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The RV-1 has left its roost in Texas. It came out of the paint shop recently, with newly made wheel pants. It also had a better radio installed, and an ELT, which was added to allow it to fly in Canada.

Now it is making its way to Sun’n Fun in Florida, via stops in the southern US. You can follow its progress on its Spot tracker page.

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Spring has definitely sprung in Ottawa. We’ve had a week of quite warm temperatures, and much of the snow has melted.

I took advantage of the warm morning yesterday to do some work on the aircraft. I chased down a pesky small static system leak. It turned out to be at a quick disconnect fitting on the VSI. The tube to the VSI was a bit shorter than it should have been, and the strain on the tubing had pulled it so it was entering the fitting at an angle. I proved that was the source of the leak by pulling the tubing out of the fitting and blocking it off - zero leak. I replaced the section of tubing with a longer one that entered the fitting straight, and did another test which showed absolutely zero leak.

I decided to replace the brake pads. I wasn’t sure whether they would make it through the summer or not, and I didn’t want to be worrying about them. In retrospect, after measuring the removed pads I’m pretty sure they would have been fine, but pads are cheap, and its not possible to monitor them with the wheel pants on, so I’m glad the job is done.

I put the wheel pants back on, as we seem to be at the end of winter. I then cleaned the worst of the winter grime off the aircraft. Quite a bit of water had sprayed from the wheels during landings on my last flight, and there were dirt spots all over the wings and tail.

Then, I rewarded myself with lunch in Lindsay. It was the first time I had actually gone further than Ottawa since our lunch trip to Lake Placid in October.

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The EAA put together a webinar titled The History and Restoration of the Original: RV-1 which ran Tuesday evening. The archive is available for viewing now. The first portion is narrated by Richard VanGrunsven, who modified a Stits Playboy into the RV-1. Next Louise Hose and Paul Dye discuss the discovery and restoration of the RV-1. Then Van answers questions. Note that the webinar requires Adobe Flash.

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I didn’t get flying this weekend. We had a very strong cold front go through yesterday, with winds gusting to 40 kt. Today I had a long list of things to do.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last two weeks organizing the details of the Canadian portion of the RV-1 tour. Finally the major items all seem to have fallen into place. The tour route can be seen on the map on the RV-1 web site. The tour starts in central Florida, following the week-long Sun’n Fun fly-in. The RV-1 will work its way up the US east coast, flown by a succession of US pilots.

The RV-1 will be handed over to two Canadian RV pilots at St. Stephen, NB, and then flown to Stanley, NS, for the Stanley Sport Aviation fly-in breakfasts on the Victoria Day long weekend, on 19-20 May. I’ll pick it up in NB, and ferry it to Smiths Falls, ON, then hand it over to another RV pilot who will take it to Windsor, ON for an event on 26 May. From there it’ll pass back into US hands for a long ferry to the west coast. Pilots from Van’s Aircraft will take it to Langley, BC for a fly-in on 23 June. It’ll end up at Oshkosh at the end of July, and will be handed over to the EAA for their museum.

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Mike from Calgary Pilot Supply has graciously offered to supply all needed Canadian charts for the RV-1 tour. Thanks Mike!

I encourage you to consider Calgary Pilot Supply for any of your pilot supply needs.

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The original RV-1 flew again today after it was restored (RV-1 photo by Doug Reeves).

RV-1? What’s an RV-1? Richard VanGrunsven (Van) bought a Stits SA-3A Playboy in 1962. Back in the 50’s, the Sitts Playboy was a somewhat popular single seat taildragger, of tube and fabric construction. It had low wings, braced with stuts above the wings. Van bought the aircraft without its original 75 hp engine and he installed a 125 hp Lycoming O-290G. He was not completely satisfied with the performance and handling of the resulting aircraft, as the aircraft was quite nose heavy with the larger engine, and he felt that the airframe was too heavy and had excessive drag. Van started a long series of modifications to address these issues.

He made many modifications to the cowling, to reduce cooling drag, fitted a teardrop shaped bubble canopy and wheel pants. Still not satisfied, he replaced the original wings with aluminum cantilever wings with flaps, with the wings fitted further forward to address the forward CG issue. The new wings had the same wing span, wing area and airfoil as the original, but the drag and weight were much reduced. The resulting aircraft had much improved performance and handling. The stall speed and top speed were much improved, as was the weight.

 

Stits SA-3A N-5827N

VanGrunsven RV-1 N-5827N

Engine

125 hp Lycoming O-290G

same

Empty Weight

815 lb

730 lb

Fuel Capacity

21.5 USG

22 USG

Top Speed

152 mph

171 mph

Cruising Speed (sea level)

135 mph

150 mph

Cruising Speed (8,000 ft)

—

165 mph

Stall Speed, power off

65 mph

50 mph

Take-off ground run

350 ft

250 ft

Landing ground roll

600 ft

300 ft

Rate of climb

1.350 ft/mn

1,750 ft/mn

Minimum descent rate, power off

1,200 ft/mn

850 ft/mn

Speed Ratio (top speed / stall speed)

2.34:1

3.42:1

There are many more details in an article that was published in Sports Aviation in June 1968.

Van eventually sold the RV-1, but he took the knowledge he had gained from it and designed the all aluminum RV-3. The RV-3 was in many ways a perfected RV-1, and it became a popular aircraft.

The RV-1 fell off the radar for many years, but it resurfaced in Texas some time ago. The Friends of the RV-1 non-profit organization was formed - they purchased the aircraft and restored it to flying condition. It is planned that the RV-1 will make its public debut at the annual Sun’n Fun Fly-In in Florida at the end of March. Then it will do a tour of the US and Canada before being donated to the EAA Museum at Oshkosh during AirVenture 2012.

I am organizing the Canadian portion of the tour. The tour details are still in a state of flux, but we are hoping that the RV-1 will make appearances at Stanley, NS for Fly-In Breakfasts on the Victoria Day long weekend. We hope to have it on display somewhere in SW Ontario during the weekend of 26-27 May. The original plan was for it to be at an RV Fly-In Breakfast on 27 May at Stratford, ON, but the breakfast organizers have just learned that the airport will be closed for construction. Standby for Plan B. And finally, it is scheduled to attend the Langley, BC Fly-In on 23 June.