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CFI for RV-8

J

John Salvini

Member
Hi, I'm a new RV-8 owner and looking for a CFI for instruction in an RV-8 (either yours or mine) in Phoenix, San Luis Obispo, or wherever you are. The airplane is in PHX, and I live in SBP.

Maybe we could include a cross country from PHX to its new home in SBP since I am not qualified to fly it yet.

thanks,

John
805-234-1024
 
Hi there, my dad and I just completed our RV8 a few weeks ago. Now both of us had no prior RV flying, so my dad went up to oregon to get signed off, and I went to SBP for instruction a bit later in an another RV7. The RV7 doesn't feel too much different in my opinion. Sure enough, the fellow I did the flying with has his RV7 out of SBP. His name is Paul, i'm sure he's probably wandering around these forums somewhere.

He is a CFI, last I looked he was still working on getting a certificate so that he can charge for the use of the airplane for the transition training.
 
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I did transition training in an rv-6 with kent Gorton, flew commercial to Cincinnati to pick up my -8 a couple months later, and flew it for a pattern to get comfortable with the plane and land it once before I blasted off to Georgia. Nothing like trying to learn your plane on a cross country back home. If you do trans training in a side by side, you will have no problem with centerline seating, as I find it much easier to fly. Not a lot of opportunity to do trans training in a tandem RV though. I am trying to fly from kansas to phx in a week and a half if you want to go up in mine, or vice versa, but I don't have rear rudder pedals.
 
In the air, the differences are minimal. Just be careful with -8 cg. Particularly when nose heavy and landing. Depending on specific conditions (cg, speed, etc.), you can run out of elevator landing. Been there, done that.
 
Personally, I found my time in Citabria's and Decathlons to be more helpful with flying my RV8 than the side by side transition training was. My transition trainer was very focused on three point landing and would not allow a wheel landing but my 8, especially in solo forward CG, is a wheel landing aircraft. The transition training was almost all about landings....very little of which applied to my RV8.

The one major thing I took away from the transition training was speed control with the flaps out. Very easy to over speed them.
 
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ColoRv said:
Personally, I found my time in Citabria's and Decathlons to be more helpful with flying my RV8 than the side by side transition training was. My transition trainer was very focused on three point landing and would not allow a wheel landing but my 8, especially in solo forward CG, is a wheel landing aircraft. The transition training was almost all about landings....very little of which applied to my RV8.

The one major thing I took away from the transition training was speed control with the flaps out. Very easy to over speed them.
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Good pts!

To others, if you have little/no time in -8's, *do not* let your transition CFI work only on 3 pts landings. These are near useless in an -8 initially, and will likely get you in deep trouble. Work the wheel landings first until you are very familiar with them before venturing into 3 pts.
 
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Transition training

Low Pass said:
Good pts!

To others, if you have little/no time in -8's, *do not* let your transition CFI work only on 3 pts landings. These are near useless in an -8 initially, and will likely get you in deep trouble. Work the wheel landings first until you are very familiar with them before venturing into 3 pts.
Click to expand...

I agree. I did my transition training in a RV-7 with a highly skilled and experienced CFI. They land differently and I became proficient 3 pt. landing it but made me nervous about wheel landings. I did OK in the -8 3 point landing and listened to advice about doing the first 50 or 100 landings as 3 pt before starting to wheel land and believed it because of the different landing characteristics of the -7 that I trained in. I cautiously started wheel landings and have not looked back. It is much better suited for the -8, in my opinion, especially if you are not tremendously runway length limited. Your mileage may vary.

John
RV-8
 
ColoRv said:
Personally, I found my time in Citabria's and Decathlons to be more helpful with flying my RV8 than the side by side transition training was. My transition trainer was very focused on three point landing and would not allow a wheel landing but my 8, especially in solo forward CG, is a wheel landing aircraft.
Click to expand...

Low Pass said:
To others, if you have little/no time in -8's, *do not* let your transition CFI work only on 3 pts landings. These are near useless in an -8 initially, and will likely get you in deep trouble. Work the wheel landings first until you are very familiar with them before venturing into 3 pts.
Click to expand...

This is all good info for me. My transition training was 3-pointers only in an RV-7. Led to much frustration and many RV cha-grins when I got home and badly botched 3-pointers in my 8.

One of the flying clubs at my home field just got an Xtreme Decathlon and I've booked some dual in that to work on wheel landings, crosswind landings, etc. Can't wait and I'm glad to hear that it will probably transfer nicely to my 8.
 
I couldn't 3 point my -8 if my life depended on it when I first started flying it. I spent the first 25+ hours trying to do it and finally gave up. You can find lots of threads on this in the forums, but the -8 is best suited for wheel landings (for the majority of us), especially solo/forward CG. I find that having the tail just a little low does the trick.

YMMV, batteries not included, etc...
 
We did both 3pt and wheel landings in transition training with Mike Seager, but far more focus on 3pt.

After 30+ hours in our RV-8 now I find 3-point landings work just fine, and I'm still more comfortable with them than wheel landings. My wheel landings are definitely improving with practice. Nickb145 on the other hand, seems to prefer wheel landing the airplane most of the time. YMMV.

-Greg
 
colojo said:
This is all good info for me. My transition training was 3-pointers only in an RV-7. Led to much frustration and many RV cha-grins when I got home and badly botched 3-pointers in my 8.

One of the flying clubs at my home field just got an Xtreme Decathlon and I've booked some dual in that to work on wheel landings, crosswind landings, etc. Can't wait and I'm glad to hear that it will probably transfer nicely to my 8.
Click to expand...

Joe, that decathlon xtreme is the one I was renting to brush up for first flight. Love that plane. The -8 is far better tho.. :)
 
Thanks for the offer Ryan, but I've made arrangements to have it home by then.
And thanks to everyone else for their great advice.
I will work on wheel landings too. Being forewarned is sure to help.

John
 
The reason wheel landings are more natural in the RV8, at least in mine, is because it is not ln a stalled atitude when in a three point stance. I like to land tail low and rock forward after touchdown to dump lift and keep it firmly planted.
 
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