Welcome to Tom's RV-8!

My name is Tony Kirk and I am going to finish Tom's RV-8.

Tom was a great person and a fellow RV builder. I arranged Tom's first ride in an RV, the yellow RV-6A in the photo section, piloted by John Furey. And I showed Tom how to rivet while I was building my RV-6A. We flew to fly-ins and pancake breakfasts in the Mooney he was a partner in, and in my RV. I also helped Tom on his RV-8.

I used to tease Tom about how slow the Mooney was compared to my 150 h.p. RV-6A. When we both flew to a pancake breakfast somewhere, it irritated him when I would fly up next to them, take a few photos and fly away. He often said he couldn't wait until his RV-8 was finished so he could "blow my doors off!" I was really looking forward to that day!

I was able to arrange a Missing-Man Formation flight for Tom's funeral service. With the great piloting skills of some friends from the "Ohio Valley RVators" and with another RV pilot and friend, Bill Sallee, videotaping the flight from my cockpit, I made this video (27MB) to honor our fallen friend.

A big thanks to Bud Newhouse, Al Garjek and Bernie Ockuly! I could NOT have done it without you guys and the formation flying training I got at the OV RVators clinic. The wind was 26 mph gusting to 33 mph on the ground (unquestionably worse at altitude) and temperature was in the low 30s.

Before the flight I collected some sentimental rivets that will be used during the completion of Tom's RV-8. Over 50 people put a dozen or so rivets into a personally signed baggie at Tom's funeral service, I flew these sentimental rivets in the Missing-Man flight.

If you look at one of these tiny, little rivets they don't seem so strong or important, just like the individual members of our group, but when you put a bunch of them together they can do amazing things.

After Tom's funeral a few of his close friends got together and we agreed that the best way to honor him was finishing his RV-8. It was decided that I would be the best candidate to complete Tom's RV-8. Tom really liked my award-winning RV-6A and my workshop has been empty ever since I finished building it.

I gave my word to Tom's family and friends that I would finish his RV-8 without compensation or personal gain. Please help me make his dream a reality!

Thank you for visiting Tom's RV-8, come back again and check the progress.

Contact me at
tony[at]tomsrv8.com
replace [at] with @
or call 419.376.4536