amount of time the other 99% took.  Exactly 1.22 gadzillion hours.    Hmmmm, simple math.  Who knew these things took so long?

BTW, I started this project in 1999.  The website soon followed.  Hoards of adoring fans came next (I wish).  Soon, I had people calling me for advice (What were they thinking???!).  But now.... I've finally flown one!!!  Now, I can pretend to be an expert and have real BS to back it up!  ;-)

My stupendous friend and fellow RV repeat offender, John Crabtree, has been helping all along.  We had put 0.6 hours on the engine previously while calibrating the GRT EFIS (very nice BTW) and EIS.  We had a few things to fix. One was an oil leak at the vernatherm base gasket which just needed to be tightened a bit more.  The other was to remove the two washers that I added to the oil pressure relief spring.  I had wanted to make sure that the newly overhauled engine had plenty of oil pressure.... it did!  110psi at 1200 rpm.  We all agreed that was probably a bit too high so out came the washers and the relief valve had the same number of washers that it had prior to the overhaul: none.

Ahh, I digress, here's the flight report:

John and I did the final checks this afternoon. Then we did a full power run-up for one minute.  The CHTs went up. Up to 405 on the highest cylinder.  Not good, but not too bad.  Oil temp took much longer to come up and didn't really get warm until after the flight began.

After the run-up, I had settled down a bit and decided to do one last quick taxi, brake check, watch the temps for any upward trend, etc.  The  temps had dropped a bit and there was a small crowd gathered around, including my wife.

I wasn't paying any attention to them.  None whatsoever.   John was ready in his RV-6 chaseplane.  Grant, Bud, and Gene were manning the rescue vehicle, a four-wheel drive Ford pickup filled with fire extinguishers, axes, shovels, etc.  Tammy (my wife) and Margie (John's wife) were doing whatever women do (worrying probably).  I don't know.  Like I said, I was busy.

I lined up on Hepler's 2400' turf runway 27 and started easing the black knob forward.  Everything sounded good, strong, smooth acceleration.... hmmmm, I wonder what would happen if I pushed the throttle the remaining 75% of the way????   I'll have to try that in the future because I was already flying by then.  Heck, I wasn't in any huge hurry to find out whether the torque would cause problems, so a nice smooth takeoff felt pretty good.  I suppose I used 800', maybe more before breaking ground.

It's right about then that the usual thought goes through my head: "Well, now we're off.  I'll worry about coming back down later."

Seeing as I had only used partial throttle to takeoff, I figured I'd better bump it up a bit.  YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAA!!!!  It's like stomping the gas on my dad's 2002 Corvette.  Very smooth, and very powerful.   By now I was passing through 1000' and picking up speed rapidly.   I really don't have a clue as to climb rates, altitudes or speeds, because my eyes were glued to the EFIS engine page.  I was much more concerned
about the temps than the climb rate.  Man, I can tell you that the climb rate and airspeed were just fine and I didn't need a gauge to confirm it.

The oil temp and pressure were fine, fuel flow and pressure was good, CHT's were climbing.  I dropped the nose a bit more. I was somewhere around 1500 - 2000' (Who knows? I was busy).  The CHT's peaked just above 400.  The highest peaked at about 445... plenty hot, but they came back down PDQ.

I heard John making his radio calls as he was taking off after I cleared the area a bit.  Our plan was for him to stay on the ground until I was about a mile out.  Our emergency field, Interstate 64, is about 2 miles from the field, so I was past the point of turning around.  BTW, you bet I'd use that highway if needed!  It's lightly traveled and doesn't have a 20' deep ditch at the end of it like our runway does!  The other end of our runway has a 4' berm just across the road that runs perpendicular to it.  Yikes!

As I leveled off and picked up speed, I started feeling out the handling and double-checking the rest of the gauges.  Everything was in the green... although the oil pressure was lower than I wanted to see. I immediately cursed myself for taking out the washers.   I plan to reinstall one washer tomorrow.  (More on that at the end of this section)

By now, I had time to scroll through the EFIS screens and see how fast, how high, etc.  I was tooling along at 165mph and John was rapidly closing the gap.  John pulled in close to check for oil leaks, etc. Not seeing any, he whipped out his trusty digital camera and told me to just maintain straight and level for a minute.  I took a moment to wave at him, only to see a look of disgust on his face.  I knew immediately.... dead batteries in the digital camera.  DOH!

We were over the interstate between Poseyville and the Wabash river, temps were OK, so I told John it was time to do some stalls.  Les Featherston had warned me that the pitch feel would be quite heavy at slow speeds.  DAMN!  He was right.  The first power off (well pretty low power anyway), no flap stall took forever.  As I let the speed slowly bleed off from 90 to 80 to 70... I started thinking "Geez, I'm gonna pull a muscle in my arm doing this."  The pitch feel was that heavy! Yes, I had the trim all the way nose up!  (FWIW, it's an RV-4 tail with manual trim. I had nearly full fuel and nothing in the rear seat or baggage.)  Now, I know why you see Rockets at Oshkosh with huge, custom trim tabs.  (I later remedied this problem by adjusting the elevator trim to have more nose up throw than nose down.  This helped greatly.)

