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AVERAGE BUILD TIME

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Anon455

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Looking only for the build times for the following components from professional builders that do it full time in a shop designed to build the planes and have all the professional tools blah blah blah. Sorry I wasn't clear to begin with in my OP.

Empennage:

Wing:

Fuselage:
 
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If you could build 40 hours a week, already were skilled at metal and fiberglass work, and staged your orders so you weren’t waiting on anything, you would have 2000 hours a year, which Vans claims is more than enough. Even with lower skill, I’d think 1-2 years would be enough for most builders. An experienced person could do less than a year, possibly much less if really focused
On efficiency.
 
Sounds like 6.75 years. :D

Seriously its impossible to say. It really depends on how much time you can commit to the build and your experience level. Also how much of a perfectionist you are. I think Vans was saying 2000 hours at one point. I have over 1600 hours logged and many not logged. I still don't have my cabin finished or my engine mounted. Unfortunately if I had to guess I'd say I'm more than 400 hours away.

2000 hours is probably a good starting point for your answer though. How many hours a week can you devote to the project? This is every single week. Then there are holidays, vacations if we ever get those again. Do you have a shop or a garage that you can work in. That helps. Right now I have to go to my hangar to do my work. Anyway you get the idea.
 
10 years and counting

I'm at 10 years and at the early parts of the fuselage. Somewhere under 1000 hours of build time as well. The reason is mostly life got in the way. In that 10 years, I took a massive pay cut, so I shelved the project for about 5 years. I had a great place to store it, safe and dry while I lived the nomadic young pilot life chasing jobs around the country. It also includes getting married, moving, renovating the garage into a workshop and starting a family. Now a 10-month old kid takes up a lot of time. Family being more important than airplane, that's where much of my time goes. I usually get 2 hours per day on the plane now and that seems to be a good balance. Researching happens in the evening when I'm tired and error prone.
 

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3-6 years for a motivated average first time builder. I built mine in 3.5 years working a full time job.
 
More than anything else, it's going to depend on how much time you have available to build. I have a feeling all these guys saying two years is realistic are retired, or at least empty-nesters.

I'm coming up on eight years so far; no idea how many hours--I haven't been counting and don't want to know. But in the intervening time, I changed jobs, adopted a baby, built a workshop, and my wife had some major medical stuff going on for a couple years. Now, with an almost 5-year-old at home all the time instead of at school (don't get me started), building time is usually only a few hours a week. At least now I'm within sight of having the funds to finish everything (probably by June/July), though I think the actual finishing process will take till the end of next year.

My efficiency would almost certainly go up if I could get the same time condensed into one longer session, with no interruptions. Hard to get a lot done when someone's calling for your help/attention every 20-30 minutes :rolleyes:


For another data point, my dad's slow-build RV-6 took 5 1/2 years. But, he had an airline schedule and a reasonably competent helper (me) who could work with him after school and take care of smaller tasks like deburring, dimpling, simple assembly, etc. while he was at work. Though that experience has certainly sped up part of my build (much smaller learning curve) I have no such assistance.
 
I am working a full time job and I am approaching 2 1/2 years into my RV 8 build. If I am retired and can devote all of my time into the build, this airplane would be finished in less than 2 years. For a point of reference, I took a 4 weeks of vacation last year and as able to turn the fuselage from flat sheet metal into a quick build stage during that time, working an average of 8 to 10 hours per day, 7 days per week. From that experience, I conclude the main driver to complete the build in a short number of years would be the number of hours you put into it. If you can find an experienced builder/helper, the build would be done in a much faster time. This is also why a build center such as Synergy Air can punch out so many completed airplanes at a fast rate. It provides plenty of experienced helpers and all you do while you are at the build center is building your airplane
 
I’m at seven years and 4000 hours almost finished slow build with a total of about six months of not building in this time frame. Average about 50 hours a month.
 
Not building an RV-8 but my annual work time runs between 100 hours and 700 hours. I'm semi-retired, with typically a few months a year where I get slammed and the rest of the year with only ordinary things to deal with.

your living condition matters a lot. Someone in a rental apartment will work more slowly than a homeowner with an attached garage, and someone married with a supportive spouse will make more progress than if you live alone. Sometimes kids can be a help and sometimes not.

Offhand I'd say that six months to 14 years probably brackets the more likely scenarios.

Dave
 
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... Now a 10-month old kid takes up a lot of time. Family being more important than airplane, that's where much of my time goes. ...
Good choice. If you ignore the airplane for a few years, it won't care. If you ignore your kids, they'll be grown up and gone before you know it, and you don't get a do-over. I paused my build for about 8 years to be with my kids - don't regret a second of that. At some point, they will want to spend more time with their friends than you, but they know where to find you - in the garage. Mine went through withdrawal symptoms like I did when the plane went to the hangar. Now that I'm flying, they said "Dad, this is the first time in my life you have not been building an airplane! Weird!" :)
 
I was bored waiting for parts and got interested in this. I went to the Vans website first flight reports for RV8’s and looked at roughly 45 reports from Jan 2019 to October 2020. Of those 17 reported build times. The minimum was 2 years the maximum 21. The average was just under 10 years. Interestingly serial number 32 flew for the first time in September 2019.
 
The Synergy Air owner said in one of the EAA webinars that a RV8 can be built at his build center from start to taxi in about 4 weeks. This is the kind build speed if you are avail with experienced helpers who have built quite a few RVs before. So if you have money upfront and want to fly a new and almost professional built RV8, give this outfit a call. (Sorry, doesn't mean to be an ad).
 
