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  #11  
Old 05-23-2011, 04:44 AM
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Ironflight Ironflight is offline
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As others have said, lots of good advice here, but I am going to echo Terry's advice that you get some formal RV checkout time. if you had lots of hours in other tail dragger RV's, I'd give you much of the "lessons learned" here in this thread and say "go fly", but there are quite a few accidents on record from folks who explored the edges of the RV envelope on their own for the first time and came to grief. Respect the fact that it is still an airplane, and you're going pretty fast close to the hard object known as the earth.

On landings and CG - some said "Wheel Land it Solo, you can three-point one pretty easily with someone in the back seat". Be very careful with this - it will three-point almost TOO easily with someone in the back seat. I have heard many, many stories from low-time -8 pilots who made their first aft-CG landings and ended up with a VERY scary tail-strike "landing". At slow speeds with an aft CG, the stick force gradient is zero to negative, and the nose will rise pretty much on its own. I strongly prefer a tail-low wheel landing in 90% of the cases, definitely with a passenger. I use a three-point when the runway is short and I have to come in over trees. if I have to do that with a passenger, I have to be 100% on my game. Slow with an aft CG is not (in my experience) a good place to be with an -8.

Paul
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  #12  
Old 05-23-2011, 11:51 AM
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JoeBlank JoeBlank is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Molalla, Oregon (KOL05)
Posts: 529
Default Say YES to Transition Training...

I'm in complete agreement with Terry and Paul on this one. There is no substitute for Transition Training.

Also please review some of the Van's Safety Corner missives on the Van's Aircraft Facebook account for further thought provoking information. (No, you don't have to sign up for FB to see these articles...)

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Va...21827541221519

And at the least, read Chapter 15 of the RV-8/8A Construction Manual on Final Inspection & Flight Testing. This will give you some additional thought provoking information on how this animal behaves. They are great airplanes, but like learning any new system, education is power...
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Last edited by JoeBlank : 05-23-2011 at 11:54 AM.
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  #13  
Old 05-25-2011, 09:48 PM
SteveR SteveR is offline
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Hudson Oaks, TX
Posts: 25
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Wow, thanks for the great responses, I didn't expect this many. I will definitely be spending some time with someone else before just jumping in, hopefully a couple of hours at least. It is great to have some things to think about before-hand, which is what you guys have given me. I really appreciate it. I will let you know my thoughts when it does happen, although it probably won't be extremely soon. Thanks again!

An -8 will be a dramatic change from a Pietenpol! I'm looking forward to it.
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