I took my other hand off of the throttle and continued pulling.  I don't recall the IAS at the break, somewhere around 70mph IIRC, but I do know that there wasn't much of a break, just a lot of turbulence slapping the stick around.

Temps were still OK, so I pulled on a notch of flaps (manual flaps, my design, work great, would NOT trade them for electric ever, never, no way, no how) and tried again.  Much the same.  A little more aggressive stick handling gave a small break somewhere around 66mph IAS.

Then full flaps.  Since the temps were OK, I switched on the flight instrument screen and observed 63mph IAS at the mild break.   No wing drop, just a small burp and pitch downward.

After the stall series, I noticed that the ground was somewhat closer than before.  John said he thought I dropped a thousand feet during the series.  Could be.  We were definitely sinking fast.  Hmmmm, a 1226# Rocket does sink a heckuva lot faster than the 1000# RV-6 I've been flying.

John and I turned 180 degrees and started back towards Hepler.  We were back up to 150 IAS or so, when I decided that I'd give her an acceleration check.  I gave the black knob a push forward to about 1/2 or maybe 2/3 of full.  Things got noisier.  My head got pushed back.  John started flying backwards.  It was awesome.

John and I began setting up our approach to the airport.  Everything was looking OK, handling was good, etc.  I decided that I'd let down for a practice approach down runway 9 at about 120 IAS.    Looking good, feeling rock solid, probably could have made a nice semi-downwind landing, but this was just for practice.  Or it might be a little tease for the crowd on the ground.... he, he, he.  As I passed the small crowd of upward turned faces, I pushed the power up and YEEEHAAAA!!! up we went.  The floor of the Evansville airspace is 1700' and Hepler sits right under the northwestern edge.  John always busts my chops when I encroach on their turf, so I had to put the nose back down and be a good boy.

A corkscrewing 360 to the left put me on a proper downwind for runway 27.  I started pulling levers and setting up for the real landing.  Man, rock solid is the only way to describe how she feels in the pattern.  I was getting about 85-90 on the approach and the LRI (Lift Reserve Indicator) was sliding slowly toward the red (stall) line.  I think I could have crossed my arm and legs and taken a nap.  Rock solid.  The crosswind that was making the windsock stand  out was barely noticeable.   I recalled that the mild chop I encountered earlier in the day when flying John's RV-6.  With the Rocket's heavier wing loading, it was gone.

As I crossed the threshold, pulled a little more power, and started a gentle flare, I was still getting that rock solid, smooth power feel. The wheels brushed the grass just as I gave the stick a healthy tug.  I expected a bounce and then a tailwheel touch, but got a slightly more nose down attitude instead and no bounce whatsoever.  I gave the stick another firm tug and got the most perfect wheel landing I have ever made.

Dang, now I'll be expecting that kind of smooth landing every time!

As I taxied back to the waiting crowd, I noticed for the first time that I was fairly drenched in sweat.  Hmmmm, and it was only 70 degrees out.

I pulled up onto the concrete pad next to the hangar.  I could tell that my wife was greatly relieved.  Me too.  Then we took some photos and popped some cold beers!  Woo hoo!!!

I do have some comments about the EIS/EFIS combo.  They really seem to work very well, but they have their quirks.  One reason that I wasn't able to monitor the airspeed, altitude, etc as much as I wanted was because the "Cruise oil pressure" warning was set too high and the EIS would not leave that display page.  That meant that I had to monitor the engine parameters on the EFIS screen.  Yeah, I know that the EIS and EFIS are supposed to do that for you... but I wanted to see the data with my own eyes.

Since the EIS was effectively locked on one page, it was actually somewhat of a distraction.  These bugs can be ironed out.  It behooves anyone using this system to really get the darned thing setup BEFORE
flight.

I also got a "Fuel flow too high" on the EFIS each time I put the noise lever forward.  Hmmmm, need to reset that number to a higher value.

So, first flight a success!!!   I can't wait to see how fast she'll go with full throttle... I never had more than about half throttle on this flight... no kidding!   Hmmmm, and it was showing 220 mph IAS at that!

Once again.... WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!

Many Thanks to John Crabtree, Les, Tom, Harry, Fred, Mark, John.... man, I could name a hundred guys but mostly Thanks go to my ever patient wife, Tammy.

Vince Frazier

Low oil pressure comments:  My cruise oil pressure was 50 psi at 200 degrees F oil temp and 2300 RPM.  This is too low.

My engine started life as an O-540-B2B5 with a fixed pitch prop.  During the overhaul, we added the goodies to make it an IO-540-C4B5.   Lycoming's overhaul manual and their parts manual show that there are 4 different oil pressure relief springs for these engines.  According to Sacramento Sky Ranch's website, when you switch from a fixed pitch to a CS prop, you need a different spring.  I called the Lycoming tech line (1-800-258-3279, press 1 for tech help) and the gent explained this all to me and said that the different spring would very likely cure my low cruise oil pressure (50psi) and get it up to 80psi where it should be.  That's good news.  However, it would be nice if seemingly trivial info like this were in the overhaul manuals!

