7/11/2006 - Need for Speed ll - RV Kit Building Revisited
There is a tremendous sense of accomplishment to build and fly your own aircraft, one can only imagine unless, of course, you have actually done it. Mike Ballard has, not once- but twice and he is obviously as proud of his newest creation as a brand new parent. This is how he describes his latest kit building adventure:
When asked to produce an update to my original article in AlabamaAviator.com about kit airplane construction, "The Need for Speed", I gladly volunteered to do so. After spending about 15 months of building time in the basement, it is easy to let some light in on this project. TIC
Now that I have completed two of these very fast flying kit RV8s, I can share the obvious fact that the second one takes about half the time as the first to build, using many techniques and shortcuts. Woops, maybe shortcut is the wrong word when you are building an aircraft to hurl your body through the sky. The real secret to this building a kit airplane is to have someone else also building one at the same time and pace.
I am fortunate to have a building partner, Tom "Hollywood" Henderson, who is also about to complete his RV8. In many cases you must have a partner to get to and buck rivets in tough locations. I sold the first RV8 to another pilot, Jay "Jato" Billhorn, who wanted to know the innards of his airplane so he assisted in construction of this new one as well. These two aircraft are for all practical purposes identical. Bottom line is, look to the sky over central Alabama and Lake Martin area and you will see three of these mighty mini-fighters zipping around.
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A few minor differences in Judy Judy Judy #1 and Judy Judy Judy #2 are the engine and avionics. The engine is fuel injected rather than carbureted and the instrument panel utilizes some of the glass cockpit technology developed in recent years, I added some good ole reliable gages in case the magic burps. I think some wise pilot said, "Never put all your eggs in one basket" and I certainly applied that advice to this instrument panel.
Going back to our original goal, the need for economical speed, this aircraft should also easily fall into that category as automotive gas is now selling in the $3 per gallon range and aviation gas is not that much more at about $4 per gallon. A one-day trip cost less than the gas guzzling SUV that mostly sits in our garage. For a two day automotive type trip, the cost to fly would be significantly less. We can now over fly that interstate motel stay and reach our destination much quicker and in my opinion, much safer. The pure joy of flying that every pilot experiences while traveling above the crowded highways below is an added bonus. Ok, now I will admit that the $100 dollar hamburger I mentioned in the previous article has gotten a little more expensive but for us, it is well worth the trip.
If you are still reading this, then I guess you might have figured out that we are highly motivated to always take the plane rather than a car if possible. This particular plane cruises at 200plus mph mostly in a direct line to our destination. However sometimes it just does fun things like rolls, loops, immelmans, and lazy eights, and gives us that freedom of flight feeling every pilot already knows.
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In the technical department, this plane at 200mph cruise, burns about 10 gallons per hour, takes off in about 300 feet, will land in 500 feet, capable of plus 6 and minus 3 G's with an empty weigh of 1100 pounds and a max weight of 1800 pounds and carries 41 gallons of useable fuel in 2 tanks. It is IFR certified with about a 3-hour max range with reserves.
As an added note, my brother, Jimmy Ballard, just sold his RV6A to buyers in northern California and he and I flew it from Alabama to Petaluma, California in about 13 flying hours over a 3-day period. That was a great trip for the two of us across the southern half of the US but the details and photos of that trip may be fodder for more RV travel tales. Guess what, Jimmy is about to start construction of an RV8 since he is already having withdrawal symptoms with no airplane to fly.
I hope you notice my enthusiasm for aviation and will check out my construction and flying web site: http://www.knology.net/~mballard/
Look for us at a fly in soon!
Mike "Fossil" Ballard and Judy "J3" Ballard
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