Jason et al

I know a lot about the Harmon Rocket II. I built and am flying one. The
cockpit is 31" wide whereas the RV4 is 27" wide. The cockpit has been
stretched 4" from the rear spar to the rear seatback. The instrument panel
has been moved forward from the 4 - I like it better. You can have the
seats built to your specs and sit on the floor if you don't want to see
where you're going. You can't see over the nose at the highest seating
position anyway. Kinda like I would imagine it would be taxiing a P51. As
for the wing - it is still Van's original RV4 wing, tested static to 14 G's.
It would be strong enough without shortening it. I don't see it being a
problem since I have seen RV8's a lot heavier than my Rocket which is 1174
pounds dry. I have owned and flown both, the 4 on a couple long trips. I
wouldn't trade the Rocket for anything but still like the 4 - you don't get
in it - it's more like you put it on. As for G loads - there is a pro
aerobat pilot flying a Rocket. I'm 6' tall and weigh 225 and am very comfy
in it.
Hi Jerry.
Man this thread deteriorated quickly didn't it. Seems there are a lot of
people looking for confirmation.
I forget - I haven't posted here for a long time - am I supposed to top post
or bottom..........

jim
"Jason Grass" wrote in message
...
Does anyone here know much about the Harmon Rocket II?
I've been looking at it, and it concerns me in the fact that the
cockpit demensions look a little snug. It has enough room in width,
but the distance between the front and back seat seems too close, as
does the distance of the instrument panel from the front seat pilot.
Also, in looking at pictures of it, pilots seem to have their heads
right up against the top of the canopy. Is John Harmon a short guy?
I suspect it was designed by someone not so tall. I guess it would be
nice to go sit in one somewhere, but that's not always easy to find.
And I wonder if the wing is strong enough. His webiste says he did
nothing to the RV-4 wingspar to strengthen it. He only shortened it to
to reduce the bending moment on it, and reduced the rib spacing. Then
it says he sand bagged the wing to 6 G's. 6 G's isn't all that much
for an ultimate load test. So I'm a bit leery of the design. I wanted
to build one, but after doing a little research, I'm turned off by
what I've found out.