10-17-04:  

FWIW, Here's some raw data for an engine with 2.6 hours SMOH. I don't recall if these numbers were 100% full throttle or not as I was varying power a bit.  Whatever, this is what I wrote down:

Full Rich, 2600 RPM, 23.5 MP, 6100' altitude, 73F OAT, Fuel Flow 22 gph (probably not accurate), Fuel pressure 28.0, oil pressure 99, oil temp 196, IAS 210 mph (no glfs or wheelpants)

EGT 1209, 1248, 1252, 1234, 1248,1211

CHT 311, 349, 327, 328, 339, 327

Raw data.... I don't claim any of it is or isn't accurate.... that's why there's a testing period assigned to these things!

Stalls with full flaps, power off 62mph IAS, no flaps about 67 IAS. Lots of sink, plenty of buffet, breaks straight ahead.

In 20/20 hindsight it would seem that I would have written more stuff down at various conditions.... well, all I can say is that there are plenty of distractions in the first few hours of a new plane! For example, the oil pressure, which was only 50 at cruise, is now 99(or more) at cruise. This was the result of changing the oil pressure relief spring per Lycoming's recommendation. Now, it's on the verge of being too high! ACK!

I can't wait to fly some more as soon as the wx clears a bit.

Vince

My visit to Les Featherston's Rebel's Bluff on July 5, 2004

My family dropped in on Les Featherston at Rebel's Bluff on July 5, 2004.  Les's Rocket is wearing a new paint job that is just plain eye-popping gorgeous.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Even though the weather was hotter than blazes, Les patiently gave everyone a ride.  My son's girlfriend, Emily Walter, got to ride in the old Aeronca Champ and the Rocket.  I asked her which one she liked best and she said "Oh wow, the Rocket was totally cool."  Praise like that is hard to beat!!!

Les let me wiggle the stick in the back seat and offered much good advice on flying techniques.  I am much indebted to Les for his guidance.  (Tom Martin and Harry Paine are also on this list!  Thanks to all of you great guys.)

Vince 

A Report From My Wife, Tammy
(for women only)

Ladies, have you ever been working in your kitchen and you couldn't find what you were looking for?  Well, if your husband builds airplanes then it's probably out in his shop somewhere.  My husband has a penchant for kitchen utensils.  He claims that he always asks me first.  I guess it must be while I'm sleeping.

Vince started building  an RV-4 back in 1987.  Coincidentally, that is when I began to notice the strange disappearance of my kitchen utensils... such as my ice picks, both of which have been MIA ever since.  Then I caught him with my turkey baster.   Who knows what it was used for, but it was oily and smelly and I never want it back.

My electric carving knife gets more use making foam seat cushions than it ever does carving turkey.  I suppose he can keep that item too. 

Even my expensive Pampered Chef utensils are not safe, even though I strictly forbade him from touching them.  I found him with my fancy Pampered Chef dough roller, rolling out some fiberglass resin.  Lucky for him that the resin was between to layers of saran wrap and he didn't mess up my roller or I'd have messed him up.  'Nuf said on that one and he bought his own roller from Home Depot the next day.

Recently, I found my potpourri crock pot under the engine of the plane.   I almost didn't recognize it since he had covered it with tin foil.  There was a Dixie cup full of fiberglass resin warming up in it!!  YUCK.  I told him to get his own $#&*@  crock pot and leave my stuff alone!   I'll be glad when he gets this dang airplane done!  Tammy

Vince replies:  I'm glad she doesn't know the full extent of my thievery!  And because I'm so thoughtful, I always get her some new kitchen utensils for Christmas.  Yes, nothing says "Love" like new kitchen utensils.  They cost less than jewelry and last longer than flowers.  Am I a great husband or what?

John Cargill's Rocket

 Built by Tom Martin

Scott Seabourn's Rocket

6-1-04:  Another F-1 takes to the air this morning at 0800 PST. YEA BABY! to quote the father.

Scott Seabourn's beautiful rocket flew this morning for its first test flight. No huge problems, a few minors that will need tending too, but overall flew very nice. I flew chase in my Rocket and it looks like Scott has a fast Rocket, I would say we will be very evenly matched; no surprise there as we have nearly identical airframes with identically built engines and components.

Congrats Scott. I'll let you tell everyone how it flew.

Greg Nelson

Howard Rhode's Rocket

6-1-04: Greetings All

Jim Cash did the honors of first flight for #3 Thursday at 1:30PM CST. I asked Jim due to his background, airmanship, and time in Blackjack. It was a wise choice. He knows more in his little finger than I in my head. He is a class act as well. Charlie Calivas flew chase and provided adult technical supervision. Charlie has the second flying RV-6 with over 1500 hours on it now.

Here are the impressions:

Airframe - Left wing was wing heavy, the right aileron squeeze worked and now it is hands off. Vertical Stab was displaced to the left on purpose and it is perfect with ball centered at all times.

