My Cousin Built an RV-8

My cousin finished his RV-8 Fastback and did the first flight in March. The Golden West Airshow is using it in their promotional materials. I like the artwork and thought you might like to see it.
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While the accident rates for homebuilts and factory built aircraft are very similar, a look at the statistics does yield some differences. The factory built aircraft have a higher rate of continued VFR into IFR conditions and crashes under IFR conditions, both of which, to my mind are caused by the pilot. Accidents from mechancial or structural problems are higher for homebuilts, with the result being that in those cases the crash was more than likely caused by the aircraft.

Since there are more factory built aircraft flying IFR and in nasty weather, it is stretching things a bit to assume that homebuilts are as safe as a factory built aircraft.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of homebuilts and many are carefully built by knowledgeable and skilled craftsmen. Some people aren't as careful and the Darwinian aspects of the sky being unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect takes care of that....

Finally, homebuilts do not have to comply with the FAA certification requirements for stability and other aspects that are, quite simply, in my mind, required for safe operation. If I was to build a homebuilt (and I've seriously considered it), I would have to build a kit that was basically designed and could meet FAA certification requirements. With an kit like that you would have pretty good chance of collecting all of your retirement....

JMPO....

 

Hey Teak360,

Do you have any more pictures of that RV? I will be building an RV-8 soon, and am considering the fastback mod, but there are only a handful of pictures of them online, since not many people have built them in the fastback configuration. It looks like a BEAUTIFUL aircraft, and I would love to see a couple more images of it to help me in my journey.

Let me know, or PM me. It would really be helping me out a great deal.

Thanks so much!

 

That is one beautiful RV. Any more photos? I have a great friend with a rocket fast RV-7. He jokes that there are now so many everywhere he calls them "Ramp Fleas" and no one notices them anymore. But heck, I'd notice your friend's pretty plane.

Rob - until a year or so ago I NEVER considered building an aircraft, as they just did not seem to offer anything. Restoring was always "it" for me. For me, building, became the only way to have what I wanted to experience - neccesity you might say.

Looking back now and speaking just for me, I learned an awful lot about flying from building I never knew before. More than really neccesary, perhaps -- it's tough to make points with a girl talking about declage and angles of incidence with a gleam in your eye.