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Van's Air Force

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Show us a pic of your FINISHED RV-8/8A!!!

photo

Here is a picture of me as #2 on Joe Blank (second attempt at a post).
 
"Sunshine"

Really a test of my photo insertion skills, here is a shot of N18U enroute home from OSH.



John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA
 
downsize photos

I sure would like to see folks reduce the size of their photos. I know I'm not the only one who sits behind a firewall at work that only allows files of a certain size through. Pleazzzze learn yerselves how to do this. I use Paint Shop Pro but I know there are free programs out there one can download that work just fine. Anyone know the name of the free ones?
Thanks,
Dan
 
I sure would like to see folks reduce the size of their photos. I know I'm not the only one who sits behind a firewall at work that only allows files of a certain size through. Pleazzzze learn yerselves how to do this. I use Paint Shop Pro but I know there are free programs out there one can download that work just fine. Anyone know the name of the free ones?
Thanks,
Dan


Maybe you should be doing work at work.
 
Work?

Originally Posted by theflyboy1
Maybe you should be doing work at work.



Gee...I never thought of it like that before
 
First Flight RV8 N485JT

Here's a couple of pic's of my just completed and flown 3.0 hrs. today RV8, N485JT.
First flight Today April 24th 2008. Signed off by the FAA this morning at 10:30AM. Airborne at 12:30 PM. Chase pilot Greg "Grease"Reese in his trusty yellow RV8 Steed. He confirmed no leaks, no drips, no errors, so no sense landing without putting some time on the bird.

Wt. 1100 lbs. , Lyc. O-360 A1A, CS, D180, SL30, GTX327, 496, ADI 2,Cleaveland interior, Zaon MRX, Flightcom 403, Infinity stick.

This is my 5th complete RV and for the first time I kept a very accurate building and expense log.(Kitlog Pro). The other planes I just didn't want to Know!

Sold my previous 8, March 10, 2007. Ordered 2 8 QB's that Van's had in stock. Empennages arrived March 14, 2007. 120 hrs. later 2 RV8 tails were complete in time for the 2 QB's that were delivered on March 23, 2007.
Total time in 5JT is 921 hrs. prior to first flight today.
Squawks: left wing slightly heavy that will be fixed by the tried and true method of squeezing the aileron trailing edge.
End of Squawks.

God do I LOVE these planes!!!!

















 
"sticky stuff

This is Mr. Dick Jordan's RV-8a, He calls it "sticky stuff, because it seems to stick to money".

IMG_0157.jpg

superior xp 360, MT constant speed composite prop
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Mr. Jordan and "sticky stuff"
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the tail art
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The "office"
IMG_0166.jpg


I was able to meet Dick after I saw his airplane listed in "kitplanes" mag, in the "completions" section. After a quick e-mail and a phone-call I was in his hanger drooling, (nothin like a spit-shine). Maybe Dick will join the VAF community once he sees this, then he can share his experiance with all ya'll.
 
Wt. 1100 lbs. , Lyc. O-360 A1A, CS, D180, SL30, GTX327, 496, ADI 2,Cleaveland interior, Zaon MRX, Flightcom 403, Infinity stick.

jthocker,

Congratulations on your -8. Yes, I love them too!

I'm getting ready to rebuild the panel in my -8 to add some glass and am trying to decide on screen size. Does the 180 at 7" diagonal feel like a good visual fit for the -8, or does it seem a little big? I'm leaning toward an Advanced 3400 (6.5") or 3500 (8.4"). I'm not sure if the Advanced dimensions are diagonal but I am guessing they are.

John
 
Instrument panel cutout....

jthocker,

I noticed your mod to the lower portion of the instrument panel. Did you actually have interference on the bottom or were you just looking for a little cushion room?

Your plane looks great. Ours will be on the gear before too long.
 
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John
I really like the D180 size. I don't think it's to big at all. I wish the HS34 had come out before the panel was cut. A couple of knobs would really help.

Jeff,
A rather tall gentleman has expressed an interest in buying the aircraft, so it was modified for that reason.
 
I've flown many many times with that yellow RV-8 off my wingtip, back when my good friend Todd Reifers built her....

$1.60 avgas...

ahh the good old days.
 
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Lucky's RV8

I had to wait over two years to get it painted by Jim Russell at Chorman Airport, Delaware! (302) 270-7684

My advice to those building is don't wait until your about done with building to decide who's going to paint it. Call them right away while still in the middle of building and get your Ticket in Line!
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http://luckymacy.blogspot.com/
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Lucky,

Wow! You obviously focused attention on the smallest exterior design elements from the canopy handle treatment to the tailwheel assembly and it shows.

