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RagWing First Flight Reports
03 Aug 02
Sam Davis, RW-6
A friend of mine from Houston came to visit. Yesterday afternoon we went to the airport
He completed a couple of "fast" taxis and had the same problem i have been having, it
wanted to be an ATV instead of a airplane :-) We rechecked the rudder travel and found
the right pedal had too much travel and wasn't getting enough deflection.
This morning we corrected the rudder problem, and readjusted the ailerons, it sure helps
to have help :-) He made a few passes down the runway, but couldn't get out of ground effect
and was only able to get to 45 MPH. and 5800 RPM. this was with a 3 blade Ultra prop.
We replaced the Ultra 3 blade prop with a 2 blade IVO prop and were able to get 6800 + RPM
(6800 is the max) and 120 lbs thrust.
He taxied to the end of the runway and lifted off, but instead of staying in ground effect
he was able to climb and went around the pattern to a perfect 3 point landing.
Here's the good news and bad news, the plane handled beautifully and he was impressed
with the flying characteristics, he is a Copilot for an airline and has flown everything from
F-4's to 737s and loads of GA aircraft and even Prober Pixie and a Beachcraft Staggerwing.
So I was pleased to hear this. Now the bad news, he could only climb to 100 ft! At one
point he throttled back to 6600 RPM and started losing altitude, he had to fly it at 6800
RPM to maintain flight, he was only ably to fly 50 MPH, level flight 6800 RPM.
I believe the problem lies in 2 areas, the first is the re-drive, it is 2.66 to one, the small
pulley is 3" the large is 8". with the IVO prop full pitch (it is adjustable) the engine would
over speed if given full throttle. I am going to put a 7" large pulley on and lower the reduction ratio.
The second thing is it is HEAVY, Wayne is always cautioning us to build light, I agree.
It was pretty warm today, eventually hitting 100, at the time of testing it was in the high 80's
or low 90's, that didn't help.
All in all it was great to see Snoopy finally leave the ground, but i didn't have a camera:-(
If any of you have any ideas, please share them, thanks
Rev Sam Davis
RW6
Coweta, Ok
11/12/01
Sam Davis, RW-6
I went to the AP Sat morning around 8:30 it was in the 40's, i donned the
leather hat my wife bought as a Christmas present last year, first time I
needed it. It is fleece lined and VERY comfortable and warm, put the
goggles on, taxied to the end of the runway, no wind, no one around.
Throttled up, lifted the tail, waited a moment, mains cleared the runway,
only climbed to 15 - 20 ft and throttled back to my first 3 point landing
:-) and the testing continues.
September 1st, 2001
Dennis Frey, RW-2
Unconfirmed rumor has it that Red's Baron flew for the fist time today, more news as it becomes available.
August 5th, 2001
Rudy Alvies, RW-16
Today at 6:00PM. Ragwing Aerial RW-16 , planset #11, broke the surly
bonds of earth briefly for a short flight of approx. 150-200 ft. at
10-15ft. of altitude (more commonly known as a crowhop.) After collecting
my nerves,it was pure elatation. I will keep you guys up on further developments.
December 2nd, 2000
Tom Jeschke, RW-2
After six years building, Ragwing Special S/N 29 took to the skies of the Door peninsula. Wow,
what a thrill to see my little red biplane climbing out! Just to fill you in a bit...I had
been taxiing for quite a while (10 hours) as I only have ten hours of instruction in a T.
Craft, I wasn't too keen to wreck the little jewel. But as my confidence
grew, I began to throttle up the snorting 37 h/p 1/2 VW...I finally left
power on for more than just a few seconds and to my delight (sheer panic!) I
was looking over the cowling.This was a thrill that you can't imagine, well I
guess you could if you had done this with your own plane, but for me, it was
the greatest !! I didn't get more than a foot off the ground each way as she
bounced along at half throttle sometimes on the ground and sometimes in the
air, all I knew was that the tail was up...and in a Special they all told me
that the tail wouldn't come up. Weight and balance pays off I guess !.
Well any way I pulled up to the hanger with a smirk on my face that was
evident to the 3 pilots standing and cheering and so I said to my friend Dale
who had agreed to test fly the plane "want to taxi her around a bit, you know
just to get the feel of the ground handling"? Sure he says with a smile...so
He jumps in and snugged up the shoulder harness as he tried the controls.
Sheepishly I said "you gonna just taxi down to the end or what? He
says "probably or what" as he pushed the throttle forward as far as it would
go..I was shocked to see my little plane jump from the ground within around
100 feet and steadily go down the runway at about 5 feet AGL. Since our
strip has a slight hump down at the west end we lost Him for a moment. Then
as I was beginning to fidget, here she comes climbing out at a good rate of
climb to about 35 feet and then cruising along for a few hundred feet and
then to a greaser right in front of us! ! " No heavy wings, she sits like a
rock..you did a good job" He said - wow I am pumped....Thanks Roger and
Thank you God!! This is great, now it's my turn, but we just got six inches
of snow...so I'll have to wait till spring. I hope this isn't too long,but
hang in there guys if I can do it you can do it.
July 21, 2001
Tom just sent me an update, he has now successfully soloed in his own home-built Special.
Congratulations Tom!
06 May 2000
John Morrison RW-4
John's gorgeous Church Racer replica took to the skies of South Carolina for
the first time today, with the designer at the controls.
Says John "IT FLEW!
Power to beat the band. Took off at an around 30 and soared to an astonishing
ten feet and back down. Several trips up and down then the only thing we did
was add a 1/8" double wire straight down from the forward cross under
down to the axle. I was shocked at how fast it would leave the
ground on a grass strip! What a rush! Roger said it was stable and well
balanced. Didn't seem to have any bad habits.
This Saturday it goes to its first air show, the State-line fly in."
22 April 2000
Wayne McIntosh RW6 E003WM
Three Whiskey Mike broke the bonds of gravity 3 times today. In case you
don't know Three Whiskey Mike is my 330 pound RW6. With me in it and a full
5 gallons of fuel it weighs almost 570 pounds. I made 3 takeoffs and
landings 3 trips around the pattern. This is a real ground loving airplane.
I had planned to do my climbing and gliding at 49MPH. Well at that
indicated airspeed it would barely climb, but it will glide just fine. It
would climb at 45-47MPH but not very well. I got up to 320AGL and it was
time to decend to land. I landed after the first flight and re-pitched the
prop. I already had the pitch set to climb at the maximum torque but I
repitched to climb at 100 RPM less than the red line. It didn't climb much
better but the temperatures were better. I re-jetted the carb mid-range
after the second landing and the temperatures were even better. I just don't
think I have enough power for such a heavy plane. I am using a Cuyuna
ULII-02 it is supposed to put out 35-38 HP. They make a dual carb version of
my engine and I may have to look into it. The plane flys real nice, it
doesn't want to turn when you don't want it to, it is real stable. I did all
of my turns at a very shallow bank. I bounced real good in my first landing,
did about an 8 out of 10 on the second and greeeeeaaaased in for a perfect 3
point on the last landing. There is a slight possibility that my ASI is off
and I was really flying 55 MPH instead of 45MPH but I doubt it. I will go
back up tomorrow and get up to a safe altitude to see what I see.
Wayne now has several flights on the plane, and some pictures are available.
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