(Tom and Mark- in a ballasted rear seat condition with full fuel the airframe is good to 5 g's for over the tops. Incidence and sweep are spot on and strong as steel.) The airplane stalls with the initial break at 45 knots, we are limiting top end to 210 knots at this time. The airplane tracks arrow straight on the runway and showed gear shuffling decelerating through 30 knots only ONCE, otherwise nothing weird to report.

Avionics- Blue Mountain Efis one is coming around but initially it had many calibration issues. Greg Richter has a fine product, but it is intense to set up. Still working those but getting better.

Stu Smith's Rocket

Stu Smith says his Rocket now flying and has about 150 hours on it.  I put several pictures of Stu's plenum on the engine page also.  Looks great.  Stu had this to say:

Hey Vince:

We have not e-mailed in a while. I thought I would send you a couple pictures of the rocket now that construction is complete and life is returning to normal. I flew it in August and finished up all those little details, and paint, about a month ago. I'm quite pleased with the results and it flies great. I'm flying out of Compton airport, about 10 miles south east of Los Angeles International.

I had a beautiful RV 4 while finishing up the project, but ended up selling it because I knew I wouldn't want to fly anything other than the rocket.

Blue Skies - Stu Smith.

Vince:

I did all the cooling stuff. And I still have cooling issues. First flights gave me 450 CHT (hottest cylinder) and 250 oil temp! Uuuggh!

Ramping the air up onto the top third of the front cylinders and blocking off a third of the oil cooler has given me 425 hottest CHT and 210 oil temp. Better, but a long way from what I was hoping for. I am going to continue to dink with the baffling and hope for incremental improvements in cooling. Otherwise, I have some kind of radio interference (it seems like something in my instrument system is giving off RFI???), and that's about it for bugs so far. Actually that's pretty good for a beast like this. I find myself in a turn most of the time to stay within sight of the airport, and the airplane handles very naturally.

(I mentioned to Stu that Mark had said that an smoother exit ramp on the cowl outlet had made a big difference in his cooling. Unfortunately, it didn't work for Stu.  Doh!)

The exit ramps made no noticeable difference in CHT temps.  I also added a flange at the rear of the bottom cowl to create a low pressure area, with no noticeable results.

Make sure your rudder pedal hardware clears the firewall kickout - my left rudder hung up on the kickout.   Stu

Bob Wahl's Rocket

First flight May 2004

Sadly, Bob passed away only a few months later.  His family is in my prayers.

Ken Sebok's Rocket

3-3-04:  Hey guys-  I wanted to let you all know that F-1 #71 took flight this morning for the first time! With lots (and I really mean lots) of help from Eric Henson and Bob Woolley, we finally completed this Rocket (ex-paint) and got the go from our DAR last week.

Bob flew the plane for its initial flight (his 17th first flight in RV/Rocket/Glasair-type planes) and reported that the plane flew perfectly (no airframe adjustments needed). Just a few small items requiring add'l focus, including high CHTs. I'll report more test data as we get collect it. The basics: 1,203 empty weight, std IO-540C4B5, MT 3 blade.

Regards,  Ken Sebok

Billy Water's Rocket

 (Les's Rocket started life as a HRII but was finished using F-1 cowl and other fiberglass parts. Hmmmmmmm, that sounds familiar. Vince)

Wedding Announcement!

One cold night in November of 1996, a beautiful young lass from Plaines, Oregon, moved to Midland, Michigan. She took some room in the garage at the home of Mr. Kelly Neeley. Her name was Van’s RV-4 (kit number 4104). A short time, later she was joined by a rough-and-tumble rodeo cowboy from Bakersfield, California whose name was Harmon Rocket II (kit number 64). He admired her lithe figure and graceful movements. She was smitten by his strong good looks, and his powerful countenance.

They lived with Mr. Neeley, until 1998, when they moved to Bolivar, Missouri, where they became engaged and were counseled by Champion (race car driver) Larry Phillips. Mr. Phillips was a very good tutor, and they made a great deal of progress in their relationship.

On December 6th, 1999, they made a shorter move to reside with their wedding coordinator, Les Featherston, in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. Les had been a USAF fighter pilot (F-100, many, many years ago), and was soon to be retired from United Airlines (6/2001). The couple had many challenging days and nights of prenuptial counseling, but all agreed that they were a match made for Heaven.

At 6:23PM on Monday evening August 11th, the happy couple were joined to become “one” by the Reverend J. Neal Sowers, D.A.R., at a lovely T-hangar wedding on Johnson County Executive Airport, Olathe, Kansas.

The brides gown (PLANNED to be delivered later) will be a spectacular Pearlescent White, with a burgundy sash. Her maid-of-honor was Garmin 430 GPS/Comm, and she was attended by Dynon D-10, TruTrak 250AS Autopilot, Apollo SL-40 Comm, and Garmin 327 Transponder. The matron-of-honor was Vision Micro Systems 1000, and her flower girl was PS Engineering 1000 Stereo CD Intercom. The corsage was an ATD collision avoidance device.

