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What's a realistic daily range for an 8?

moespeeds

Well Known Member
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Not talking iron butt type stuff here. How far do you travel in a day when you have your gf/wife in the back?

Moe Colontonio
Cherry Hill, NJ
 
6 hours - two legs. ~3.5 hours, gas, then 2.5 hours.

It also helps if you have oxygen and fly above the bumps (dependent on winds of course).

Carl
 
6 hours - two legs. ~3.5 hours, gas, then 2.5 hours.

It also helps if you have oxygen and fly above the bumps (dependent on winds of course).

Carl
This^^^ for a GF. Might de rate this a bit for a wife. Get high, smooth and cool. Oxygen helps a lot! GF/wife headaches are *bad.*

Not even going to touch that GF & wife thing. Internet is forever!
 
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The limiting factor for passenger endurance is turbulence in the spring/summer and cold temperatures in the winter/spring. The 8 is a comfortable back seat ergonomically.
 
female pilots too!

What if it is the gf/wife that owns & drives the 8, with the toy boy in the back?
 
Louise and I routinely flew Houston to LA in a day, and usually plan Reno to Oshkosh as a day. But - we trade off legs, so we alternate flying and sleeping in back. Then there was the time she caught a great wind up high on her leg, and set an aircraft record of four hours and forty minutes, block to block. Glad I was sleeping most of that leg.... ;)

Paul
 
Now I know why I really need to finish up my -8 project. So I can take a nap in the back seat!
 
Uncomfortable in rear seat.

Well the RV8 is very comfortable in the front for very long periods...if it has comfortable seats. But I was really surprised how uncomfortable it was for me in the rear seat on a recent trip. I just found it to be unpleasant with my feet forced to be continuously separated by the width of the pilot seat. I was starting to feel uncomfortable after an hour and when we arrived at our destination after 90 minutes I was really happy to get out.

Maybe it’s just me, but I cannot imagine spending 3 hours like that in the rear. I haven’t heard of this being a problem for others but I’m imagining that many RV8 pilots have never spent hours in the rear seat of their aircraft so they might not understand the limitations.
 
.... But I was really surprised how uncomfortable it was for me in the rear seat on a recent trip. I just found it to be unpleasant with my feet forced to be continuously separated by the width of the pilot seat...


Unfortunately, ....I gotta agree with this. I've gotten back seat rides in 2 different -8s.

One was a real show plane with all the bells and whistles. Between trying to keep my feet off the rudder pedals (when not on the controls), and trying to keep them off the fancy leather(?) map pockets, my poor knees ended up being unhappy after about an hour.

The 2nd was a basic ship with no frills, no backseat rudder pedals, and no worries about smudging up the pretty interior. It was much more comfortable. Maybe someone under 5'7" with healthy knees would do fine for a full day back there. But, my poor knees wouldn't last that long.

I've decided I'm gonna install the hardware for back seat rudder pedals. But, I'm not gonna leave the pedals in. And no fancy map pockets to interfere with the pax foot wells.
 
The rear seat in the -8 is far more comfortable if you build it up about two or three inches with a wedge-shaped structure. Without it, you are just sitting on teh floor, and you’re not going to last long. So if you’ve had a bad experience, it might have been a bad configuration.

Paul
 
RV-8 LONG LEGS!

My neighbor Brian in his immaculate RV-8 recently flew him and his wife from Dallas to South Dakota, flew by Mount Rushmore, then flew back to Dallas.....all in one day! Now his RV-8 is NICE and the seats are comfortable but MAN, iron butt. Two weeks ago Brian flew solo from Dallas to Providence, Maine in ONE DAY! So...the legs of the -8 are dependent on the pilot and PAX. Me and my RV-4? 450 miles max one leg and Dallas to OSH, Dallas to PHX is my limit in one day. With my wife in the PIT, she prefers under an hour. Have fun!
 
I agree with 'ironflight', build the rear seat up, far more comfy. I rarely do more than 2.5 hrs in mine, at my age I wanna pee too many times and the bottle fills rapidly:D
After spending a career stuck in a cockpit for hours on end bored flying now is meant to be fun and comfy:)
 
My solo Iron Butt record in my RV-8 is 10 hours from Houston to Boise, ID last summer with multiple stops along the way. My “duty day” was around 14-15 hours... I was worn out after that! The Classic Aero seats were a lifesaver, comfortable all day.

Now with my wife in the back, we’ve done two 3 hour legs for a total of 6 hours, and that’s plenty.
 
Lot of women sit differently in the plane

Most women are shorter, and more flexible. Those who've traveled with me end up sitting cross legged, knees bent feet in front of the seat, or generally some position where their feet are not in the footwells. Bring a blanket or two. I've never had a comfort complaint, but I have pretty good seats. In my experience, the onloading and offloading of water will be the limiting factor in most cases.
 
My wife is not a fan of flying. We are in a 6, not an 8, but we routinely do 6 hours in two 3 hour legs with a lunch or dinner stop. We have done several 8 hours in 4 hour legs. Once we did 14 hours of scud running. The key is to have a destination that your wife really wants to get to. Our typical flight is 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

Do you have a destination in mind, or are you just asking? From Cherry Hill, Nantucket, Block Island, The Outer Banks, and all under the 1-1/2 hour window that should be a cake walk.

For a wife or Girlfriend, a side by side is much better.
 
Put this under whatever you have for a rear seat. It makes a world of difference. I did a 5.5 hour trip in the back of an 8A - not as comfortable as the front but not bad at all (and I’m not a tiny guy). I still had plenty of head room and my legs where not so straight.

I agree that having rear seat rudder petals is a negative for long trips. I did not install them in the new RV-8.

https://www.amazon.com/CYLEN-Memory...d_rd_i=B01G1CBYAK&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_24_i

Carl
 
Put this under whatever you have for a rear seat. It makes a world of difference. I did a 5.5 hour trip in the back of an 8A - not as comfortable as the front but not bad at all (and I’m not a tiny guy). I still had plenty of head room and my legs where not so straight.

I agree that having rear seat rudder petals is a negative for long trips. I did not install them in the new RV-8.

https://www.amazon.com/CYLEN-Memory...d_rd_i=B01G1CBYAK&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_d_rp_24_i

Carl

The link didn’t work for me.
 
My wife, Slinky, flew with me to every airshow for 7 years since she was our PR person and announcer, and never complained about anything but being cold a few times. Like Paul said, have some height in the rear cushion so legs not straight out. Shoulder width is far superior to 6,7 and 9.
We used to schedule first leg at 2.5 to 3 hours, stretch, eat, etc. and then maybe a couple hour leg to finish. Together we’ve put a couple thousand hours on ours and she still vastly prefers it to the long aluminum tubes that we can non-rev on..
Good cushions and good headsets and a good sunshade make for good trips..
 
RV8

With regards to raising the rear seat ..... I made a booster for mine that holds some basic travel stuff. Simple fiberglass reinforced foam box with an .040 aluminum lid .
 

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