OUUUCCCCHHH-the RV Bug

Hello all!
I have been lurking here for awhile and this is a great site. I recently decided to have a fun airplane to fly, turn upside down occasionally and do some traveling in. While I was searching for really used taildraggers online I came accross a pic of an RV-8 and I new that it was "the one."

This will be my second home built. The first was a Mini-Max that was a blast to fly but you weren't going anywhere in it. Instead of 25,000 rivets it had 10,486 staples.
I remember seeing Van's RV at Sun-N-Fun about 100 years ago and was very impressed. Now, a lifetime later, the circle is complete.

Since I am in the process of being single (again) I have some logistics to work out. I have another deployment coming up next year and I would like to be well on the way in the build before I go. Meanwhile, I will be reading, planning and saving.

Thanks for the great site and the information here.
Let the dumb questions begin!

Welcome to VAF!!!!

Vern, welcome to the good ship VAF

Glad to have you aboard.

As you are probably aware, there is an incredible amount of info available here, just waiting for you to utilize.

I also am looking forward to a 8 build sometime in the future.

Well half your problems re: building quickly are taken care of since you're single again!!

So you should be in charge of your free time, now you just need the money and skills.

Look into a build class and spend a weekend learning aluminum skills if you don't have them already. A couple days of supervised building will go a long way towards efficient and quick building as you don't have to rework as many mistakes or wait for new parts.

Cheers and welcome.

Welcome!

Vern,
Always good to have another 8 driver in the group.
Enjoy the journey!

All the best!

A quick check on Google maps tells me that Grady AL is a HUGH metropolitan city. Well, maybe not that big.

Seems to me that second to only to Texas, Alabama has about the most builders of RV's. I can't prove that but there does seem to be a bunch over there. You'll be in good company. If you can make it, SERFI always has a bunch of RV's show up. I hope to have mine there this year.

Welcome!

grantcarruthers said:

Look into a build class and spend a weekend learning aluminum skills if you don't have them already. A couple days of supervised building will go a long way towards efficient and quick building as you don't have to rework as many mistakes or wait for new parts.

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I second this opinion. I just returned from the Valentine's Day EAA session in Lakeland and the basic sheet metal class taught me a lot. The skills I learned were a real plus, but the tips and tricks were even more important as they were things I would probably never have thought of. It was money very well spent in my case.

Good luck and welcome aboard from another new RV-8 builder.