The groom wore a silver tuxedo which showed off his very masculine form. His Best Man was Lycoming IO-540 C4B5 dynoed at 262HP. The grooms attendants were the Light Speed Engineering brothers Plasma II, and Plasma III (electronic ignition), Hartzell 80” CS Prop, and the miniscule “SkyTec” of lightweight starter fame. The ring bearers were B&C, the alternator boys.

The invitees on the very prestigious guest list (although not all could come) were none other than Richard Van Grunsven, and John Harmon, parents of the bride and groom; Mark Frederick, their Godfather; Mike Wonder, John Zidek, and chase pilot Walt Frazier. Many others need honorable mention, and I apologize if I have left anyone out; Mrs. Lynda Featherston who kept their relationship from floundering on several occasions; Vince Frazier, who constantly gave the couple encouragement; Honorary Chase Pilot Tom Martin; Harry Paine who headed the rehearsal program.

The excited couple left on their honeymoon the next morning at 8:56AM, lifting off on a journey they hope will be filled with many, many Knots, and many Happy Landings.

They will reside in a large hangar at Rebel’s Bluff Airport, (N37 06.1 and W93 52.2) near Mt. Vernon, Missouri, and would very much enjoy your visiting. They request that you plan to come after they finish a hectic 25 hour adjustment period. The happy couple asked me to share with you that they are expecting: At 7,500’ with 21.8”of M/P, and 2300 RPM they believe they will have 206 Knots. Thus they have chosen to call themselves N206KT.

**********************************************************************************************

Yes! The beast is alive. I flew the Rocket today. Wow, what a ride. I took off at Johnson Cty AP in Kansas City at 8:56AM and flew for about 15 minutes. The RPM was too high at full prop so we tuned it back to 2600. The exhaust pipe was chaffing the cowling and we installed a bit of .025 with pop rivets (God bless the man that invented those), and she was perfect. No roll tendency, no problems, just sling shot dragster into the atmosphere. (Real 3,500'/min) I flew it again for 30 minutes overhead, and then launched for Rebel's Bluff. 150 statute miles in 41 minutes----Oh Man! It has 21.8" of manifold pressure at 8500' and 2300 Rpm burns 12.2 gph at 205 knots. I think I have gone to Heaven! I cannot believe what a different airplane it is from my RV-4. Quite heavy in pitch (which is good for IFR) and very nice in roll. Very sensitive, but very friendly. I cannot believe I own such a fantastic machine.

No, she is not painted yet! Fuselage is sort of a camouflage colored primer. The wings and vertical tail are still aluminum. The worst color is the pukey greenish cowling and wing tips. The ram effect of the forward facing fuel injector gives an estimated 2" additional manifold pressure at 7,500.' It was a real "Rocket" ride. Oil temps are very good for an 87F day. About 213F. It flies straight as an arrow. Now it is time to commit to the paint scheme. Gotta go fly the other 23 hours off. LES

*****
I flew my Harmon Rocket II, N206KT, for the first time on August 12th. What a ride! The taxi out is very intimidating with that rumble in front of your feet just shaking the beast gently.  I told myself that I have flown all this time up to now, and if and when there had been an emergency, I just handled it, so why was today going to be any different? The power comes in, and as Jackie Gleason said so well, "Away we go!" Things were happening so fast that if there had been a problem, I would not have been a reliable witness at the hearing, so I just hung on and enjoyed the ride. Airspeed comes in such big doses that it is hard to comprehend. I wanted about 110 knots indicated to climb, so I pulled the nose up and saw 110 and then 120, so I pulled again, and saw 130, then I REALLY PULLED and she was at 140 and climbing about 3,000ft/min on a 95F day. Everything went perfectly, and the chase RV-6 hovered around about 2,000 feet below me and 4 miles behind. No disrespect to the -6, but this baby really goes. Very, very light on the roll inputs, and very solid on the pitch feel. I couldn't believe all the years of work, and months of planning, and weeks of effort, and days of checking everything over and over was finally coming true in this moment. Kept it overhead the airport, just in case, and tried some slow flight and approach to stalls.

Then it was the "big" moment. Could I get this thing on the ground in one piece? And "piece" it was, of cake that is! She is so docile that you cannot believe it. I was so happy! Remember all the help you guys gave me on the "list" trying to come up with a name for the nose art? Well, it came to me as I taxied in, I am going to call my Rocket "Airgasm"! That's what it was, so that's the name. I have now flown  it 14 times, and even got a ferry permit to fly a short (in a Rocket it's short) cross country to Wichita, KS, and back, for some instrument adjustments.

