Taking a little break from the actual building, Sam and I snuck up to Santa Rosa airport (KSTS) to visit a fellow RV-8 builder, Mike, who just recently completed his first flight! It was an absolutely beautiful plane that clearly was built by a meticulous and artful builder. No way I’ll get anywhere close to his work, but it sure is an inspiration for my build. I met Mike on the forums as I started exploring the complexities of using a Lycoming IO-390-exp119 engine on my build. This is not a standard install, so of course that means customizations and additional requirements. Mike graciously took some time out of his day to meet up and show me what he did. Long story short, there aren’t as many required customizations as I thought.
- Use the Vetterman trombone exhaust…. the RV-14 exhaust will not work.
- The snorkel for the intake will need to be custom built.
- There may be some custom work needed on the cowling to fit the misc protrusions that are different than the IO-360.
- Standard Engine mount, baffling, and cowling might work!
Outside of the engine specific stuff, Mike has done a ton to customize and refine his project with nice details. Below are some pictures from the visit with interesting observations of possible options as I get further along in the project. I can’t wait to get back to building with this new inspiration!! Until then… Happy Building!
1 comment
Interesting trip and beautiful plane. Thank you for sharing. It is always good to get inspired by other. As they say: we build on the shoulder of giants,