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New living room furniture!

Mated the wings last week! Thanks to understanding wife and cool friends!

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Looks Great!

Hi Guy,

Your project is looking great and so is your garage . . . er, living room?! Is that a beer tap I see lurking over the small refrigerator? If so, you really know how to equip your building space!

Best Regards,

Bill Palmer :rolleyes:
RV-8A Still In-Work
Chino Hills, CA
 
My building space usually is the garage. The project is only in the living room while I fit the wings and intersection fairings.

It's hard to stay away from the tap while working that close to it...
 
Understanding Wife??!!

"...Mated the wings last week! Thanks to understanding wife and cool friends!"


Understanding wife??? Holy Cow! That's an understatement! Wow, I am impressed! I guess you came in and plan to go out through those double doors I see. I hope you stayed away from the tap while you were setting the angle of incidence....

Great job!
 
Guy - you are my hero

Wow - you are my hero and your understanding wife is too. I've been parked for 3 years now :( Just can't get motivated, although, I think about it all the time. I just need to do it.

Thanks for the pics and a little more motivation. I love it.

You are my flippn' hero.
-john romero
http://www.chubchub.com/index.php?topic=rv8a
 
Some Progress

I received my fuselage kit the end of May and I started it in early June.

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I'm moving along faster than I expected. Should be done with the forward fuse by the end of next week.
 
Forward Cargo instrument access door

Now would be the time to drill off the forward cargo's upper aft bulkhead, and build an access door that opens into the fwd cargo compartment and allows you to reach behind the instrument panel. IMHO this is not an optional mod. You will thank me later!
 
Danny King said:
Now would be the time to drill off the forward cargo's upper aft bulkhead, and build an access door that opens into the fwd cargo compartment and allows you to reach behind the instrument panel. IMHO this is not an optional mod. You will thank me later!
Click to expand...

Got Pictures?
 
Alternative Access.....

I was going to build in an access door based on Danny's (and many others that have done it), but in the end, found that it wasn't needed. Why? I have big EFIS screens that pull out from the panel with four screws and about 30 seconds of work. That gives me a 7" x 11" hole through which I can work while comfortably sitting in the pilot's seat. If that isn't enough, I built the entire panel with disconnects, and can have it out and on the workbench in five minutes.

With a traditional steam gauge panel, the access hatch is a great way to go, but there are alternatives....

Paul
 
I am planning on a glass panel with only 3 backup steam gauges and a slip indicator. I am also planning on 'modular' wiring where I have a small number of quick disconnects.
 
I have the bends!

This is my first status post. I started my kit with the rudder which went pretty well, just a hiccup or two and the VAF forum was a great resource. Today I made the bends on the HS forward spar. It sure feels good to be underway on this project. :D





 
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HS, VS, etc all installed....

At last - empennage is all bolted in place, all the pushrods and bellcrank sized and fabricated, control columns installed and elevator movement checked. Celebrated with my first sit in the front seat albeit on a plank of wood. Got some gentle filing to do on the aft control stop (fixes limit of UP travel) but otherwise very happy.

The VS is vertical, HS horizontal, rear edge of the VS is 89.3 degrees which I think I can live with, and the elevators are both in line after drilling the holes through the two horns and bolting the pushrod in place.

Just to add to the joys of the day my Hooker harnesses from the group buy arrived, as did my Andair fuel selector and gascolator (probably the only parts to be made in England.....)

Couple of pictures:

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Happy building

Chris
 
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Aligning the Grove gear

I'm just about to start aligning the Grove airfoil gear. It's kinda cool seeing the fuselage coming together the way that it is.



 
Jeff--

Looking good!!! Congrats on theprogress.

Personally, I think you should just stick with the wooden gear legs that are already installed;)


Nice job, thanks for the pic!

Joe
 
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/545/rv8cockpitpu2.jpg

I just spent a week pounding away on my QB8. The seats and the floors and footwells are all done now. Aligned the grove gear. Ordering the finishing kit tomorrow!

I haven't riveted on the bottom wing skins but they're prepped. Otherwise I'm 110 hours into the project and making huge progress. A long time ago I picked up the very first tail kit for the 8 from Vans, even before they had crated them up to ship. I built the wings and the tail and ended up selling the project for a variety of reasons.

