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  1. C5Engineer

    Posted

    I've taken my 5 year old up plenty of times in a rented Cessna but wasn't quite a 100% comfortable taking her up in the Avid until I knew for sure she enjoyed flight. The LAST thing I wanted to do was scare her when she was young. Today I took her with around the patch and she was having  a blast so we kept flying for a while. She loved doing climbs with a little pushover at the top. The bottom half of my doors are plexi so in a right turn your looking straight down. I did some real shallow turns to the right and she loved it and before I knew it we were doing steep turns to the left and she loved it! It's so cool to hear a 5 years old perspective from a birds eye view.  Landed on the grass next to the runway when we were done and before I even shut down she was asking when we were going again. I guess I have a new flying partner which is awesome. She only weighs 8 gallons of gas...perfect passenger! Anyone else fly with their kids?

     

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    5 people like this

  2. EDMO

    Posted · Edited by Ed In Missouri

    Maybe the Magnum has thicker plastic than the smaller ones.

    Kitfox used .118 for windsheilds on one model (Speedster?) and it cracked more, so they went back to .090.

    If you read, I think AC43-13 (again), the cold bend radius for .090 Plastic,(Plexi - not lexan), is just about the radius of the windshield of our birds - If the Magnum is wider, then thicker plastic could be used. And, he has 1700 GW.

    EDMO

  5. dholly

    Posted

    That seems really expensive Ron. I bought a 4'x8' sheet of .060" clear Makrolon polycarbonate from a local supplier for $60+tax yesterday. Of interest, they told me that the thinnest sheets of either polycarbonate or acrylic that come with 'baked-in' tinting was .125", twice as thick obviously. While it might have worked for a skylight, it was way heavier than necessary. Doubt you could finesse it on the door frames without a bunch of luck. I also learned about a few issues to be aware of if contemplating a D.I.Y. film tint on plastics, will start a new thread for that.

  6. dholly

    Posted

    I was pretty surprised to hear this. Owner is a long time pilot, bought and flew the plane home solo from Idaho or Wyoming or somewhere way out west a few years ago. He flew the heck out of that plane, lotsa hours in it. Like Daves, an absolutely georgeous older Piper. Doesn't look serious enough for the scrap heap thankfully, I'm sure he'll rebuild.

  7. Av8r3400

    Posted · Edited by Av8r3400

    Ed - there are bad days and then there are BAD days. Guy in the hangar behind me had a BAD day this week...

    http://www.rochesterhomepage.net/story/d/story/small-plane-crashes-in-hopewell/26713/XB4quxPKlEWlQe4h8FtjOQ

    What a shame. For the life of me I don't understand why these guys think that bush tires operate the same as skis in snow. Wet sticky snow, even a couple inches deep, is like glue to tires.

    It is a good story he gave investigators about this happening on taxiing. That makes it an incident rather than an accident on takeoff or landing.

    A '46 PA-12 is a great old plane. The Super Cruiser, three seater. When my plane is finally out of his shop, Dave has one of these to build next.

  9. 1avidflyer

    Posted · Edited by Jim Chuk

    I would check online, and with any local commercial window and door installer. I was just on Amazon, and found a .060 4' x 8' sheet for 103 + 15 shipping. How much do you really need? Unless your plane is bigger than a regular Avid, a half sheet does the windshield. The other half should do the windows easy. Jim Chuk

    PS, I suppose if you are doing the bottom of the doors and the turtle deck, you need a second sheet. You can use the old stuff for a pattern, install it with clekos so it comes off, then clamp it onto the new stuff, cut drill it and install. Hard to mess it up then.

  11. RDavidson

    Posted

    KFfan,

    Valid point! I have traveled through the Texas Panhandle often, and the wind is always howling there. After a landing roll of about 10 feet because of the 30 knot plus wind, I asked a local crop duster what they do when the wind doesn't line up with a runway. He said that the pavement was just put there as a guideline, we land wherever we want!

    It is a valid point...don't set yourself up for failure landing in a crazy crosswind, go for a taxiway or the grass infield. Just don't hurt anyone else and you are good. I had never really thought about it like that before that experience.

    I apologize, I'm not answering the original question...I'll let someone with experience in your bird answer it.

    Ron

  12. RDavidson

    Posted

    You read my mind Ed! I just priced it out and man is it expensive. About $400 for 2 sheets of clear and one sheet of tinted!

