Vans RV-8 Aircraft Buying Experience 

100% agree!

I agree!

Good info Albert. Thanks for sharing.

Thank-you glad you enjoyed it.

I’ve only flown as a passenger in the 4, and I thought it was awesome.

That is an idea...however I have heard of folks just flying with the windscreen and they say it is horrible. One day I want an Aeroliite 103!

@@sierrapapa624 Yeah, I get it. I lust after an Airbike from time to time but that's not going to happen until my RV-8 build is done and dusted. Alas a few more rivets to go.

Thanks for the recommendation...I was thinking about doing that very thing.

Glad you liked it. It is just the insta360 and its stabilization defaults. I like the camera because it behaves almost likes someone is holding it.

Well I am not going to state what I paid for my RV, but if you take the cost of a quick build kit and add it to a new engine you are comfortably above $60k in just parts...less avionics. A paint job is going to be $10k and a prop can be anywhere from $6k to above $14k. Now there are much cheaper options and cheaper does not indicate lower quality...just more resourceful sourcing or doing things yourself. Sellers will give themselves some negotiating room on their price. It is just the way it is done! They know you are going to counter their asking price by a few thousand. Good RVs don't lose value and so long as you go with somebody that knows what they are doing, you will negotiate a fair price. Remember the engine is where things can get very expensive so this is where you will get a big swing in the negotiated price.

A recently built RV8, less than 5 years old, with a brand new engine, fix pitch prop, 1 main glass panel costs about 90k to 100k in material. The high end of the price is the professional paint job. An IFR panel will have about 20k premium on top of that. An older RV8 doesn't cost as much but you get the steam gauges, and many of them don't have the brand new engine when they were built. Good luck on your plane shopping

@@2Phast4Rocket Your pricing is very accurate.

Maverick there is plenty of leg room for the passenger and the RV-8 has foot wells that keep the passenger's feet out of the pilots hips. Very nice arrangement. I will make a video of this and post.

@@sierrapapa624 Thx man appreciate it.

When the plane was originally built, it had a constant speed prop, vacuum system with a six pack of heavy instruments and the battery (concord) mounted up front. In this configuration I flew solo with a bag of sand in the rear baggage compartment floor. I was also landing at a grass strip at the time so I wanted to three point it when landing. When I put on the fixed pitch composite prop, reduced the size of battery and had the vacuum system removed I could then fly without any ballast in the back. But it is still a bear to three point so I do wheel landings. I always fly with ballast 15-20lbs in the back baggage compartment unless I do acro. So yes I always fly with ballast unless I fly acro.

Same as the OP with my -8. Fixed pitch metal prop, D-180 panel (which I like better than newer Dynon), iFly 740 GPS. 1090lbs, not counting 25lbs on shelf of rear baggage. Still the CG is a bit more forward than I like but can live with it. I fly solo 100% of the time. I can 3 pt but think wheel landing puts less strain on a/c.

That is a good idea. Would be a good video. Stalls with flaps stalls without flaps etc.

Anywhere between 60k to upwards of 140k. The avionics package can really get expensive.

@@sierrapapa624 thanks!

Thanks for watching. Yes you are right...the 50k budget was for a RV-4. I promptly blew that when I bought the 8.