Now, after ten years I'm back in the hunt and the improvements in the kit and instruction are huge. It goes together so much faster and I haven't had to call in for clarifications almost at all. I also simplified my life with my primer decision. The first kit I built with Alumaprep/Alodyne/Deft on every part (I even dipped the rivets that I was using on the wing spar). This time it's scuff, wipe down, spray with Sherwin Williams 988 rattle can. It's SOO much faster and I don't ever have to stop moving to prime. I know it's not optimal but I'm having so much fun building I don't care.
 
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A change you can see!

This airplane building thing is mostly a series of small amounts of progress that a monthly visitor wouldn't notice. This weekend however significant noticable change took place. My new YO-360-A1A (YO you ask? So did I.
The guy at Lycoming said they didn't want to be like the rest and call it a "XO") arrived from Lycoming. Couldn't leave it in the box!

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Looks nice Tom!

Ahh...I hate to mention it, but you put the tailwheel on the wrong end of the airplane....;)

Paul
 
Chino Tom said:
This airplane building thing is mostly a series of small amounts of progress that a monthly visitor wouldn't notice. This weekend however significant noticable change took place. My new YO-360-A1A (YO you ask? So did I.
The guy at Lycoming said they didn't want to be like the rest and call it a "XO") arrived from Lycoming. Couldn't leave it in the box!

my.php
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Looks GREAT!! Glad to see your flyin the flag! I've never had a garage or a hangar that I didn't fly the flag in! What a great country and what great airplanes these RVs are!

Travis
 
Fast Tom!

Hi Tom,

Your 8A project is looking great! You passed me like I was standing still!

Best Regards from an Envious "Slow" Builder!

Bill Palmer :)
RV-8A Still In-Work!
Chino Hills, CA
 
Moving right along

Took about a month and a half to get the center seat section done.

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My fuse kit is here

So far only one skin has been damaged. I am about half way with the inventory however, I was a little excited and had to stop to take a pic.

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Getting Closer!

Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!" So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces.

2 Kings 2:11-12
 
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Beautiful, beautiful work, Scott!

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it on the cover of some magazines this year!

:D
 
Scott, that is just spectacular !! You do REALLY nice work !! I especially like the fairing around the empennage.

Now, please do not park next to me at Osh ;-) (just kidding)

Cheers
 
First engine start was this past Saturday... it ran great . Almost ready for DAR Inspection

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Slowbuild?

March 17, 2007

Standard fuselage kit as delivered one year ago today:

March 17, 2008

Features include Akzo epoxy primer, Flightline Interior leather seats, fully removable floors, dual Infinity stick grips, AOA on glareshield.

 
Nice!

Rick,
My fuselage kit should arrive in another three weeks or so-I only hope I can make as much progress as you have in a year. Nice work!

Mike
 
Looks great:)
I notice that you are using dual Infinity grips. Would you have a schematic of your wiring of them, in particular, the rear stick disable?
 
vansrv8 said:
Looks great:)
I notice that you are using dual Infinity grips. Would you have a schematic of your wiring of them, in particular, the rear stick disable?
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Thanks Ken,

J.D. sent me a toggle switch along with the second Infinity grip and I just followed his verbal advice by bundling all its ground wires together and routing them through the toggle. Except for the PTT, its functions are wired in parallel with the functions on the pilot's Infinity grip. The terminal board for both grips is located on the forward fuselage side skin and behind the right side console. The second photo is an early detail shot and shows the area which includes the Infinity grip terminal board, flap relay deck and electric elevator trim speed controller. I made the console hinged so I can more easily access all the wires and components behind it.

 
Thanks for the reply. Do you have engine start on the stick?I think I get it:confused:

I am in the middle of wiring. The panel is 1/2 done, firewall has everything mounted in anticipation of engine hanging and I am also putting the breaker buses under the console on the right side.

With the Odyessy in the panel, there is a lot of room left over, so the breaker buses could go there but I thought that keeping the panel real estate free would be nice.

I started the fuse in late August of 2007...they do go together quickly:)

Cheers
 
Finished With Phase 1

This is a few weeks after the fact but N188LC is out of phase 1. Yippee! Oshkosh 2008 here I come.

Luis Luciani

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Good to see your progress

Jim,

I am convinced you made th right decision. Van's does not sell a bad kit; the 8 in my opinion is the best of the bunch.
 
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