This "Rocket" thing is the real deal. Thanks, John, for such a wonderful airplane. Les

12-07-03: Hi Vince, I read your post re-chutes, and moving the seat back.  I moved the rollover hoop back 1 1/2 inches and put a polyethylene bucket seat in place of Van's back board.  I flew it about 3 times for 30 minutes, and thought it was good.  But then I flew it 1:50 to Tuscaloosa, AL, to the paint shop (Razors Edge RV) and was blown away.  It was a trip I had flown several times in the RV-4, and the Rocket.  I couldn't believe how much more comfortable it was.  Blew me away.  There is about a 6 pound weight penalty, but for the comfort factor it was worth it.  And besides it is 6 lbs. I will use on every flight unlike my autopilot, or GNS-430.  But I digress, the 1 1/2 inch move back was fantastic.  It makes all the difference in the world.  I measured the "face distance" in the RV-4 and found 21 1/2", and the Rocket at 25."  So I used 1 1/2 of the 2 1/2" for me.  The back seater still has more room than the RV-4, and much better ankle/shin room because of the wrap around shape of the bucket seat.  The bucket is quite large, and much more comfortable than the Jon Johannson seats.  They were just too narrow (12") for my big A#%. 

 Tell everyone to take their airplanes to Razors Edge RV for painting in Tuscaloosa, AL.  Mike Taylor will do an excellent job.  He's on the Van's World Wide Air Force website.  Stay in touch, and tell everyone the Rebel's Bluff RV Fly-In is on May 1st.  See ya, Les

Funny stories...

Rocket ride givers:

I give a lot of rides in my Harmon and over the years I have had a lot of interesting passengers and have heard some pretty outrageous things from the back seat, but last night's comment is worth sharing.

The passenger was a woman, a long time friend of my wife. She had never been in a small plane and when asked if she wanted a ride, she did not hesitate. During the take off roll, and up to about 2000 feet, she never stopped laughing and shouting; I knew this was going to be fun. We leveled off and she calmed down enough to look around and down, and she said all those things that people say in their first plane ride.

I give very gentle rides to timid passengers, it is not my intention to scare anyone from a second flight but on our way back to the airport we passed over a Cessna 172, he was about 1000 feet lower and going 90 degrees to our course. Without thinking, I had no choice, I dropped my right wing swooped down to blow past this guy. With the descent I was probably going well over 230mph, it was perfect evening with no bumps so there was no feeling of speed. That is until you pass someone who is going less than half your speed.

She was surprised that I would get close to another plane, and I was at least 500 feet from it when we went by it, and she asked, "what is wrong with that plane?!!" I replied "nothing, it is a training aircraft from a local flying school" and she replied, after a pause, "You mean they can teach you to fly backwards"!!!  Tom Martin

I too had a interesting passenger yesterday. We are having a small air fair at my local airport, APV, and have several CAF aircraft on display. An SNJ, Navy version of the AT-6, arrived a day early to give some promotional rides. One of the high rollers cancelled and my building partner Jack, or KABONG, as he likes to call himself got to take his place. I asked the pilot if he would mind if I flew a little formation with him to get a couple of pictures. Anyway, besides the pilot a lady crew chief came along and as a joke I asked her if she wanted to come along, she did. 

At first, she didn't believe that I could keep up with the SNJ. I let the SNJ get completely airborne before I took the runway. After my normal TO, at the end of the runway, the Rocket was already several hundred feet above the SNJ and about a 1/2 mile back. The Rocket quickly closed the gap and I was able to fly formation for a couple of minutes on the SNJ.

Once the photos were taken, we departed the formation and I decided to show her the plane. I did a couple of aileron rolls to check out her system (I don't try to get people sick) and she was doing nice. Next she asked to do a loop. So, I showed her one. Then she asked if she could do one. I said OK but that I would be guarding the stick to make sure things don't go wrong. Of course, she didn't pull hard enough at the start of the loop and we got a little slow at the top. At the top, the plane stalled and did that little shake it does under those conditions. I helped her recover and finished the loop. While this was happening, she said that both she and the plane had just had an **gasm.

She is a nurse, a pilot, a CAF member, not bad looking, and single. She is even thinking about getting an RV after the ride. Tom Gummo

6-18-03:  Flight test continues, 13 hours so far. No major problems other than a clogged injector at 8.5 hours.

6-13-03: The F1 made 213 KTAS this AM at 500 feet full push, OAT 79 deg F.

6-6-03: Flew 2 hours this AM for a total of 4.4 so far. Sorry to keep bothering you the details, bu I figure it might be helpful someday. Ran at 10500 feet for an hour today. Speeds not quite what I was expecting, but is was 18 deg C OAT and I was more likely running at 1300 feet density altitude. The view and ride is nice at 10000 feet. Cruise descent at 500 FPM gives about 213 knots TAS.

6-3-03: Well this morning at 0700 I pushed the throttle to the wall with my neighbor Tony Klopp passing over in an RV-8 to fly chase. It accelerates quickly reaching flying speed within a few seconds. Raising the nose to about 25 deg starts the ears popping as I eased the Rocket into a left climbing turn to prepare for a quick landing should the need arise. I leveled at 3000 feet and reduced to power to keep the CHT under control. Accelerating was the ticket and blowing air on them slowly started to cool things off. As the F1 accelerated to 150 knots, the temp came down to 425 deg and stayed there. The oil which had stabilized at 195 deg began to come down and settled at 180 deg.

