Category Archives: Building airplanes

Bob’s Wings

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pilot community

Bob’s Wings
Saturday a contingent of friends and fellow builders descended upon Bob’s T-hangar to assist in the permanent installation of the wings on his beautiful RV-10.

Although there were twice as many people as needed it was fun to see everyone together on a sunny, but cool day in early February.

It only took an hour to transform the fuselage and separate wings into a full-blown airplane. I think everyone but me flew off to lunch, I had other commitments so I was ground-bound unfortunately.

Since Bob made the wise choice to paint it prior to assembly it really looks ready to fly. You can see from the photos that it’s gorgeous!

I am sure he’ll be flying this spring – I can’t wait! Continue reading →

I want to build another airplane

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787 assembly line

I want to build another airplane
It seems like around this time each year I get the craving to build another airplane. It must have something to do with the long winters up here in Ohio.

This affliction even affected me during the last winter of building my RV. In spite of the fact I was finishing the RV-8, I got all excited about building a Fokker Triplane; excited enough to order a set of plans! I know, I’m sick!  Continue reading →

Building my RV-8: the video

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building an rv-8Building my RV-8: the video
This is just a small sample of the thousands of photos taken during the construction of my RV-8 aircraft. I plan to write a series of posts regarding the milestones and notable encounters during the build. Check back for those.

For now here’s the video set to music by Tommy Emmanuel, who’s an awesome guitarist by the way. You’ll see a lot of pictures of my kids in there too, since their involvement really made it the most fun. There are plenty of days when I was solo working on the airplane.

If the YouTube embed doesn’t work, you can find a link below to the same video on Vimeo.

Vimeo link here

RV-8 cockpit tour

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Cockpit tour

RV-8 cockpit tour

The video below is a basic cockpit tour of my RV-8.

This airplane has an IO-360 200hp engine with inverted fuel/oil and a Hartzell constant-speed prop. It first flew August 13, 2011. It is equipped with an Advanced AFS3500EE EFIS, Garmin 696 moving map GPS, GNC-300XL IFR GPS/Comm, GTX 327 transponder, and a Dynon D160 Standby EFIS.

 

Does building or restoring an aircraft make you smarter?

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building an aircraft to increase intelligence

Does building or restoring an airplane make you smarter? For the sake of the argument lets consider “smarter” as a tangible enhancement in problem-solving skills.

After building my RV-8 I pondered this very subjective question. Part of me felt like the almost 5 years of daily construction have translated into better logic and reasoning skills, but I don’t have any empirical evidence to prove it. Maybe I’m just more patient or using my experience in lieu of actual intellect.

My gut says “yes” to the question, but I thought I would use the power of the Internet to ask others like me to get a read on it.  Continue reading →

What’s in a name?

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My RV-8Naming Contrary Mary

How did my RV-8 come to be called ‘Contrary Mary’?

Early in the construction of my RV-8 I needed to decide on a paint scheme. I wanted something that would pop, the traditional white base with some kind of accent strip(s) wasn’t going to cut it. Lots of RV-8 has pseudo-military paint schemes so I gravitated to that concept early on in the process.

So it was that I was flipping through a copy of Air & Space magazine while on vacation in Florida and on the very last page, there was an article with a small black and white picture describing a P-51 Mustang from WWII called ‘Contrary Mary’. The airplane was bare aluminum with a checkerboard nose, both of which I like, and it caught my eye because my youngest daughter’s name is Mary.

Continue reading →

The Fokker Triplane: My Secret Obsession

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The Fokker Triplane: My Secret Obsession

Ok I have a confession. I’m in love with another airplane besides my darling RV-8 and I’m not entirely sure what to do about it.

It started innocently and impulsively. I was strolling through Kitplanes and came across a company selling plans for a full scale Fokker Triplane….thus my obsession began. I know, it’s not easy being me.  Continue reading →

Building your own airplane: What is it like?

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Building your own airplane? This question rarely gets asked, most pilots (or even layman) go right for the jugular, “How long did it take? Was it hard? How many years? How much did it cost?”.

They skip right over the more important question – “What is it like to build an airplane?” Continue reading →