Construction of Vans RV8 G-JBTR

This website is a portal for the construction of Vans RV8 (G-JBTR ). Setting a completion date would be crazy but I do expect this journey of discovery, frustration and joy to take about 5 years. If you find this site useful, or if you have suggestions or find errors please contact me. I do not intend to match the fantastic quality of websites listed on the links page but to add, or reinforce, lessons learned. Due to accidents occurring to the unmodified/modified nose legs on the Van's A models I believe there is some doubt about the nose leg design. Whilst pilot error often appears to be a contributing factor the RV's tend to flip when the nosewheel collapses, as opposed to Cessna's et al that generally appear to stay upright. When you order the fuselage kit you have to commit to either the tail wheel or the nose wheel. In aviation I have always worked on the premise "where there is doubt - there is no doubt" I have therefore decided to change from the 8A to the 8 and above is a wonderful photo of Randy Lervold's RV-8 for inspiration.
More details on building RV aircraft can be found here at Van's Aircraft. A very detailed flight test report on the RV8A (nosewheel version of the RV8) can be downloaded here (555k PDF).
	I am using a software program to log the construction of G-JBTR and you can see the the progress and much more detailed information by clicking the KITLOG Pro logo or "Builder Log" on the left hand menu

"Building an airplane is not one hugely expensive, monumentally difficult, and enormously time consuming task. It is hundreds of hugely expensive, monumentally difficult, and enormously time consuming tasks in a series."

"To fly is to know, it is in itself the reason and the justification".
Brian Hope - Editor LAA Magazine

Item	Status	Hours

RV Training Project	Complete (16 Jan 2007)	25

Empennage	Apart from fibreglass tips- Complete (25 July 2007)	310

Wings	In progress: Wings in the cradle - Inspected. Bottom skins and Fibreglass to go Ailerons - Complete (15 Oct 2008 - 65 Hours) Flaps - Complete (14 Oct 2008 - 53 Hours)	675

Fuselage	Forward Fuselage Assembly - Complete. Centre Section - Complete Seat Ribs Assembly & Antenna Doublers - Complete Tailcone Bulkheads - Complete. Fuel and brake pipes - Complete Fuselage - Skin riveting almost complete Seatback Front/Rear - Complete Landing Gear Drilling/Alignment - Complete Trio Autopilot Pitch Servo mount - apart from riveting - complete	577

Finish	Inventory - complete	5

Smoke Mod	Installing custom smoke tank and Smoking Airplanes smoke system. Smoke Tank and Pump Reinforcement Mount - Complete Smoke Tank Access Door - Complete	64

Total		1656

Note: The hours above have been extracted from my Excel build log. I log into this when I enter the garage and log off when I leave so these include thinking & cleaning time so I think are more realistic than some of the hours I've seen published. For greater detail of hours and comments download my Excel Build Hours Log