Show us the status of your 8/8A project!

[mlwynn]

Hi all,

This is my first post to this thread. I have finished the wing, empennage and am mostly done with the fuselage. I put the plane up on its gear a couple of weeks ago preparatory to hanging the engine last weekend. I didn't want to put all the weight of the engine on the fuselage on saw horses. It will definitely be a little more awkward working inside, but I had the engine and don't have the panel yet. Anyway, here it is with my puppy Lucy. Hope I did the picture correctly.

[BuckWynd]

Looks great, Mike! Soon, you won't have to sit in it and make airplane noises with your mouth. (You know, the ones that cause your dog to look at you funny...) You'll just hit the start button to make noise!

Thanks for the inspiration!

[Craig23]

My long-running RV-8 project made it's first trip out of the garage last Sunday, after I finally got it up on the landing gear. My engine an prop will be coming soon, barring any more supply delays from Superior, and I wanted to have it on the gear before trying to mount the engine. Eagle Engines in Redding, CA is building me a 180 hp IO-360 with one P-Mag. I'm thinking about putting an E-Mag on the other side. American Propellers is putting together a Whirlwind 200RV that should be shipping with the engine. Other than getting those mounted, my next project will be to start working on the canopy. Hopefully it will be warm enough by the time I get back into town next weekend.

I'm still looking for a partner, so if anyone near Santa Rosa, CA wants to be a half-owner in an RV-8 project, send me an e-mail or pm.

[gpiney]

Well, here is what took me a year to do. There was a lot of 'Life' and 'Work' taking time away from me. Today I installed the first 2 skins on the Mid Fuselage. Those Conical bends on the bottom aft are a bitch.

[DanH]

Well, here's my official on-the-gear picture. All the glass is done except for the cowl and the wingtips, so it's a bit further along than usual at this point. The canopy, a new rollbar, and all the cockpit guts are ready too. Painted the interior and all the bits last weekend and today. Even the belly is painted; did that before I attached the gear and rolled it. I'm gonna finish paint the canopy assembly next, while I have the booth clean, then I'll hang the 390 and fit the cowl.

[Mike S]

Dan, lookin good!!

I really like the Show Planes fastback, nice setup-----you need to post a better shot of the aft fuse. And the canopy setup.

[DanH]

The aft turtledeck is just ....taller. I suspect most folks don't realize you also replace the cockpit rails, as well as trim back the boot cowl skin and install a removable fiberglass section between the boot cowl and the instrument panel.

The only crazy part about doing one of these is dragging a perfectly good QB fuselage into the shop and drilling out 300-350 rivets <g>

Canopy photos soon. Blocking a little K36 today, paint later this week.

[Scott Hersha]

Well..... one picture at a time, and let's see if I can post it to the right page.... this is a project, not a finished plane yet....
Here's one of my RV-8 fastback under construction.





Scott Hersha
RV-8 FB

[Rick6a]

The "slow" build -8 fuselage/finish kits, delivered March of last year has been ready to move to the airport for several weeks now. Mating the wings is about all that remains. Thanks to a bulkhead fitting, the soft aluminum tubing from the heated pitot tube terminates behind the static instruments. The panel and radio have been fired up and check out fine. In my quest for a simplified final assembly sequence, all electrical wires from the wings including OAT probe, AOA hoses and VOR coax cable simply need to be "plugged in" at the wing root where associated receptacles await. I spent a lot of time reworking the aft canopy skirt to assure a good fit when the canopy is locked. I also modified the empennage fairing to close the gap under the horizontal stab. Fitted with Grove airfoil gear, my old C-150 towbar works perfectly with the Bell tailwheel fork. The Silverbullet link will have to wait until I permanently attach the rudder. I'd would have done that now to make final assembly go even quicker but cannot fit the airplane into the garage with the control surfaces attached.

[DanH]

Scott! Rick! Slow down! Ya'll are making me feel like a slug. <g>

Seriously....nice work guys.