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Ben's RV-8 (#84117)

bmellis11

Well Known Member
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I have been working on my RV-8 for about a month now and just finished with the horizontal stabilizer, so I thought it would be a good time to officially introduce myself and create a build post that I can update from time to time. I also have an EAA build log (link in signature) that will have all build entries when I get the time to add them.

A little about myself--I live in NYC and am building in a roughly 20’ x 25’ area of the basement of my townhouse. I am an instrument rated pilot and have been interested in aviation my entire life due, in large part, to several great influences. My uncle spent 20 years as a loadmaster on a C-130 crew, took me to my first airshow, and always encouraged me to fly. My grandma’s cousin was a colonel in the Air Force whose claim to fame is that he led a low-level recon mission that got photographic evidence of Soviet surface to air missiles in Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis, for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross and was featured in Life magazine. And growing up, I enjoyed helping my grandpa, who had his pilot’s license (but said he couldn’t afford to fly and have a wife), build and fly RC airplanes.

When I was 8 years old, my parents took me to an amusement park where I rode the same airplane ride at least 10 times. I went home and immediately began working on a 2x4 and plywood biplane that unfortunately never made it off the ground. Since then, I always wanted to build a plane and now 30 years later I’m much closer to that dream.

I am a first-time builder and so far I’m really enjoying building (some parts more than others). I am happy with how the HS came out, after having to replace some parts twice due to stupid mistakes. I plan on dedicating a good amount of time to this build and hope to finish within 2 years. I will mainly use the plane for leisure flying in the area and longer cross-country flights to see family and explore areas I have always wanted to visit. My wife says she will never fly with me (let’s see) and that I can’t fly with our two small kids, so I will mostly be doing solo flying. I may do the occasional light aerobatics, but that’s not a high priority.

I am doing the standard build fuselage and quick build wings. While I’m still making my mind up on some things, I do know that I am going to keep the standard slider canopy and not do the fast back. I also plan on making it highly IFR capable with a full Garmin setup. And I want a very powerful engine and climb performance, whose additional weight I plan to offset with aluminum gear (which I already bought) and a composite prop.

Thank you all for making this forum such a great resource. It’s been very helpful so far. I hope to contribute as well and some day to meet some of you in person.
 

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Hey Ben. I'm across the river(s) in northern NJ working on an -8 myself if you ever have any questions. I'm basically finished with the fuselage - and moving onto the finish kit so I'm happy to share whatever words of wisdom I can. Feel free to PM me and I can share contact info.
 
Progress update--I finished the vertical stabilizer last night. I lost some time waiting for new parts because I made the countersinks for the flush rivets on the base of the rear spar too deep. I believe there was a recent post about the same issue. Basically I thought I needed to make the countersinks deep enough so that the rear spar and the reinforcement plate would lay completely flat on each other before riveting. I probably went 0.010" too deep and still didn't achieve complete flatness. So I came here to look into this issue and found some good guidance, including Scott McDaniels' post on countersink depth and decided to reorder the reinforcement plate and rear spar and just countersink to the recommended 0.007". After riveting, the gap between the parts has basically disappeared.

Another thing I learned is that they aren't kidding when they say EkoPrime doesn't stand up to solvents. I accidentally brushed the forward spar with a paper towel I was using with acetone to clean the skin surface and the primer came right off.

Now I just need to finish the elevators and rudder, both of which I have already started. I paid for the fuselage kit last week and it is supposed to crate between mid January and February. I hope I'm on the earlier part of that window because I am going to be done soon with the empennage and my QB wings won't be ready until late in the year at the earliest.
 

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Fuselage kit received

I received my fuselage kit a few days ago and am almost done inventorying it. Other than a few back ordered parts, two missing parts (for the gear columns), and a few damaged but likely salvageable parts, everything looks good. Vans got the kit crated and shipped at the very beginning of the crating window, which I was very happy about. ABF, or more accurately, their "last mile" delivery contractor, has been less pleasurable to work with. They originally scheduled me for delivery last Friday (with an all day shipment window) and then called me at the end of day to tell me it would be pushed to Monday (with an all day shipment window). On Monday, I got the fuselage crate but not the longeron tube (I hadn't received the longerons yet because I have a pending order for QB wings). They told me that there was no tube, and then they said they found it and it would be delivered on Tuesday (with an all day shipment window), but then they rescheduled to Wednesday (with an all day shipment window). Work wasn't happy that I couldn't come in the office for the first half of the week.

