| RANS BUILDER COMPLETION GALLERY |
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S-12XL by Ted Bryant
We got the Official FAA sign off on Saturday, August 19th! Normally, Don Kagle with the Virginia FSDO office in Dulles usually handles our inspections, but his schedule had become too demanding and I couldn’t wait 6 more weeks. So I met with Mr. Fred Kacena the DAR recommended by the Philadelphia FSDO office. After a careful inspection of our RANS S-12, I received the airworthiness certificate with a 10-hour test flight period! This was only the second time that I had ever seen such a minimal test period. The first time was when Craig Nelson received his S-12 Inspection and the same Inspector also gave him 10 hours. I have to tell you, this inspector looked at everything including the building manual and the quality of the installed components. To say the least, he is very impressed and obviously confident with the RANS kits. The first test flight indicated an expected short take-off run with a climb rate of 1200 fpm at 60 mph.. Oil temps were beginning to rise past 230 degrees so the initial test flights were kept short. Cruise was lower than I had hoped for (somewhere in the 79 to 84mph range) and I had to hold a lot of right rudder. Well, other than rudder pressure and keeping my eye on the oil temp, everything else seemed to be working just fine, so I just had to try out the stereo. It always sounded fine on the ground and I was anxious to hear it while in the air with the engine roaring. It was perfect. Clear as a bell. I tuned in an oldies station and did a couple of laps around the airport. Back into the pattern and turning base, I slowed down to 65 and bumped the electric flap switch to10 degrees of flaps. That was sooo strange. I’m used to the flap handle... the electric flaps seem really odd. Once off of the power there was no need for any rudder pressure and she tracked straight, right down onto the centerline. Whenever time allowed during the following weeks, we worked on lowering the oil temps (which turned out to be the sending unit) and tweaked the tail feathers several times. Finally, I surrendered to the torque and added a trim tab. The propeller pitch was increased almost a whole degree, the fuel mixture was richened slightly and the carbs were synchronized. Climb rate is still exceptional at about 1100 FPM. The cruise is better, indicating somewhere close to 90 mph, which is fine because the intented design for the stock S-12 was not for speed anyway, so if your gonna do long trips you might as well build in some extra comfort and enjoy the flight. NOTES: Soon I'll have the GPS installed and will check it against the ASI. The Flip Up Seat option for the RANS S-6 will retro into the S-12 as well as the S-12XL. I truly recommend this option for three good reasons. One, it is very comfortable with more padding, although you will loose about 1 (uneeded) inch of headroom. Two, you will never have to re-tighten the seat straps, and Three, you can easily get under the seat for inspections or to store headsets and miscelaneous items. Along with the many improvements that RANS has made with it’s Airailes, the S-12XL enclosure is more aerodynamic than that of the old style S-12. The XL has a cleaner shape without the old hard (dirty) curves. I have found that a well built S-12 XL will be faster than the original model S-12 Airaile. RANS Designs Inc. |