I kept the F1 in a lazy left turn over the airport while the RV-8 hopelessly turns inside of me trying to get close enough for an inspection. Finally I had  to slow to 100 knots so he could take a look. Everything was fine. At this power setting, each time I looked at the GPS speed it was around 172 knots. More speed checking in the future. I did a stall series to validate the airspeed indicator at low speeds and it seemed right on.

The stall is very sharp with no warning, breaking straight ahead. During this slow flight, the CHTs fell and the oil temp rose quickly to 200 deg F. After this, I accelerated to cruise speed again, played with the toys a bit, engaged the Navaid and put it a left turn and it held perfectly. briefly engaged it into GPS ground track hold which it did. The moving map computer was moving perfectly, but didn't get a chance to play any  mp3 tunes this flight. I did a 2 G turn to check the BMA EFIS G meter with was working normally with the newly upgraded firmware. 

All in all, it was so uneventful, that I actually enjoyed it, and a looking forward to the next in a couple days. I am following the EAA's flight test plan, which was provided to me from the EAA flight adviser. This program was required by the Insurance company (Falcon) to get this bird insured. BTW, they lowered my rate to $2580 which I was told is the lowest rate one can get on an F1 ($80K hull).   

Here is what I observed:
Altitude Sea Level.
OAT 27 deg C
Rate of climb at Vy (87 KIAS) about 2500 fpm
Takeoff weight with 28 gallons fuel 1668 lbs.
max cht at top of climb 3000 feet 475 deg F yikes!
CHT during 75%cruise 435 deg F.
max oil temp 200 during stalls.
max oil temp at 75% power 180 deg F.
EGT 1200 deg F.
max oil temp during climb 195 deg F.
Stall flaps down 48 KIAS
Stall clean 52KIAS
Speed at 20" 2100 rpm 151 KIAS.
Speed at 24" 2400 rpm  171 KIAS

It flew smooth and straight other than the slightest roll to the right about 1 deg per second. Yaw was straight at cruise speeds ( I set the VS LE with no offset) Pitch trim was normal and the elev/stab was nearly faired (slightly TE low), no adjustment needed. Landing was easy and it tracked straight, doing a little wobble decelerating thru 15 knots. Getting off the brakes stopped the shake. All in all no squawks other than the wing trim. So the oil cooler is working well. I hope the CHTs come down as the engine breaks in.   

You know, after letting this magnificent event sink in thru the day, I forgot to mention something...how it flies. Well, The ailerons are light as a feather, with dizzying speed. The rudder is stiff, but effective, and the elevators feel real firm, yet responsive like a P-51. Flying it fast gives that great feeling where just a tiny pitch change results in a high vertical speed.

I had the opportunity to fly an RV-8 last night to get warmed up. It flies very much like an '8 except for the following: Obviously the power seemingly gives 10 times more acceleration (whoosh), the ailerons feel the same only faster, the rudder is the same, the elevator is solidly heavier (in a good way), and the thing requires every bit of up elevator to get the tailwheel to stick to the ground during landing. I imagine it does beautiful wheel landings.  I took my headset off in the '8 and sampled the deafening racket. I did the same in the F1 and noticed it was WAY quieter, not much more than my Cherokee. The soundproofing really helps along with the fuselage side panels.

That's it for now. Next flight should be on Wed if tomorrows inspection goes ok.  Bob Gross

11-24-03: John Wach's Rocket.  127JW has a aerosport power engine with his suggested modifications of pistons, flow cylinders, aerobatic conversion, 1/2 lightspeed plasma 3, Airflow Performance fuel injections, MT prop and chrome (that doesn't help but it looks better). Plane is set up for IFR with a Garmin stack. I'll attach a couple of picture to this. That RV6 is the other plane that I built 4 years ago. All are welcome to stop by the Aurora airport and see it. I'll be stuck here for another 25 hours. As far as the heat, I used two heat muffs set up in series which seems right now to really put out the heat if needed. All Engine temps seems to be operating very low considering the application, but the day was 50 degrees so I'm sure that helped a lot. If anyone would like to get a hold of me my phone number is 847-259-4570 evenings. That's all I can think of.  John Wach

3-03-04: Well I finally got rid of enough snow to enable me to get off the grass strip today and test the MT prop. I like it, I like it a lot. As many of you know I had a two blade Hartzell on this HRII before and a three blade Hartzell on the F1. With the two blade there was this annoying “thump” in the airplane, enough that my lower instrument panel used to vibrate and passengers could see my wing tips move. This is now gone! The prop spools up faster and when you push the throttle forward the plane accelerates noticeably faster than with the two blade. Also the plane is much quieter; I noticed this, as did a friend on the ground. It feels like a turbine, the way is speeds up and sounds.

With low ceilings and no wheel pants I have no idea regarding any changes in top speed. I would gladly give up some top speed to achieve the smoothness that I feel with this prop. I was very happy with the three blade Hartzell; it was not quite as smooth but pulled at least as well as this MT. The main disadvantage with the three blade Hartzell is the added weight. This is still acceptable on the F1 but not on my HRII, due to the aft location of the main wheels on the HRII. This particular MT prop is the aerobatic model and it is kind of cool how it starts. The blades fail in the coarse position and until you have enough oil pressure to cycle the prop they stay that way, sort of lugging the engine for a few seconds until you see/feel the blade angle change. Then it smoothes right out, way cool….