Among several areas of detail concerning your very nice paint scheme, I like the way you incorporated the "N" number.....subtle.

A couple of questions:

Did you prep the fiberglass parts or let the paint shop do it all?

I'm still on the fence about installing roll bar handles, how do you like them?

From the pics, I cannot see any sort of trim device attached to the rudder. How did you handle that?

Finally, what is that small protuberance atop the vertical stab on the leading edge of the tip? Camera?

Beautiful airplane and a real show stopper. :cool: Congratulations!
 
Hi Rick. Thanks for the compliments. It was a lot of fun coming up with a scheme. It's not really done as there's some additional artwork I want added but the basic paintwork is complete.
I did some fiberglass prep but the painter finished it good enough to paint and with their equipment and experience with different brands and types of fillers, they can do in hours what takes us normals weeks of frustrating, boring work.

I don't know why anyone is on the fence about the handles. I think they should be a standard part of a kit, like the upgraded angled tail wheel. I hate getting in and out of RVs that don't have the handles and fellow pilots, especially those over 30, that fly in my plane usually all say "I wish I put handles in..." Nobody seems to know how to get in and out of RVs without grabbing something they shouldn't so the handles all but eliminate that.

Rudder trim. Well I am a little shocked by the question and never heard that one before. Why would you need anything? The 'ball' stays fairly centered on my plane without any input from me in almost every non-aerobatic type flight 'regime'. Totally dead centered in cruise. The only person with rudder trim I know had a major mistake made on his plane where the VS was installed offset to the RIGHT of all things so without a rudder trim tab his plane is a mess. But I don't know anyone else who has an RV that even has a fixed rudder trim block. If you build carefully, you won't need anything.

Yep, that's a bullet camera that's semi permanently mounted to the tip of the VS. Hopefully this link works and shows some of the videos I made. It's really easy to install and I gave all the camera details in the comments one of of the videos. http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=luckymacy&p=r

lucky
tech counselor/flight advisor
 
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Nice Paint Lucky....

Lucky,
Nice paint job. If you get it up here near Cadillac or Manistee some pics with your 8 and mine would be great. Not sure if you saw mine but the military look was my choice as well.
I really likethe tailwheel...
Doug
 
Rudder trim?

After 5 airplanes, and all needing about the same size tab on the left side of the rudder to center the ball in 75 % pwr cruise flight. I must be truly
"UNLUCKY" to have made the identical building errors 5 times in a row!
Ball centered in ALL regimes with feet flat on the floor??? What the heck have I been doing wrong all these years?

Good looking plane Lucky!

Regards,
Jon
 
After 5 airplanes, and all needing about the same size tab on the left side of the rudder to center the ball in 75 % pwr cruise flight. I must be truly
"UNLUCKY" to have made the identical building errors 5 times in a row!
Ball centered in ALL regimes with feet flat on the floor??? What the heck have I been doing wrong all these years?

Good looking plane Lucky!

Regards,
Jon

Time for you to build a pitts and use all your acquired rudder skills. ;-)
 
After 5 airplanes, and all needing about the same size tab on the left side of the rudder.....Jon
The reason I mentioned that in my post is because I needed a trim tab and bought one from these folks:

http://www.epm-avcorp.com/trimtabinst.html

I thought it was fairly commonplace to need a tab and and at least three people who posted on this thread sure thought so:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=2271

After reviewing the RV parking at Oshkosh, I came away with the impression that more RV's than not have a trim tab of some sort attached to the rudder.

Lucky.....what can I say? You are truly lucky! :)
 
The reason I mentioned that in my post is because I needed a trim tab and bought one from these folks:

http://www.epm-avcorp.com/trimtabinst.html

I thought it was fairly commonplace to need a tab and and at least three people who posted on this thread sure thought so:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=2271

After reviewing the RV parking at Oshkosh, I came away with the impression that more RV's than not have a trim tab of some sort attached to the rudder.

