Rob Arduini’s RV-8 | Rosamond, California RV-8 #83729

Congratulations Rob! He writes:

I’m a little late with my first flight report….

After selling an RV-8 in 2018 that I had owned for 4.5 years (650 hrs of flying) I thought I was going to get into back country flying. I almost immediately regretted selling the RV-8. I searched and searched for another one and settled on a nice RV-7 which I brought home in early July 2018. I missed the RV-8 even more. I borrowed a friend’s RV-8 to fly to Oshkosh that year and it was there that my girlfriend started to plant the idea that we could build our own RV-8. I tried to tell her that there was a lot of work involved with building a plane and that I didn’t think I was ready to do that. She took us over to your booth and we talked to one of the representatives there who convinced us that we could absolutely build an RV. He then had us talk to the folks at the Synergy booth who told us about their assist options. I ordered the tail kit that day and had it shipped to Synergy South. We were living in SC at the time of the build. After 4.5 days at Synergy we walked out with a completed tail and a lot of confidence that we could actually build a plane. I sold the RV-7 in November 2018 as we waited for the rest of the RV-8 kit to arrive. The QB kit took 9 months to arrive and we got to work on it immediately working out of a hangar in Ridgeland SC in May of 2019. Working mostly weekends with roughly 10 weeks of vacation time mixed in, we were able to complete the RV-8 and she received her airworthiness certificate on 10/10/20. I spent a day trouble shooting an inop OAT probe and finally took N627KA to the sky on 10/12/20. The flight was absolutely amazing and trouble free. I spent 1 hour over the field ensuring she was handling as expected, the engine was performing well and getting used to the Garmin avionics. After an uneventful landing I was surprised by my girlfriend Tiffany, who had a banner made for me commemorating the first flight with my mom’s name on it and a dedication to her. The N number represents my mom’s birthdate and her initials and a ribbon with angel wings is laser engraved onto the panel. It will also be incorporated into the paint scheme as a memorial to her. She passed in 2006 while battling breast cancer. The plane is a dedication to her as she always enjoyed flying with me. It is also a dedication to freedom and will have the American flag in the paint scheme as well. A freedom to enjoy this gift of aviation and explore this country by air.

I’ve had the opportunity to fly the RV-3, RV-4, RV-6, RV-7, RV-7A, RV-8, RV-8A, RV-9A and ride in the RV-10. These aircraft are an absolute joy to fly and I find myself at home in the RV-8. At the time of this writing, I now have 230 hours on the RV-8 and have been to 15 states so far. Looking forward to a lot more traveling, formation flying and aerobatics!

Many thanks to a great friend Baron Marshall who also built an RV-8. He even flew out from OR and spent a week helping me on the build.

Thanks to the folks a Van’s Aircraft for a great flying airplane!

P.S. those were my building shorts!