Brian130 said:
I did search in this forum for taildragger debates .. and I came up with nothing ..
but then again, I searched in THIS FORUM, the RV 8 forum ... not in the whole forum.
I am not really interested in a generic debate about taildraggers vs nosedraggers, or what other builders are doing with other RVs ... I am interested in the opinion of (specifically) of RV8 builders.
I guess I should have been more specific ... sorry about that.
What I really meant to ask is:
RV8? or RV8A?
It's the shape of the RV8 that I am interested in.
See, here's my conundrum: I chose the RV8 partially because it reminds me of the sexiest plane ever to fly: the P-51 Mustang.
Yes I know it's a long shot but the RV8 is the fastest, cheapest and closest looking (to me at least) to a real P-51 you can possibly find out there (not to mention that it's made by a manufacturer with a really good reputation: Vans). Plenty of mustang clones to go around but they just don't do justice to the Mustang and anyway, nothing makes me drool like the RV8 canopy.
Ok enough ... the RV8 looks like it's born to be a taildragger. I can't imagine an RV8 to be anything other than a taildragger.
But (big but here) taildraggers scare the living crap out of me.
Yes I do have some time in them, enough to be scared of them and I have enough taildragger pilot friends that pretty much told me the same story: sooner or later the taildragger will do something bad to you. And sometimes it will bite a chunk off one of your buttcheeks real hard (I have seen it happen first person to someone at my airport: ground loop and down in the ditch parallel to the runway. Not nice).
So I spend 3 years building a beatiful looking airplane and one day a great gust whips the tail end off from right under me. And the plane is trashed.
If I had my own little aeronca, or cub ... and a ground loop ripped it to shreds ... I wouldn't care. I would walk out of it, collect the insurance and give up taildragging ... and just fly more "boring" planes.
But if that happens to my "precious"??? ...
gollum, gollum ... then what?
RV8 ... cool looking, and yet at risk of committing suicide on the runway
or
RV8A ... boring looking and almost an insult to the RV8 shape ... and yet less at risk of voiding 3 years of building efforts.
The thing is ... I feel that if I built the damn thing, I wouldn't want it to be wasted in one moment of distraction or a trick of nature. The allure of the "safe" path is strong.
I was interested in the opinion of the RV8-ers out there about this ...
That is the question that is bugging me right now.
(Can you even fly basic aerobatic manouvers with a nosedragger? I don't see why not but ... I have never seen it done either.)
So ... sorry if I had to stink up the place beating horse corpses ... I just thought my question was a tad more unique.
PS: and no offense taken by the way
![Big grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)