Lucky.....what can I say? You are truly lucky! :)


None of the RVs, save 1 that I can think of, in this mid atlantic area have anything that I recall. Maybe Kirk can help me think of anyone that does around here. Ha, time for yet another poll? BTW, I noticed on your link it started off as a RV 6 'issue', so maybe the side by side models might need it more, especially with the older, smaller total surface areas of the smaller rudders? Maybe a QB fuse helps too? I had a couple of second opinions before I committed to drilling the VS in place and took a lot of measurements over and over. When it came down to it, I did my old 'RC Pattern' trick and erred on the side of a fraction of a degree or so to the 'left' when looking from the back towards the front. Well, anyway, this is getting off track from the purpose of this thread so a mindfull moderator might end up deleting this anyway.
 
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RV-8 Fastback

Although this isn't quite finished yet, I thought I would post some pics (or try to) of my RV-8 fastback - similar to Dan Horton's. I don't know what order they will appear, but you can figure it out. 2 of them are of the bubble being trimmed and fitted and not yet glued on. There is one of just the canopy finished and ready to paint. I have many pictures of the fastback, but the showplanes website does too and there's are probably better. I also made some armrest that are pretty cool. I'll post those pics if anyone is interested. I think the stock armrest would only fit me if I was an orangutan.

img0229su6.jpg




Scott Hersha
RV-6 sold
RV-8 90% done, 90% to go
 
Let's have a look at those armrests

I, for one, would be interested in seeing any new armrest design for the 8.
Thanks
 
scott, that is one good looking machine. ive never saved a picture for a desktop. But yours from the other day resides there for a while. what a nice looking plane. well done man.
 
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RV8 in flight Pic

Here's a pic of my recently completed and badly in need of a paint job RV8
N486JT.





 
Slightly Open Canopy in RV8

Jon,

I noticed on your post of your inflight RV8, you have the canopy open. I have often heard it is hard to opent the RV8 canopy in flight. Can you comment on this, did you open the canopy inflgiht for take off in that condition. ??

Steve
RV8
 
ALL THOSE 8's

Hi Jon,
Been a bit since I last text you. About the windscreen lay-ups. Anyway was curious where all the airplanes you are building are? I can tell you like to build but after a while it would also be time to fly for a bit.
My dad has proven this theroy with homes. By the time you build your 4th or 5th home the last one is payed for in the clear. Same principle?
Good to see another 8 in the air. I hope to post a first flight as well one of these days with my 8.:)

Have Fun,

Bruce Gray
RV8 Fuse
 
Bruce
A couple are out of state and a couple are on the field with me. I'm not sure which way is better though.
I'd like to think this one's paid for but I'm not sure.;)

For my own recreation and education I decided to build 2 RV8's at once to see if it would be twice as fun.

It wasn't! 921 hrs. on #82688 to get it flying and done, 899.5 hrs. on #82689 to get it flying and done.
1800 total hrs. in 18 month's, and I still have a real flying job too.:p

I plan to just kick back and fly this thing for a long while now!

Good luck with yours, it's all worth it!

Regards

Jon
 
Slightl cracked canopy?

Couldn't help but notice you're flying with the canopy slightly cracked. I've entertained the thought. How is it? Windy? any noticable changes?
 
Finished

Not flying yet, waiting for the paperwork trail to clear. Will post some flying when available.

P8180016.JPG


Man I can't wait:D.
 
Not flying yet, waiting for the paperwork trail to clear. Will post some flying when available.

P8180016.JPG


Man I can't wait:D.

Oh...............

That's your plane! Now I can see why you're in a hurry for the Bill of Sale! :D

L.Adamson ---- mines got a yellow front & invasion stripes too.
 
Unnamed Beauty

Today after little more than 2 years of cumulative work, I finished the standard kit -8 project. Mechanically if not legally, the plane can now fly. The new engine is filled with 8 quarts of mineral oil in preparation for W&B calculations. After that, I will calibrate the I.E. capacitive fuel gauge while slowly filling the tanks. For tax, insurance and other reasons, I will probably wait until January '09 to acquire the (reserved) registration number. As he did with "Darla!", the Airworthiness Certificate duties will be overseen by superb airman and legendary DAR Frank Baldwin. Frank stops by from time to time and graciously agreed to do the initial high speed taxi tests.

For now though, I have to refocus my energies and get busy accumulating at least 15 hours of taildragger training to satisfy suddenly famous and publically owned AIG.

 
Congrats Rick!

Looks great. I really like the blue paint. :D

Good luck holding out 'til January, better man than I would be.


Joe
 
Congratulations!

Looks great Rick! Your comments and build photos have been great inspiration as I've worked on my wings and fuselage.

Good luck,
Mike
 
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