Wingtips

The ink is barely dry on my RV-6A's airworthiness certificate and I'm enjoying the best of both worlds. Fly in the morning before it gets too damn hot and then go home to the comfort of airconditioning while completing the empennage on my RV-8A. Soon, I will be ordering the wing kit. Questions for you guys. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and personally, I prefer the look of the older squared off wingtips rather than the newer sheared type...too Batmanny looking for my tastes. Why did Van go to this design? Does it enhance something? Can the older wingtips be installed (without undue modification) on the newer matched hole kits? Given the choice, would I even want to install the older version? Finally, are unused examples of the original wingtips even available anymore?

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla" 51 hours
RV-8A empennage

Batmobile

too Batmanny looking for my tastes

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I don't know if Van's still sells the original style wingtips, but I think the batman look is cool!

Rick...

I am kind of thinking the same thing you are, and would prefer the older, "non-batman-style tips". But on my -9 wings, you must use the new style only since it is a newer airfoil/wing design. If I am not mistaken, on the -8's you can still choose. Can anyone verify this for Rick?

rv8ch said:

I don't know if Van's still sells the original style wingtips, but I think the batman look is cool!

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Holy Bejeepers Robin....to the BatMobile!!! Let us be off the Bat RV, the Joker is up to his old tricks again!

I have built, flown, and sold a 6A then built and am flying a 7A. Wing tips between the 6,7, and 8 models are all interchangable, and i believe the standard wing tip for the 8 is still the hoerner type tips. I installed the old style tips on the 7A because i too like that look rather than the sheared tip. In my opinion, the reason Van probably changed the tip is that the hoerner type tips are flat on top, and in time, tend to sag downwards a little. Builders can negate this to a degree by bonding on a thin layer of foam on the inside, and then covering that with two or three layers of fiberglass. Myself, i bonded on some extra aluminum stiffiners left over from the elevator / rudder stiffiner material. Another reason Van may have changed tips is that if you sight down the trailing edge of lots of RV's, you will see that many builders struggle with getting everything to line up. With the bat tips, nothing lines up anyway, so if it is on a little crooked, who knows?
Steve Ciha

I am building a -8 and share your thoughts on the new wintips. I called Van's and requested the old style tips. They had me fax a letter stating that I wanted the old style tips as opposed to the new ones. The older ones are actually cheaper, so the credited my account. Also, if you want the enclosed lights on them you can order them from Van's. Here is the link http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin...29251-282-639&browse=lighting&product=airtech

sagging tips

I had not heard that the older style tips sag over time. Thanks Stever for mentioning that. If anyone has pics of how they prepared the older style tips to prevent sagging, I would love to see them. I am building an 8A with the older style tips, which I think look better than the newer ones.

Tony Johnson

tonyjohnson said:

I had not heard that the older style tips sag over time. Thanks Stever for mentioning that. If anyone has pics of how they prepared the older style tips to prevent sagging, I would love to see them. I am building an 8A with the older style tips, which I think look better than the newer ones.

Tony Johnson

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I don't have a detail picture, but I bonded a narrow strip of .025 aluminum to the inside of the wingtips with proseal to which the nutplates are attached. The wingtip screw kit came from (I think) Cleaveland.

Rick Galati RV-6A "Darla"
RV-8A empennage

You dont really need a picture for the wing tip mods. If you use aluminum angle, then pro seal or glue them on with some urethane caulk. I went every six inches starting about six inches from the leading edge, and then progressing rear wards until the last one is about six inches from the rear edge. so you have about 8 or 10 stiffiners about 10 inches long. On my first airplane, i used pieces of oak lumber, 1/2 inch wide by 3/4 inch wide. Gllued them on with NP-1 urethane caulk after roughing up the fiberglass.

Others have bonded on a layer of 1/4 or 1/2 inch foam and then covered that with a couple layers of fiberglass cloth and resin. This makes a "box beam" type of structure that is pretty strong, but a couple pounds heavier.

Look closely at flying 6's that are a little older and you will see that the flat tips start to concave a little on the top.

Steve Ciha