I was pretty nervous about how I would unload the kit since I live in a NYC townhouse and don't have a garage. The crate had to be delivered on the sidewalk in front of my house and a lot of people go up and down that sidewalk. It turned out to not be a problem because I was able to get all the parts out of the crate quickly and into my house. Once I got everything in the house I moved the parts to my basement shop for inventorying.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the elevators and rudder, which have taken me longer than expected because I had to reorder some parts for all three pieces throughout the build. I will likely finish those parts by this weekend and am very excited to get started on the fuselage.
 

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There is a lot about this build that is fascinating. I look forward to following, especially the removal from the build site and the first flight.....where ever that will be.

A group of us from Georgia will be flying by on our trip this year and will be sure to give you a wave on the way up and down the Hudson river.

Check out our Youtube videos of our trips if you need to watch something on that big TV.


Here is a link: https://www.youtube.com/@skydogs521
 
I'm curious about the exit strategy too!

I also build primarily in a basement which has been great for a few years but we had to clear space in the garage this past summer when the three main sections of the fuselage were ready to be riveted together. The RV-7 fuse would have been too wide to through our walk up basement exit and making a bigger hole was a non-starter.
 
Good questions and thanks for your interest. The two main strategies are:

1) Behind my TV in my workshop there is a floor to ceiling door that opens into a roughly 3.5' wide shaft that exits to ground level through a door/cover that those two larger planters in the front of my house sit on. I modeled the RV-8 and the basement and shaft space in 3d software and determined that I only need to knock a bit of the lip off the shaft to make it work. I can easily knock off a lot more to make the slope more gradual and would just need to redo the concrete in the front of my house (which will need to be redone sooner than later anyway). From there I would load it onto a trailer on the street.

2) I have a roughly 3.5' wide walkout in the back of the basement, so I can remove the plane through that exit into my back yard and then into either the yard behind me or the yard next to me, both of which have driveways connecting to the street.

In both of these cases the wings, empennage, and gear would be removed from the fuselage, which is only about 3' at its widest. The interesting question is how can I build a much wider RV-10 in my basement in the future, which is my goal. I may go with option 1 this time around and widen the shaft for that future purpose.

As for initial flights, nothing is set in stone, but it will likely be at one of several uncontrolled airports in NJ that are near the city but not under the NYC Bravo. I'm going to use a test pilot because I don't have any RV-8 time, and more importantly, because my wife said I had to if I wanted her blessing for all of this. ;)
 
A group of us from Georgia will be flying by on our trip this year and will be sure to give you a wave on the way up and down the Hudson river.

Enjoy that flight, it's really something flying up the river just a few hundred feet from the massive NYC skyline. If you're interested, I'd recommend asking approach to let you fly up the East River and then westbound over Central Park back to the Hudson River. It will definitely keep you on your toes, but totally worth it.
 

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I love this. "Where there's a will, there's a way". Makes me wonder: what's the smallest space an RV (or any aircraft, really) has been built in?

As I recall, there's a long history of building airplanes in basements. Glenn Martin built his first airplane in the basement of a Methodist church in Santa Ana and made his first flight not more than a few thousand feet from where I'm sitting right now. That was in 1909.

--Ron
 
East River Exclusion

Enjoy that flight, it's really something flying up the river just a few hundred feet from the massive NYC skyline. If you're interested, I'd recommend asking approach to let you fly up the East River and then westbound over Central Park back to the Hudson River. It will definitely keep you on your toes, but totally worth it.

Nice progress on your -8 build. I bet the wife softens up a bit once it gets flying. You can use some of the existing RV flying families to show her taking kids in RVs is "normal".

What altitude are you flying at going up the east river and over Central Park?
Per the SFRA doc
"Fixed wing aircraft are prohibited unless authorized by ATC"
"Contact LaGuardia Airport Traffic Control Tower prior to Governors Island on 126.05"
"ALSO, monitor and report on CTAF 123.075"

I have not read about anyone flying fixed wing in this area and interested in the procedure and any details you have on it or local knowledge.

