First training session in the RV6

I had a bit of a wallet-thinning weekend this weekend just gone. One day was aerobatics and the next was my first familiarisation and tailwheel training flight in the RV6 that I have just bought a share in. A 10:00 session this time with a new ‘weekend only’ instructor who has a share himself in an RV4.

I get there early and spend quite some time slowly doing the walkaround check. We share the hangar with some large Citation bizjets, with the RV6 tucked neatly into the corner. I get Roly to help me pull her out as it is a tight fit and I am a nervous wreck to make sure we come nowhere near the expensive bizjets.

We discuss the flight and agree to do some ground handling first, followed by a local with the ‘usual handling checks’ then one or maybe two landings – no circuit bashing straight away. Absolutely fine by me – I need to get used to where everything is first before circuit bashing.

Off we go and I get the tail up early. The RV6 is EXTREMELY sensitive in pitch – I mean ‘OH MY GOD’ sensitive! We seem to fly with the tail up for only a few moments before she gets bored and decides she wants to fly, whether I do or not! I ease her up into what for me would be a normal angle of climb, expecting to establish the 80kt climb, but the speed keeps building. Roly ‘encourages’ me to a steeper climb and before I know it we are in a steep angle of climb with the speed starting the bleed back to 80kts, the rate of climb indicator indicating 1500 fpm and nearly at 1000’ circuit height by the end of the runway! ‘CHRIST – THIS THING’S LIKE A BLOODY ROCKET’ I confide to a very amused looking Roly – I suspect he may have seen this sort of reaction before!

I struggle a bit to keep her level as the ‘picture’ is quite different. Once I do hold her, I trim her out at 2500’ and 145kts – the altitude is about all we can get today, the cloudbase is ill-defined and murky from 3000’ up.

We start the handling exercises as Roly asks me to slow to and maintain 75 kts and fly level all the time. I manage this reasonably. He points out how happy it is a such a modest speed and points out that I should have no problem keeping station in a circuit full of Cessna 152’s – no, I guess not!

Then we slow further to 65kts as Roly reduces the power to near-idle, pulls up to stay level as the speed reduces then puts in a right hand turn to simulate a base turn at too slow a speed. Sure enough, the RV goes into a stall and drops the left wing – not dramatically, but enough that you can’t hang around without putting in right rudder to stop it. The angle and airspeed are so crazy that it is unlikely that you can do this by mistake, but if you did, you might be ‘landing’ a lot sooner than you expected!

We wander over to the Malverns and Roly invites me to give her a few steep turns. My pleasure sir! I already knew about the very crisp roll rate from the trial flight with Manuel, so I hoik her over fairly hard into a 70 degree turn and hold her level with back pressure – no particular need for more power in this pocket rocket! Then again to the right. I just love those turns where you seem to ‘anchor’ the wingtip to a point on the ground and seem to pirouette around it – YEAH BABY!!!

Roly vectors me to closer to Ledbury (thinks – hmmm, Ledbury grass airstrip nearby…..) then yes, the power is pulled and it’s a Practice Forced Landing. I dither for a bit and miss the opportunity to convert the considerable speed into height. Not helped by me trying to get the wrong glide speed – I was aiming for 100, but it is 75! That corrected, I spot the strip and head for the correct end of it. As usual, I am way too high, so pull on full flaps. Still way too high and not likely to lose it, so I pull a couple of sideslips. It comes in pretty well. I am still a little high, but now at probably 100’ and very likely to ‘get in’ I get given the go around.

We climb back to 2500’ and head back for Gloucester. I pick up the ATIS and for fun set the GPS with ‘Direct to’ EGBJ. Although I know my way back to Gloucester, part of this is for me to get used to the different avionics, so I need to have a play with the Bendix King Skymap as I am used to Garmin 430’s.

I slow down a bit and start a cruise descent to 2000’. Gloucester give me a standard overhead join for 09 with left hand circuits. On the way back, Roly walks me through the landing speeds and technique.

The overhead join is uneventful and I cross the numbers at a reasonably slow ‘circuit speed’ at the required 1000’ QFE. The circuit is quiet except for a ‘Symphony’ completing an orbit at the end of the downwind (I idly wonder where Harmony, Melody and Rhapsody are in their swept forward Captain Scarlet interceptors – God! showing my age!). I can’t see him and TWR are about to give me an orbit. Then we spot him and call visual as I indicate that I can slot in behind him without an orbit.

This we do as I turn base, slow down more, check the white arc and deploy full flaps. I set up on final. Roly advises me to set up for 70, decaying to 65 ‘over the hedge’. This is a bit slower then Manuel flies, but Roly is insistent.

I am a bit off centreline and pull it back on. Speed good, approach good. Over the hedge, got 65, now fly level and try hard not to land, nose comes up, and up. Higher than the Robin, more like PA28 attitude and we touch – to my utter amazement we don’t bounce!

We start to slow, but here my inexperience shows as the nose starts to veer to the left and I am slow to correct, so I correct with right rudder and of course it swings the other way, so I correct with left rudder – well, you get the picture! Roly steps in (literally) and brings the oscillation under control. First major lesson (and one I DID know, but clearly forgot) – the landing on a tailwheel isn’t over until the plane is chocked and tied!! My bad nose-wheel habits or relaxing once it’s down coming back to bite me! A lesson well learned and no doubt one I will be repeating on occasion.

However, all in all a most enjoyable lesson.

I am happy with the aircraft handling in flight. I need more practice on the various bits of avionics until they become second nature, but that will come with time. What I need now (and am doubtless going to get in spades!) is some serious ground handling in windy conditions and TO and LDG practice including the dreaded crosswind landings.

This plane really is a ‘pocket rocket’ and is incredibly crisp and responsive on the controls. Now I can see why Vans aircraft attract such a loyal and near fanatical following.