I'm just going over the ice flyer templates and for the side pieces ie. template TA, I get a total length of just under 9 feet. All the other diagrams show a total length of 8 feet. Am I missing something.

May be a problem with printing. Mine is 8 feet.

You may have figured this out by now but anyhow..

This may help - http://iceflyer.com/plans/tempbuild.html

There is a reference measurement on every template page and you have to make sure the measurement is correct when printed. If not, you can usually change an image size in Microsoft word and adjust things.