Larry Champion RV-8 (Slow Build) - Page 3.

March 18, 2007:  It has been a long time since I updated Larry's pages.  He almost stopped the project, but we convinced him to carry on and here is the current status of his basement project.  As you can see, the fuselage is OFF the building jig and the lower skins are riveted in place.  Larry asked me to help with the alignment of the horizontal stabilizer and the landing gear legs when he is ready.

We talked about the aft deck, bolt clearances, difficulty in match drilling the front spar of the horizontal stabilizer to the longerons and the cross brace that is under the aft deck plate.

When I see the work that goes into the RV-8, I am so glad I chose the RV-9A for my project.  Larry reports that the NEW RV-8 kits are fully pre-punched and much easier to build.  He got info that from the Van's Aircraft factory support team.   The new RV-8 kits do not require a building jig as seen on PAGE 2 of Larry's section.

The wing behind Larry is ready to install the wing leveler servo.

July 8 , 2007:  I stopped by to visit Larry Champion again for a project update.  He is starting to get the floor and baggage panels into position.

The gear leg towers will soon be getting the steel plates installed to anchor the landing gear legs.

Back at the aft end of the fuselage, the angle and doubler that secure the front spar of the horizontal stabilizer will be getting four AN3 nut plates riveted into position AFTER the HS is aligned with the fuselage.  This is one thing that could not be easily done on Wendell's quick build fuselage.

This is that time when the project appears to be moving slower than ever, but remember that "day jobs" keep getting in the way of airplane construction time.