I have to say that I have never had a physical attraction to an aircraft with a canard wing, like I have always had to Bonanzas, Beech 18’s or Mooneys. But, as my semi retirement date quickly approaches I am looking for something ( a toy) that’s maybe a little faster than my IO-550 A36. I have looked at and considered an A36 turbine conversion and while they are sexy as all get out I can’t justify the reduced payload, increased fuel burn and overall increased cost of ownership and maintenance to gain what, 20 to 25 knots?
After a long extensive internet search and exploring YouTube it looks to me like the Velocity XL RG offers a lot of speed for the money. I am seeing fairly low time, well equipped all glass panel airplanes for $175K and less. I just saw one sell for $125K with 350 hours that was everything I could want, except for a really boring paint color and scheme. What am I missing here. The the more I look at them the look is kind of growing on me. With the TIO-540 engine I am hearing great variance in reported speeds and I have never even sat in a Velocity, let alone flown one. I have owned an F33A, not enough speed difference to fly it over my A36, a 55 Baron and 58 Baron, not enough speed difference to justify the added cost, a Glassair just doesn’t scratch my itch and I can’t justify the cost to jump up into a Lancair Evolution. So, what other plane offers a significant performance (speed) increase over my IO-550 A36 without breaking the 401K?
Most of my pilot friends say that I really need to go fly a Velocity XL-RG and that I will quickly take that option off of the table, but not one single one of them have actually flown an XL-RG so I have to wonder if that isn’t just the same rhetoric like I always hear about Mooneys, which I don’t concur with.
Can anyone that has actually owned, flown or maintained a Velocity XL-RG comment and share their knowledge and experience with me? Can someone share the real speed #’s with me? Does the TIO-540 perform like a dog and kill the 12,000 MSL and under speed? Is there a FASTER engine option?
Does anyone have a suggestion on a little speed machine that would out perform the Velocity XL-RG in the same price range? My mission is primarily under 600 lb, pax and baggage combined, and 800 NM or so in range.
Lots of questions I know!
Any input, suggestions or comments are appreciated.

Thanks, Frank
PS: I don’t really have any plans to part with N700SS if and when I find something faster, but then again, who knows. I guess in the right “Trade Up” situation I might consider it.

Two hangar neighbors of mine have experience. The one still has his and he flys it all over the place. I believe this is the second one he has built. The other gentleman came from a Bonanza and was allured by the speed and efficiency and he hated it. He sold it before he completed training - not a knock on the training as he thought the world of the instructor pilot.

The factory is in Sebastian. Reach out by PM if you want to talk to the builder neighbor, you may be able to arrange a ride with him.

I would have bought one, and was hard shopping for one for about a year. But the insurance was gonna wear me out over the other 5 person options. I tried hard to justify it to myself but logic and my checkbook said no.

That said, I still go and sit in them at the air shows and want one some day. But not today.

I looked pretty hard at them as well, never flew one. Main knocks I heard were insurance, and longer takeoff and landing distances due to no flaps. I had no plans to do unpaved strips and most destinations had long enough runways. The center joystick bothered me as I’m a lefty (I think current plans have a side stick option). I was also afraid of trying to resell it as they seem to stay on the market longer than the Bo’s or Cirri’s I tracked. The twin has some really good numbers but I’ve never seen a completed one on the market.

Did Velocity ever fix the deep stall problem?

Several decades ago.

The main issues I have heard include need for long runways, significant adverse yaw and roll coupling, poor rudder control, and engine cooling problems.

Taking a factory test flight has been on my to do list, but I tend to be busy whenever I am in Florida.

From everything that I seen and read, you can’t really stall them. It looks like that you can actually still climb and and turn under power even when you have the canard wing stalled. In the videos that I have watched it looks like it just continues to do what I have always heard called a secondary stall, but still flys and climbs, and only stops that secondary stall action when you lower the nose and fly the canard wing out of the stall condition.

I can’t add much here, since I’ve never flown one. But, I do like the concept of the twin version.

I don’t want to fly a plane (any plane) that is a runway hog, so I hope that there’s a way to add some kind of drag / lift for landing.

Maybe a parachute, like the LearJet?

From everything that I seen and read, you can’t really stall them. It looks like that you can actually still climb and and turn under power even when you have the canard wing stalled. In the videos that I have watched it looks like it just continues to do what I have always heard called a secondary stall, but still flys and climbs, and only stops that secondary stall action when you lower the nose and fly the canard wing out of the stall condition.

you could always do the TN conversion or the atlantic aero io550R conversion. One will add about 15 to 20 knots down low, and the other will add 30 to 40 knots up high and 15 to 20 knots in the 8 to 12k altitudes.

I’ve always been intrigued by Velocity RG’s as an alternative to a Bonanza. Large cabin, no CG issues (compared to 33/35’s, not 36’s), speedy.

I had a neighbor that built one and took me for a ride once.

It is very comfortable to sit in. Visibility from the front seats is terrific.

If I remember, his few complaints were:
1) sharp turns while taxing are harder with a short wheel base and no rudder behind the prop
2) Less control in crosswinds with rudders out on the sides
3) roll axis was heavy
4) crawl through cabin to load baggage

These may be more subjective based on this individual’s past airplanes, but that’s what he told me.

PS: if Velocity pressurized their V-Twin, I’d be throwing them my money. However, I asked Duane Swing about it at OSH last year. He said too complicated, too much liability, it’ll never happen.

They were stall tested after the deep stall issue was discovered as part of the fix and wing redesign effort. A stall/spin accident is the last thing I would worry about with an XL, all of which have the "new" wing.

Phillip,
It wouldn’t take much creativity to make this one a pressurized twin turboprop Velocity. Add a vowel, move a consonant, and mix in $1.5M and you would have it … LOL

https://www.trade-a-plane.com/search?ca ... e=aircraft

I remember reading this article on the engineering work done to resolve the deep stall issue after 2 planes were ridden down to the ground with no injuries. I was impressed at the time with the creative engineering work done on a low budget! Haven’t had time to reread it, but here it is:
http://acversailles.free.fr/documentati ... riddle.pdf

We need a new thread for the Velocee. Their marketing has a bit to be desired. They also have an engine option with a redrive.