    You could get by with one and a half sheets of clear, but I thought I would leave a little for a mess up...

    You can bend it in a break! I'm glad you guys told me that!

    Thanks,

    Ron

  13. C5Engineer

    Posted

    Going thru an Idaho withdrawal and digging up old vids. For the lurkers this is in a 582 powered Avid. Don't think for a minute these awesome little birds can't take you on a grand adventure. Feel free to contact me for details on how to go 1100nm and camp for 9 days under the wing of a 2-stroke powered avid.

    3 people like this

  19. KFfan

    Posted

    Type of gear and tire size would play pretty deep into my answer on that one. With the 12" wide Nancos, stock gear, and pavement crosswinds suck! The good news is of it's over about 15 just land across the runway :)

    Runway?

    Taxiways are fair game also...

    1 person likes this

  20. EDMO

    Posted · Edited by Ed In Missouri

    Ron,

    since you have to buy new anyway, consider a dark tint for the skylight - you will like it when the sun gets hot.

    Even a light tint is better than clear.

    NOTE: some tints may not be available in Lexan, although the light bronze is.

    The Skylight isn't usually crack-prone, so dark bronze or green Plexi should be OK there.

    EDMO

  21. RDavidson

    Posted

    Giving up the fight!

    Here is the list of things that didn't work for me:

    Hairdryer

    Vegetable oil and Saran Wrap

    Mineral Oil

    Lacquer Thinner

    Goo Gone

    Ronsons lighter fluid

    Zep Heavy Duty Citrus Cleaner

    Soap and water

    The combination of soap and water, goo gone, and Ronsons works but is very time consuming!

    I would continue trying, but out of the piece I did get clean, three small ones, only the two small triangular windows turned out unscratched and looking good/new. The third piece started showing small scratches. Plus the wife came home and found plexiglass covered in vegetable oil and Saran wrap, laying in her cookie sheets on every flat surface in the kitchen and she freaked! I don't know why, she never does any work in there anyway! Ha! Actually my pot belly shows proof to the contrary...

    So, I'm off to buy new stuff, and I already feel better!

    Thanks for all of the ideas, sorry I didn't get to try them all.

    If anyone needs some blacked out windows for a Magnum...I'll make you a good deal :)

  23. dav8or

    Posted

    I'm pretty sure mine are steel. That is on an Avid Model C. I will check this weekend but I remember that they were not that easy to drill through when I added a few rivets during rebuilding of the one that came apart on me.

     

    Dan

  24. EDMO

    Posted · Edited by Ed In Missouri

    Bill,

    I sent you a PM.

    If you have kept up with Kitfox progress, the cowls and mounts were the same until Model 5, and the flaperons were changed to symmetrical on the Riblett wing, and then Kitfox advertised a "new and improved" flat-bottom flaperon to replace them, which was what the first 3 models had - Caused quite an uproar from Kitfox owners!

    If my circumstances were different, I would be very glad to get a Kitfox IV kit with most of the work already done, licensed and fuselage already painted, for just a fraction of the cost of a new kit - and the one part to be repaired is no big deal.

    EDMO

  25. High Country

    Posted

    Nice tail Joey!! or umm o never mind. any chance I could get you or anyone to measure the length of the little tab on the trim tab itself that the rod attaches to. the metal I used on mine was too thin and a slight bump has bent it but I'm 1.5hr drive away from my plane and want to make a new one before I go down again hopefully next week. mainly looking for the distance from the bottom of the trim tab to the center of the hole. 

     

    p.s. I also got the servo cover from Highwing haven't installed it yet but the quality is very nice well worth it. aside from airflow/asthetics it protects that little piece of gold from mud/water just my .02 if anyone else was considering it.

     

    p.s.s I've been having slight issues with the rod wanting to walk out of the piano hinge in the tab. mine looks exactly like yours. I'm planning to just drill a small hole in the end and put a cotter pin through it to hold it in place. just a possible area of concern to keep an eye on. 

     

    -Robert- 

     

     

    I just got my elevator back from Highwing LLC today. I had it exteneded to the Mark 4 dimensions which is almost 4" more chord as well as installing a Ray Allen trim system. Can't wait to test fly it. Hoping to complete the bulk of the install this weekend. Will report back with a PIREP.

     

    Lowell Fitt did all the work. He powerdercoated the metal after the extension and did all the work you see in the pic. He also covered and painted the final product. I am VERY impressed with his craftmanship.

     

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