How? A static cone is proven technology, cheap, easy and reliable ...

For the gross static errors he has you don't need stable flight. But he does need to make repeated flights experimenting with different locations of the static port.

On a conventional airplane, a static cone deployed behind the plane isn't that difficult to do. On a single engine canard, a bit more challenging.

What I did was make many, many flights using either a three course pattern to determine the airspeed error at high and low speeds or make low passes over the runway comparing the difference between indicated and GPS altitude.

I will say it was a bear of a process and the best I could get was within about 3kts airspeed error and 30' altitude error.

I also aborted a few takeoffs seeing the altimeter rolling up or down 100' on the takeoff roll. Peter doesn't seem to be bothered by that at all.

Do they not have a standard static port location for the velocity? I know they do for the Vans models. I don't get why the problems for a kit aircraft?

We talked about it earlier in the thread, somewhere in the 200+ pages so don't worry

He could trail two static cones, one off each wingtip. He could mount an extra long pitot-static probe on the nose. He could mount a medium long pitot static probe approximately mid-wing on either side.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat and it's not like cats are something that just got invented.

It's frustrating to see him skipping really easy stuff like this. Even the popular automotive magazines have long been very meticulous about getting accurate data from their test equipment when the run the latest grocery getter through its paces. That's a level or two less sophisticated than flight testing.

You guys need to volunteer to help him put some time on this airplane. Nobody else has any PM1.0 time in their logbooks.

We talked about it earlier in the thread, somewhere in the 200+ pages so don't worry

Some airplanes do that right before touchdown and/or right before they break the deck- the altimeter bobs several feet one way or the other and the VSI twitches, sometimes in the "wrong" direction. You've gotta be looking at the instrument at just the right moment—usually when your scan oughtta be elsewhere, ha ha right—but I've noticed it when jumpseating and thought "ah, that's kinda neat."

The Raptor has other issues with its in-cabin static port being grossly influenced by what are normal air leaks in an unpressurized cabin.


It's even more noticeable in helicopters but probably because the rotor wash goes from almost nothing to pretty strong in the space of a few seconds.

Yes, they do call out the location for the static port. And that's where I put mine.

I suspect that most Velocity's have this error and most don't realize it.

Some airplanes do that right before touchdown and/or right before they break the deck- the altimeter bobs several feet one way or the other and the VSI twitches, sometimes in the "wrong" direction. You've gotta be looking at the instrument at just the right moment—usually when your scan oughtta be elsewhere, ha ha right—but I've noticed it when jumpseating and thought "ah, that's kinda neat."

The Raptor has other issues with its in-cabin static port being grossly influenced by what are normal air leaks in an unpressurized cabin.


It's even more noticeable in helicopters but probably because the rotor wash goes from almost nothing to pretty strong in the space of a few seconds.

Don, don’t I recall that you went through some issues originally with the shape of your static port(s)?

Don, more importantly, where did you put your extra 30 gallons of engine coolant, and can you tell us where you bought all your angle iron supports from ?

I wouldn't say that I had issues with the shape. But I did try some different shapes. Ended up with a dam (or step) of about .012" just behind the opening.

Looking to see if Air Wagner is off probation yet, YouTube presented me with the latest Raptor video. ...it speaks for itself although I wonder about the altitude but he doesn't explain that chart or why it was not straight and level.
I did see 134 kts.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/23vM20voBBI[/youtube]

Not watching the vids, but redrive seems to be holding up?