Build time

I know my build time is on the high side but it may be of some value since I document and log everything. Check my blog.
I'm retired. I had a dream I could work full time and finish in years. Clearly I missed, but the end is in sight. Life just has a way of getting in there. You have family. Cars and house repairs need to be done. I also worked Summers to make extra airplane build money.
Working the last 90%. FWF to the finish line!
 
RV-8 in 4 weeks ?

I built my RV-8 at Synergy Air in Eugene and it took me 3 years from start to DAR signoff.

Most builders I know from there, have built their plane in the 2-3 year time frame. This is to complete the plane to include painting.

I did this flying a full airline schedule and using all my vacation time and working three weeks on and two off building in Eugene. I would fly out and work for two weeks at a time (80-100hrs). After two weeks I would be burned out and go back to flying for a few weeks. Then start over again.

I wasn't there, but I find it very hard to believe you could build a RV-8 in 4 weeks. I know Glassair has a program like that. So it could be possible.
 
I suppose 4 weeks is possible, but it would take a lot of support and decisions made in the interest of time.
-multiple repeat offender
-order everything well in advance, so nothing is backordered
-no interior priming
-quick build
-a very knowledgeable assistant, basically holding the next tool that you'll need
-basic, and to the plans. modifications take a lot of time.
-12+ hours per day

Even then, I don't know. 12hr days for 28 days is still only 336 hours, times 2 for the assistant and 672 hours.

The amount of time I "waste" triple and quadruple checking something definitely adds up. Then again, so do the mistakes when I only double check and have to order a new part. :D
 
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I built my RV-8 at Synergy Air in Eugene and it took me 3 years from start to DAR signoff.

Most builders I know from there, have built their plane in the 2-3 year time frame. This is to complete the plane to include painting.

I did this flying a full airline schedule and using all my vacation time and working three weeks on and two off building in Eugene. I would fly out and work for two weeks at a time (80-100hrs). After two weeks I would be burned out and go back to flying for a few weeks. Then start over again.

I wasn't there, but I find it very hard to believe you could build a RV-8 in 4 weeks. I know Glassair has a program like that. So it could be possible.

Spent the same two weeks on, two weeks off for about 18 months total at Synergy Eugene completing a partially built RV-7A. I’d be curious to see this webinar as I know Vaden pretty well and doubt he would claim anything close to 4 weeks to build an RV-8. 14 weeks - maybe - but I’d guess more like 24 weeks.
 
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So far I think I've spent at least 2,000 hours looking for the 6" scale or cleco pliers I had in my hand 30 seconds ago...
 
So far I think I've spent at least 2,000 hours looking for the 6" scale or cleco pliers I had in my hand 30 seconds ago...

That has NEVER happened to me!.................Well today!...............Well within the last hour!
 
This thread is giving me hope! I'm building an RV-8, and in the beginning I figured I was padding my estimate when I thought the build would take 2,000 hrs over 4 yrs.

I now tell people that I'm in the eighth year of a four year project. If it takes me the full 8 yrs, I'll have spent 4,000 hrs of construction time. I'm detail-oriented, so I keep careful track of my construction time. I only log time I'm actually in the shop making progress, not time I spend shopping for supplies, researching how to do something, making decisions, problem solving, etc. I'm not trying to build a show plane and I have stuck to the plans in all but a few items (stainless steel cooling ramp, Grove gear, avionics access panel, fuel gauge mount, canopy bonding, rear stick cover, Titan engine, and I covered my instrument panel and consoles with carbon fiber to match my prop).

I'm perhaps a little more meticulous than the average builder, which I'm certain slows my progress, but I'm okay with that. When I got to the electrical stage, I realized that I'm a slow builder. After I'd spent an hour or two in the shop, I'd look back at what I did to update my logs, only to realize I had installed and tested just a few wires. It shouldn't have taken that long, but it did. That seems to be a theme with me. I keep saying, "It shouldn't have taken me that long to do that" but it does, and so it continues.

All I can really control is when I drag myself out of bed and head to the workshop each morning. I've long since given up on my initial timeline, now I just try to work on the plane 10 hrs/week, and I normally work on it every day I'm home. If I do that enough times, the plane will eventually fly.
 
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Synergy Air and Average Build Times

I am the owner of Synergy Air and wanted to clarify an earlier post regarding our build times. I am not sure where the misunderstanding arose but I have never stated that we can build any RV in 4 weeks. I do appreciate the post about our shop. We are proud of the work we do here and certainly our efficiencies. I am always reluctant to publish build times as they can vary considerably with each builders' specifications and desires. That is the beauty of building an experimental airplane, you get what YOU want and believe me builders have great imaginations. While we are fast, we are not 4 weeks to taxi fast. We can help you build your RV-8 empennage in less than a week but the rest of the plane will take some time to get the quality you deserve.

We have led or assisted in over 100 RV builds, all models. Depending on configuration the average build time for an RV-8 is 24 weeks, which equates to about 900 hours. Please understand that this estimate is for what we would consider a stock aircraft with a glass panel and very few, if any, modifications that stray from what Van's recommends and starting from Van's quick build wings and fuselage kits.

I am hopeful this will help clarify the earlier post. I appreciate some of our builders sharing their stories as well. Feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions.
 
So far I think I've spent at least 2,000 hours looking for the 6" scale or cleco pliers I had in my hand 30 seconds ago...

That's why I have 3 cleco pliers. After a few minutes of searching, I just grab another one. At the end of the day, when cleaning up they all seem to come back to the most obvious spot on the work bench. Really not sure where they go, maybe there's a cleco plier hang-out somewhere.
 
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