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Advice For Future RV-8 Sale

Skot7ac

Member
I was wondering if anyone who has sent their 8 to a new home had any advice for the process? I know, best advice is don’t do it and I’m still mulling it over a bit, but I think in the near future our 8 will probably be looking form a new home. I’m quite terrible at this as every airplane I’ve sold has remained on our local airport (KARB), but what would have made the process easier?
 
sale

Not much to it really. Have a signed bill of sale (EAA makes decent one) that removes liability from builder.

One thing I found worked when I tried to sell one of my RVs is updating pictures on the ad every once in a while. Adding details and new pics seemed to gather more interest.

Should be easy to sell if its a standard 8.
 
I was wondering if anyone who has sent their 8 to a new home had any advice for the process? I know, best advice is don’t do it and I’m still mulling it over a bit, but I think in the near future our 8 will probably be looking form a new home. I’m quite terrible at this as every airplane I’ve sold has remained on our local airport (KARB), but what would have made the process easier?

I don't have an RV, but I think who you sell your plane to is just as important. I built a Lindy winning LongEZ and a guy who just really wanted a canard got in touch with me. I eventually sold the plane at a very good price. When I delivered the plane to the Left Coast, I taxied up to his hangar and found that the only tool in the hangar was a funnel. When he had a problem with the plane the first thing he did was call me and ask what was wrong with it. So you try to help, but the guy couldn't be convinced to remove the cowling.

So I think there is more to selling an experimental airplane than just a liability release. Make sure the owner embodies the spirit of experimental aviation and wants to learn about the plane and work on it, not just jump in and go like a rental.

MTCW
 
I don't have an RV, but I think who you sell your plane to is just as important. I built a Lindy winning LongEZ and a guy who just really wanted a canard got in touch with me. I eventually sold the plane at a very good price. When I delivered the plane to the Left Coast, I taxied up to his hangar and found that the only tool in the hangar was a funnel. When he had a problem with the plane the first thing he did was call me and ask what was wrong with it. So you try to help, but the guy couldn't be convinced to remove the cowling.

So I think there is more to selling an experimental airplane than just a liability release. Make sure the owner embodies the spirit of experimental aviation and wants to learn about the plane and work on it, not just jump in and go like a rental.

MTCW

Me!! I go to a certified mechanic for everything on my 8. People always ask me, "Did you build it?" I always answer "No- If I built it, you wouldn't wanna fly in it, and neither would I":D:D
 
As a buyer, it's really frustrating finding one for sale, finding anyone to do a pre-buy is next to impossible, and the cost of going around looking at aircraft all over the country is a headache.

The seller I got in touch with was very honest and open, had all the docs ready, took me through the build log, etc. You may think I'm crazy, I didn't do a pre-buy. Every plane is going to have it's gotcha's you need to work on and pay $$ to get right, regardless of how diligent you were. Certified planes are even worse.

I went with my gut feeling on the seller and it worked out.
 
I did the same. Purchased a RV6A, had many conversations and walk thrus on the aircraft with builder. Researched as many known problems I could from this forum and inspected aircraft using all the suggestions and tips from forum. Happy as can be.
 
Have a signed bill of sale (EAA makes decent one) that removes liability from builder. .

Don't want to start a debate, but the builders liability cannot be eliminated like this. If this is a concern to the OP, do your research. Generally speaking, the builders concern is that if a future pilot dies in a plane that you built, it is the family that will sue you and the pilot cannot legally sign away his families rights to sue you. You would need waivers from all parties involved in that pilots potential estate/financial dependence circle. Even if the pilot is just injured, there are many legal remedies to side step a limitation of liability agreement, if negligence can be proven (not as hard as most people would think). The cornerstone of most lawsuits like this is negligence or duty of care violations.

Also, when buyer A sells the airplane to buyer B, you no longer have a liability waiver and it is just as easy for Buyer B to sue the builder as Buyer A. Cessna gets sued constantly eventhough the plane has been bought and sold 10 times.

What you have going for you is that the buyer knowingly purchased a plane that was built in some average guys garage; This assumes a level of risk taking. That lowers the expectation of quality and makes negligence tougher to prove. Don't ever make claims to a buyer like this plane is just as good or better than a certified plane

Larry
 
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Make a detailed video with your phone showing the entire aircraft and any dents and scratches. You could even show doing a compression check of the engine. It is very easy to set up a YouTube account and post the video there. A detailed video is almost as good as going on road trip to see the plane.
 
When I read this post by the OP, my first thought was “release of liability?” Since when? As far as I know, you don’t release your liability as manufacturer of an aircraft until you have passed the federal statute of repose (18 years) no matter how times your aircraft has been sold. Some states have different statutes on various forms of liability, but the federal statute on aviation liability is usually what rules since the General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994 (GARA). If you didn’t build the airplane, sold it, and then the new owner had a bad problem and tried to sue you, they (new owner or heirs) would have to be able to prove negligence on your part that caused the accident, and even if they could, they could still sue the original builder too (name on the data plate) for his/her part in the construction of the aircraft. I don’t think that these lawsuits are usually successful because of the cost of litigation and the fact that most litigants don’t have deep enough pockets.
My friend is being sued by the guy that bought his RV8 eight years ago and then had a fatal accident in it last September (2020). The aircraft was certified in 2004 - one year before reaching the federal statute of repose. Who knows how the airplane was maintained or operated during that 8 years that the fatally injured owner had it. My friend will probably not loose the suit, but it will cost him dearly trying to defend himself.
 
Scott, I think the 18 years starts when aircraft is first sold. If the builder kept it for 20 years, then sold it, the 18 years starts counting when sold. It might be possible to sell it to your wife to start the clock but I don’t know.
 
GARA

I read some of the GARA document. It does say 18 years from “delivery”. You would need to deliver the aircraft to start that clock. Something else interesting is that it says ,18 years from the replacement of an old component with a new one. So if you rebuilt say a new set of flaps then there’s 2 clocks. The original delivery clock, and the clock on the new set of flaps.
The clock on the flaps would only be relevant if the flaps were the component that failed and caused the accident.


Due to the nature of maintaining aircraft, there will be all sorts of secondary component clocks.
 
Me!! I go to a certified mechanic for everything on my 8. People always ask me, "Did you build it?" I always answer "No- If I built it, you wouldn't wanna fly in it, and neither would I":D:D

Me too! I do have a lot of tools in my hangar but they are mostly used for removing inspection panels, flooring etc for my A&P. Doing that, I've saved more than enough money to pay for the tools. My collection makes me look like I might know what I'm doing, but that wouldn't be accurate.
 
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