Activity Stream

Posts Activity Stream

  1. 1avidflyer


    The Avid factory made them, but I suppose it's the old law of supply and demand.  Not much demand, so not much supply.  But I'm guessing that if a small shop made up a jig, they could sell a few pretty easily.  

  2. 1avidflyer


    The seat truss was a weak point on the Avids, and early Kitfoxes for that matter.  If it was me, I would infill the triangles in the seat truss with .040" thick steel.  Under the doors may not hurt either.  This is what I did on my Kitfox 4 and I think it was a good idea for me.  JImChuk

    Photo1368.jpg

    1 person likes this
  3. 1avidflyer


    Most likely the hardest part would be finding a 912 motor mount.  Not many of them floating around.  Kitfox mounts are not the same.  10 or more lbs of weight in the tail to offset the extra weight on the nose from the heavier engine.   And ditto on what Doug said...  JImChuk

  4. dholly


    There is no clear answer. Depending on experience and knowledge, a difficult task for one builder may be easy peasy to another. I think you need to define what 'major modification' means to you first.

  5. avidfox67


    Hi

    I know I'm going to ask a question that has been asked often, but I haven't found a clear answer yet.
    is there a way to install a rotax 912 on an Avid flyer C without major modification

    thank you for your answers

  6. Dusty


    I put around 100 hrs on my eurothane pucks with no problems, Unfortunately i have been out of the air for a while as my fox required a major rebuild, (the gear survived just fine)          during the rebuild I fitted Acme struts (a bit of overkill for most flying). If I didn't have the Acme struts I would still have my puck setup as it worked exceptionly well                               Improvement vs $ I would recommend the pucks                                                                     I

    1 person likes this
  7. arks


    OK, all good info, especially the zip conversion- I wasn’t aware of it. It’s great news that there are so many good options! The price I got from recpower was for a direct replacement for what is in the plane currently, which I’m told is operating just fine. Just wanted to get a baseline on what those engines are valued.
    Looks like I may be taking a trip to see it soon. Thank you all for the info.

  8. motortommy


    Regarding springs,my choice would be acme aero springs but my budget (read wife) says no way. I am experimenting with eurethane pucks with some success. 2 kg weight saving,no chance of bottoming out and a degree of rebound damping.some more hard testing is required but results are favourable.

    Dusty, any updates regarding the PU pucks setup? 

  9. motortommy


    109jb,

    I think your math looks great and we agree!  

    I think an easy way to check the poly disks is to just put the diagonal strut together, and put 2400 lbs of tension on it to see the deflection. A simple rig with a hydraulic cylinder and a strong mount should do the trick. Or you could pick up a VW beetle with it!

    I like to get back to the PU spring strut and its setup...

    Using 5 pucks (4x red 90shore + 1x yellow 80shore) should give attached results according to manufacturer spec.

    As a base I used coil spring data. I`m worried that this PU setup might be too stiff, means only minor movement and or no comfort at all! The data would result in 0.548" strut travel during normal landing. This means approx. 1" vertical movement of the gear (w/o tire deflection)...

    Would be interesting to know, how much movement there is with a classic bungee gear.

    So far, i have only rough data at least also inaccurate due to metric/imperial transformation. I will put a test strut into a hydraulic press to measure travel according to applied load.

    Any thoughts or hints?  

    PUcomp_manu_chart.jpg

  10. dholly


    Justine - I'm sorry I did not see your post earlier. I've attached a couple pics of my uncovered Avid+ fuselage and you can clearly see the tube in question on both. There are other similarities as well. I believe what you showed may a Fat Avid upgrade fuselage, manufactured and marketed by Airdale (successor Co. to Dean Wilson's Avid Aircraft) between 2005-2006 to existing Avid Flyer owners. It was designed to reuse many of their existing Avid parts ie. wings, landing gear, even FWF in some instances. It has a considerably wider cabin (43"), under seat control mixer, open baggage area, additional 18" length, larger tail surfaces w/ balanced rudder and weighed approx. 70lbs more than the Mk-IV fuselage. The 'factory sanctioned' M.T.O.W. was up to 1250lbs. primarily dependent upon the wing and lift struts used. I did a post on this topic in the Avid+ forum if you search. Steve Winder never mentioned to me that any Fat Avid fuselages were sent to UK or France so I'm guessing it's pretty rare over your way and would likely make a great project. Hope that helps.

    [edit] Oops, I just found your other thread re: bringing this fuselage home. Looking closer at the new pics, I see significant differences from the Fat Avid. I think Randy is correct, more likely a stretched Avid Flyer. I do know that many Avid C and D (Mk-IV) models were brought back to Airdale to have the stretch conversion done. The popularity of the stretch and talk of a future Light Sport category led Airdale to develop the Fat Avid fuse upgrade and a handful of complete Avid+ kits, then eventually the Avid Mk-V, Pursang and Airdale Flyer to compete with Skystar's larger Kitfox 5 designed speciffically for the LSA market. IIRC, Brett McKinney (in Wisconsin, USA), who tried to resurrect old Airdale as new Airdale Sportplane, did a handful of these stretch conversions too.

    CIMG5623.JPG

    CIMG6070.JPG

  11. 1avidflyer


    Several points.  I don't think the Jabiru would be a good match for such a draggy airplane.  I don't think you need the fuel injected 912, the straight 100 ULS should do just fine.  And there are lots of used ones on the market for $10,000 or maybe a bit less.  Talk to Hal Stockman, he is the 912 expert, and usually has something available.  JImChuk

  12. Allen Sutphin


    From what I am told, the 3203 (65) is a little overrated and the 3202 (55) is a little underrated on horsepower. The Gen 4 Jabiru 2200 (new) is also an option along with a couple more 4 strokes.