by Michael Stephan
On October 3rd at Grand Prairie Municipal Airport, Ted Harrison launched his F4 Raider into the sky for its first flight. It was a nice October morning and conditions were perfect.
After a short flight confirming the airplanes control stability and engine performance, Ted came back and made a smooth landing.
It all started in the terminal’s lunchroom. Ted was contemplating building another project. In the 90’s he built, flew and eventually sold an RV-4.
I had an early RV-4 kit that I bought from its second owner. After a few months of old school building, I saw my first RV-8 quickbuild, and I changed streams. That RV-4 kit when up on the shelf, until Ted started talking about a future project. With not much negotiation, Ted was the kit’s fourth owner. The kit was an old kit and had plenty of undesirable options i.e. short gear legs, gel coat cowl and other fiberglass parts, and the canopy had a big hole smashed in it. But a rocket conversion would replace all those parts with better ones and result in a more valuable plane. Not wanting the nose heaviness of the F1 and Harmon Rockets, Ted opted for the new 4 cylinder version of the F1 Rocket called the F4 Raider.
The only issue is the F4 did not come with a set of plans, just some parts. With a set of Harmon plans and RV-4 plans, Ted ventured to put this hybrid together. He needed to solved quite a few problems along the way since the plans did not match the parts he had. The plans were just suggestions.
This is really a “one off” airplane. It has a Showplanes tip-over canopy instead of the Rocket’s slider. Popular on the RV-8, this is the first time to have this canopy on a Rocket. Ted made it work. Instead of the regular Rocket tanks, this Raider has Harmon’s large tanks with a capacity of 54 gallons.
The F4 is powered by a Continental O-370 (the ECI Titan engine that is now owned by Continental) and it turns a three blade Hartzell prop.
On the inside it is all Garmin. G3X is the EFIS with an autopilot. The radio is the GTR 205 and GNX 375 is the Navigator/Transponder. A very simple but very capable IFR panel. To back things up is a Garmin G5 EFIS.
The cowl was replaced with an F1 rocket cowl, and the gear is the long F1 titanium option.
I was really interested in the performance of a lower horsepower Rocket, and test numbers look pretty good. A little worried that he might be faster than my Fastback. Ted’s reports that testing has a nice light control feel. and airplane flies very straight and tracks straight on landing. Still more testing to do as the F4 has about 8 hours on it. There is just a bit more finish work to do before it heads to the paint shop. But it is a fantastic build.
Ted was awarded his First Flight plaque at the Chapter’s Christmas Party.
Again, Congratulations Ted!