If someone was working on a fixed budget when building a new Rocket I would recommend cutting corners on the panel and going with the MT.  Tom Martin

Tom tells me that he has a stock 250 HP 540 powering his plane.  He says he can't stand to quit flying it long enough to paint it.  The pictures show it prior to its  first flight. It now has fairings but still is not painted - Gas or Paint?  Tom says "Gas wins every time."

Dennis Hackbarth's HRII

Update 3-7-03:  It flies!

2-28-03:  The Rocket  is simply a joy to fly. Plenty of power. The plane flies so nice and straight. Almost no trim required in lateral/roll... Visibility out of the Rocket is unbelievable. I feel like a F16 pilot. Take off and landing are very straight forward and just like RV4. No problems with shimmy at all (yet).   Rockets are winners!  Here is what I can say for sure..... You are going to be very happy with it.

I have been reading your upholstery stuff and at this point, I'm pretty sure I will be doing my own thing. There is a local gal that wants to help select colors and I'm all for it.

I've also learned a lot about engines.  I'm sure a person can build up an economical 540 that will work just fine. However, my experience with PowerSport Engines/Bart LeBlond is just so good. My cylinders are so identical across the spectrum. I am so happy with those guys, I would recommend them in a heartbeat.

Keep on building.  Weav

Update 2-19-03:  Electronic ignition and number six CHT fine, the problem was oil on the lower spark plugs. Now the Lycoming 540 runs great, smooth all the way to full power. Rpm drop on magneto 150, rpm drop on electronic ignition 30. No leaks of any kind and a really fun airplane to fly, RV grin ++.

2-19-03:  It flies! Fred flew his Rocket this morning 2-19-03 at 8:am PST for a little over an hour. The Rocket flew great. Needs a little work on the electronic ignition, runs rough at full power. CHT on number six (next to the oil cooler) was running hot and oil temps went hot during slow flight. Fred reports that it flies great and is a tight flying airplane with only a little right rudder needed.    Luc

2-11-03: Just some pics to show you where we are at this morning.  Engine run and prop cycle after lunch. Inspection Thursday. Flying Friday.

Sure looks homely without the pants on. Really looks good with the cowl and the pants.  It weighs 1168 pounds.  580 on the left main, 567 on the right main and 21 on the tailwheel.  Talk to you later, Fred Weaver

2-12-03:  Ok guys.... N686X is almost ready to fly. Today I need to tidy up some wiring and fire up the radios, bolt in the seat belts (front seat only), calibrate the fuel gauges, and find something like a seat to sit on. The engine ran fine and prop cycled good also. The airplane weighs 1168 pounds and has an IO-540 D4A5 for power. Good oil pressure throughout the rpm range.

  3-23-04:  Here's a few pics from Fred Weaver's recent flight.  I'm so jealous.  Vince

Guys, for those thinking of using the new TruTrak wing leveler, you can see the 21/4'' head on this panel.  Also, on the left is Van's deluxe throttle quadrant which I like better than Mark's expensive one.  On the right is the EXP Bus II that we have been talking about.  Jim

5/19/03:  I made the switch this weekend from my Hartzell 2 blade to the MT 3 blade and have performed some initial performance comparisons. I have accurately and repeatably documented my 2 blades performance at 10,000 feet, full throttle and 2100 RPM leaned 50 rich of peak. What I had at 10K was MP 21.3 WOT, 2100 RPM, 11.7 GPH , and 204-205 knots.

With the 3 blade MT I now have MP 21.3 WOT, 2100 RPM, 11.7 GPH, and 200-201knots. I think I can confidently say the MT is slower in cruise by about 3-5 knots.  Also acceleration on takeoff, while still breathtaking, is not as strong as before. This is just a subjective comment done by feel. Climb rate seems about the same, but who knows, I just know it still puts the RV-8s to shame. Deceleration actually seems better with the MT, possibly because it is flattening out more. I like deceleration as much I like to go fast.

Now for the really good news. I'll just sum it up with two words, VERY SMOOTH. Its like a different airplane, I think I put an electric motor on the front. It is smooth across the power band, exactly what I was looking for.

The MT 3 blade spinner is approximately 3/16 closer to the cowl than the 2 blade spinner, but thankfully I set my spinner gape at about 3/8 to the 2 blade spinner, so my gap is now about half what it was but it looks real good, maybe even better. The new MT spinner complements the lines of the aircraft nicely, very similar to the Hartzell spinner in shape. This was a bolt off, bolt on mode, very simple.

Thanks Mark for making it all possible.   Greg Nelson N144X

CAUTION:  This web site is not a publication of, nor approved by, Harmon LLC, Team Rocket, Van's Aircraft or any other person or entity listed herein, except me.  Be advised that I am a blithering idiot with neither brains nor money and my advice is not to be trusted.  So there.  You have been warned!  Vince