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

Dan, I would love to know your performance during and after Phase 1. I built F1 Rocket #3 (6 years flying at KNQA and still love it) and have mentally built an airplane that looks EXACTLY like yours. The efficiency could be over the top.

Well, I'll sure let you know. First flight won't be until after Oct 1st, for tax reasons. Sure hope it's efficient.
 
Now that I've started...

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I can say this...
 
How is that -8 project coming?

I've been getting that question a lot lately. I've been working pretty steady for the last couple of months. This is the Showplanes fastback in progress.

Sometimes it is just more fun to find a good reason to use new tools. How to cut a perfect 3/8" slot...
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My tool for adjusting flanges. You might be able to tell it has already built one whole airplane.
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Don't you know, it all has to come apart soon...
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Well, it flies......

Running checks at the hangar...:

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.....take it out and show it the runway:

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....gas it.....:

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....and a half hour later a genuine gold medal 9.9:

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Temperatures and pressures were all very good. It was about 80F on the ground today. Cruising at 24.5/2550, oil was 185F and 78 psi with all CHT's between 298 and 310. A level run at 4.5K using 24.5/2650 indicated 185 knots on both the analog and digital airspeeds. With CHT's that low I'll run a few hours and then start squeezing down the exit area per plan .....me like ;)
 
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You won't be jealous for long Mike. Good buddy Dennis Millsap came by Wetumpka with his new RV10 last week. We went riding around of course. I liked it every bit as much as another friend's Columbia 350, if that illustrates the point.

As for us poor folks......it sure is nice to be back in an -8.
 
Excellent Dan -

I rushed our 7 down the runway today but as we are still waiting for paperwork I couldn't get airborne......... :mad:

1st time we had all things together so it made sense to bed brakes, check steering, prop, electrics etc etc. All fine.

I hope to have similar photos and the big grin shot in the next 2 weeks :cool:
 
Congrats Dan...sure looks purty in the air! Numbers sure sound great too!

Have fun!!

Look out RV Gold...here comes Big Dan! :D

Cheers,
Bob
 
Congrats Dan, enjoy phase 1. Get ready for builders withdrawal, it's coming:D

Naaa Allen, not in my shop. You see, I have this set of big wings scratch built by my own craftsmanship guru, Raymond Griffin. Ultra low speed airfoil; the next project is probably a Super Breezy.
 
Dan,
There are only two words in the English language that adequately describe those numbers...


WOO HOO!! :D

Great looking airplane, man. Have fun with it!
 
Way to go!

Congratulations Dan! You have one beautiful machine there! Can't wait to see it out in the wild.
Have fun with the test sorties!
 
Awesome!

Very nice Dan! Congrats! That is one sweet looking ride. I look forward to seeing it in person soon...
 
You need to bottle and market the secret sauce you used to get such admirable CHT's.

Poor secret, as I've written about most of it here. The CHTs are too cold now. They'll go up later when I start working on speed. First I need to dial in the prop governor, polish the canopy, squeeze an aileron, tweak the autopilot settings, chase down an upholstery guy.....
 
Getting there...

Well in anticipation of having a bunch of folks over to the house for a Fall Party, I stuck the cowl and wheel pants on, layed the floor boards back down, and put the seats and panel back inside so folks could get a look of how it supposed to be when completed - sans wings. Well I couldn't resist rolling it outside and grabbing a couple of photos. Abby had just finished my sheepskin seats - there are SWEET! Thanks Abby at Flight Line Interiors!

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-8 Underway in Foothill Ranch, CA

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Here are a couple of pics from my -8 project. Empennage and wings are done, and the fuselage is started.

Hugh Cook
Foothill Ranch CA
 
Well, I guess this is my last post for the status thread.

Eventually there is nothing much left, except to see if your favorite lawn chair will fit in the baggage compartment:



Kicked back at SERFI this weekend, photo credit to my buddy Stan. Always fun to put some faces with the names. If you spot this ugly b**tard, please do stop and say hello.
 
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Serfi

It was great to meet you Dan and see your workmanship up close and personal. If any of you guys haven't figured it out yet, this is one beautiful airplane. Dan is WAAAY too modest in talking about it. I predict a Grand Champion winner at OSH 11.

Thanks for taking the time to chat, Dan.
 
We don't have any kids, so I guess this is as close to "first steps" as I'll get! :D

It's blowing to 30 knots today so no "first time outside" pics yet.

And yes, I'm an EXTREMELY slow builder. :rolleyes:

Joe


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Larry! How you been, Amigo?

Andy, yup, I guess that's what it's called; I just call it "swirls" :eek:

2" grid on the FW, 2" maroon Scotchbrite disc on a cordless drill. One swirl in each square, then one swirl on each intersection. Almost as easy as it sounds ;)

My FW was so beat up after riveting, I had to do something!

Nowhere near perfect, but not bad for free hand, flying by the seat of my pants...looks better in person than in these pics.



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cooling ramp edges

Hey Joe,

Are the angled trim edges on your cooling ramp lip cut that way to clear your "A" engine mount? That radius lip is fairly important for cooling drag and I would not trim those less than full width unless really necessary.
 
Update on 819wb

Hello All:
Thought it was time to post an update. I've got my 40hrs flown off. Uneventful. Gave my wife her first ride. Unfortunately we discovered the back set headset didn't work. Surprisingly we could still hear each other if we shouted. Anyway, we weren't going to wait to fix the headset for that first ride. She loved it. Said it flew like a dream. (she's a pilot). Now to figure out the headset issue and why my encoder is not talking to my transponder....It's always something.
 
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After 6 months of not being able to touch the plane I was proud Saturday to
squeeze the first rivet. A bit later when installing the hinge bearing I realized I had squeezed a few last Spring. The left side is almost done. 20,000+ rivets to go :)

(Wing kit gets ordered this week)
 
Doug,

Way to go! That rivet looks very airworthy. Repeat as necessary and soon you will have a plane.:D
 
Only 1 component to go!

I am down to my last component to complete before paint, the cowl. Oh, the dichotomy of fiberglass; it is easy to work with, but the process sucks.

And thanks to Paul's nice Kitplanes articles, I now know I am a victim of the self-inflicted pain of customization. :)



 
And thanks to Paul's nice Kitplanes articles, I now know I am a victim of the self-inflicted pain of customization. :)

Glad I could help Wade! ;)

It's great to see you making progress and getting' it done! I still want to know how you're going to manage a hangar on your lot, without an aircraft carrier type elevator to get up to the runway surface....:p
 
New on here, From England and building an RV8 with the showplanes Fastback and cowl with Grove Streamlined legs. I have loads of pictures of progress but as I am new on here it wont let me add atachments :(

Still gives me time to go through all pages on this thread!

Dave
 
Photo links seem to be working Dave - just have to copy and paste the img tag lines from your Photobucket account.

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