Checked out RV-8s at OSH

[Anthony]

I know a guy who spent years scratch-building (not a kit) a 1930s replica biplane. It turned out beautifully, and won several awards.

After he flew it 50 hours or so, he confided to me that it scared the hell out of him. I had never seen him that way before (this was a guy who radiated self confidence) and it really worried me.

On the VERY NEXT FLIGHT he crashed it. The header tank blew gas all over him, burning him over 60% of his body. Luckily, (unlike Amanda Franklin) he was able to instantly get out and roll in the grass, extinguishing the fire.

Although he survived, he has never flown again, and is a changed man.

Building and flying an aircraft of your own design is exponentially harder than building/flying one you build from a kit. Although I would definitely consider buying a home-built RV-8, there is no way I would consider buying a plans- or scratch- built aircraft.

I flew to Airventure/OSH in 2003, and met the man who built the replica of the Hughes H-1 Racer. It was a beautiful airplane and he had changed his life, essentially with the obsession to complete and fly this airplane. After talking to him for a while, I thought it was an amazing story, and a great accomplishment. See AOPA "Pilot" July, 2011 article, "A beautiful tragedy". He killed himself on the way home from OSH.

Sometimes I think the Capt. Ahab comes out in us, and we chase that white whale no matter what the outcome. We forego family, and friends to a large degree and become consumed in every way.

I digress. The RV-8 and the other RV's are really nice planes.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Sometimes I think the Capt. Ahab comes out in us, and we chase that white whale no matter what the outcome. We forego family, and friends to a large degree and become consumed in every way.

You may be right.

Most people think my career path since becoming consumed with aviation in the early '90s has been, at best, bizarre. Buying old motels and converting them to an aviation theme, just so I can hang out with pilots all day, is not something most people would do, nor is it conducive to making a lot of money.

On the other hand, it probably won't kill me. :wink2:

I commented to Mary just the other day that "We don't own Atlas -- he owns us." -- and, to a large extent, it's true. We have made huge sacrifices in our lives to continue to enjoy aviation (we just finally -- after a 17-month wait -- got a hangar on the island. The cost is breath-taking) but, God help me, I love it so...

 

[Dean]

The guy building an airplane while collecting a paycheck has a phalanx of quality control backing him up. There's a phalanx of lawyers insisting that quality control be as good as possible to preclude events that trigger lawsuits. If all else fails, if an assembler is making a mistake, earlier examples of the aircraft will exhibit the problem and trigger a fix.



e.

I wouldn't put too much faith in quality control, we live in a profit driving world and companies will trade safety for $$$$ any day of the week. Just ask Doncasters, Inc, they lost a 48 Million dollar law suit for cutting cost when making compressor turbine blades for Pratt and Whitney. I have a friend who is a test pilot for a major aircraft manufacturing company, he says people would be surprised at the amount of crappy workmanship that he catches before he flies an aircraft.

 

[AEROBAT]

At a couple hours per night, that's 1000 nights, 1000/365= 2.7 years.

and that is a guess. It's probably much longer.

One friend of mine built an F1 Rocket in 11 months, his Dad helped a lot. Another friend spent 9 years building an RV 7 and finaly hired a guy to finish it.