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What altitude are you flying at going up the east river and over Central Park?
Per the SFRA doc
"Fixed wing aircraft are prohibited unless authorized by ATC"
"Contact LaGuardia Airport Traffic Control Tower prior to Governors Island on 126.05"
"ALSO, monitor and report on CTAF 123.075"

I have not read about anyone flying fixed wing in this area and interested in the procedure and any details you have on it or local knowledge.

I have flown the Hudson River and East River three times and all three times were along the "Skyline Route" with bravo clearance. I don't feel comfortable flying in the bravo exclusion because there's a lot of traffic, especially helicopter traffic, and I like talking with ATC and having them control traffic along my route, even if they aren't guaranteeing separation. I've always been assigned 1400' or 1500' altitudes in the bravo. On the other hand, the benefit to flying in the bravo exclusion is that you can fly down to 1000', which some consider a better viewing height.

If you haven't already, check out the New York TAC and this kneeboard sheet for all the frequencies and rules.

If you want to go through the bravo, basically you request the Skyline Route from LaGuardia or Newark (based on whether you are coming from Alpine Tower or VZ Bridge) and get cleared into the bravo. When speaking to Newark tower, tell them you want to want to go up the East River to the Queensboro Bridge and then across the park back to the Hudson and then north or southbound. I believe they will always allow it unless LaGuardia is using runway 13. Newark will approve you for the East River and tell you to fly over Governor's Island, and when you get to that point they will hand you off to LaGuardia Tower. You have to be quick on the radios on this route because there is a lot of traffic, but the good news is that these tower frequencies only handle river traffic, so you're not annoying some controller that only wants to concentrate on traffic in and out of their airports. If you want to exit the Skyline Route and head west, you can request a handoff to and transition over Teterboro or Newark.

Though I have never flown in the bravo exclusion, I suspect instead of requesting the East River from Newark, you'd just tune LaGuardia and ask for East River clearance before reaching Governor's island and if you were denied, then you'd just continue northbound up the Hudson River.

Edit: thinking more about this, if you were flying in the exclusion instead of in the bravo, then you’d want to be clear with LaGuardia that you want to cross the park when asking for clearance into the East River, otherwise you could be cleared into the East River bravo exclusion but not into the bravo and you’d have to do a 180 over the narrow river to get out where you entered since there is no bravo exclusion over Manhattan.
 
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So I’ve been working on the fuselage for about a month and a half now. I just got done clecoing the forward fuselage, the center section and the seat rib assembly together. Now I’m moving on to the tailcone bulkheads. It’s really exciting to see it start looking like an airplane. This site has been an amazing resource during this time.

Even though I’m tall, it’s hard to lean over the side of the fuselage to work inside. So for now I’m going to lower my bench down to about 2’ and then work on building a rotisserie.

I’m taking an EAA Sportair class on electrical systems and avionics mid-April, so I will start thinking about how to wire everything.

Considering that I’m about 1/3rd of the way through the fuselage build, I’m starting to worry that I am going to finish the fuselage and the canopy and whatever else I can do before my engine arrives and I can start on the FWF. I ordered a thunderbolt IO-360-M1B about a month and a half ago and I’d be surprised if I receive it within a year and a half. My finishing kit is supposed to arrive this fall and my QB wings early next year.. I just hope to always have something to work on and not to have to wait for parts. Maybe I’m completely oblivious to how long it is going to take me, but I have been getting in around 30hrs a week so I feel like things will move quickly. I thought about changing my order to the non thunderbolt engine, which seems to have a 9 month lead time. Though I don’t know if I can change that now.

Thoughts?
 

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I ordered my Thunderbolt M1B March 2022, as of Dec 2022 estimated delivery is April 2024.
 
I received my Andair fuel valve and Tosten military grip (laser engraved by Midwest Panel Builders). Both of these look and feel amazing. Very high quality. I can’t wait to put them in my -8.

I’m a few rivets away from the QB fuselage point but now have to figure out what problems I may have due to the laser cut part issue. So far, I don’t see any issues. Hopefully Vans will have clear guidance by the time we get back from Oshkosh.
 

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