FredStork

It is a good idea to secure the caps like you have done.  Here is a way to do it that makes it very easy to take them on and off when so needed (like I had to do before each flight until I found the "P" plugs...)

Hi Sam! If you are stuck at 700 ft it sounds like you have a fixed pitch prop.. Not even my tired 532 needed 700 ft.. I guess you would be able to swing a decent size 2 blade ground adjustable. No experience with Jab so I don't know if NR-Prop would be an alternative. Very popular with our US and Canada bases back country pilots (called "Kool prop" over there).  And I'm very happy with mine - but I have a very different engine

...and if any of this really matters... Donald Trumps grandfather, Friedrich Trump, emigrated to the US to avoid fulfilling his military service in Germany. He run brothels during the gold-rush and later moved back to Gemany - but the authorities found out about his escape from military service and he had to return to the US...

But I don't think it really matters...  

Yes, Stanley Armour Dunham, the maternal grandfather of Obama enlisted as a private in the US Army 1942 and went to France and helped the 9th Air Force during D-day. Thank you Stanley! I don't know if that is proud enough for you but for us here in Europe we certainly owe him, and his likes, more than one!

The opportunities for proud military service is often related to where you are. I'm from Sweden and we havent had a war to brag about for over 600 years... Obamas father was between Kenya and the US during the Mau-Mau uprising. Most fighting was done by the British and it is unknown if Obama Sr. was involved, most likely not. Not sure it would have been a proud military service anyway...

Yepp, have been running 800-6 tubes overblown in 850-6 for several years now without any issues - for me...

Hi Dan,

no I have not as what your question implies is not the way the horisontal bungee is expected to work. The problem with the safety wire is that it comes to a hard stop, and hard stops hurt. The idea with the horisontal bungee is to provide a progressive resistance when the gears travel too far apart. As you point out, there is initially next to no tension on the horisontal bunge, it progressively sets in when the gears travel further apart.
I have never heard about the main bungees braking (they should be replaced every 5 years) but we know just to well about hard landings maxing out the main bungees and stopping hard on the "safety" wire and breaking the seat struss...
So no, I don't think the horisontal bungee would hold the plane if one of the main bungees breaks. And yes, if you land hard enough you can still get a prop strike or worse. But my experience is that the horisontal bungee really softens hard landings.

The downside of bungees is that there is nothing to dampen the recoil...  The harder you land the higher you jump! 
I'm trying to find a creative way of adding some kind of damper but I'm not there yet.

Note that breaking the seat struss and potentiall warping the fuselage might be preferable to a prop strike on a direct drive engine...   On a reduced engine with built in rubber damper and a low price, high efficiency prop from Ukraine the Outcome of the risk calculation is different.

Oh Matt, that gave me a good chuckle !

The "R" stands for Resistance, 5k ohm appears to be the standard

I have a small toolbox in the plane on longer trips with a set of fresh plugs. But here in France it is more important to always have a pair of old and damage plugs in case you want to do a back country landing and get caught... Oh, I had to land, the engine didn't sound right... dang, look at those plugs... 

I think this is what you want... 1.99 each, in stock and same day shipping... with solid terminal (see the specs)

https://www.ngk.com/product.aspx?zpid=30366 

I would order at least 8...

Just type NGK BPR8ES in Google... 

I'm missing something here, normally we try to slim the planes down so we can carry more fuel, loosing weight by removing tanks is a somewhat surprising initiative. But you are right, if there is sloshing compound in the tank it might already be leaking. The wing tanks are a part of the stucture and without it you need to add a diagonal drag tube unless it is still there (I have seen some aluminium wingtanks built around the drag tube.

Don't be tempted to move the undercarrage forward,you will creat more problems than you will solve.

I'm guessing at least one of those problems is structural since the seat truss wouldn't be supporting the gear loads anymore. What else would it affect?

You would put more weight on the tail. The tubes near the tailspring are known to break trough stress. More weight on the tail wheel will also put more stress on the tailspring and when it breaks it flings up and damage the rudder. This is also one of the moments when the rear tubes get a lot of stress, i.e. when landing with a broken tailspring so added weight is not what you want...
I guess ground handling would change as well but not sure in what direction...
I don't think it is a good idea, nor do I think it is particularly needed... and it will take a lot of work to get the brakes strong enough to tip the plane...

One friend of mine converted a nose wheel Avid to tail wheel just by moving the landing gear to the front position... He tipped it by braking on the first test run as he didn't know the landing gear geometry is different... completely differet gear.. But other than that I have not heard about tipping - but I'm sure someone else has. But I don't think it is a frequent problem.

By "breakaway" you mean "free spinning" or "steerable but will release at a certain angle"?

I have the classic Maule tail wheel fork (I have replaced the Fred Flintsone wheel with a pneumatic wheel) and is one of few who likes it..., it is steerable and great for taxiing and ground handing. It has never released without me wanting it to do and is easy to release when pulling the plane into the hangar. I have the impression that steerable will help to keep you on track and help avoiding ground loops but never tried a free spinning tail wheel. I see no downside with the steerable as long as it can release when needed. 

Never had an oil pump (Rotax 532 and Simonini Victor 2), always used premix and always had oil puddle in the cylinders. And running the engine dry makes absolutely no difference. 

The difference between P (protruding) and regular plugs. It solved the oil in plugs problem for me. 

(yes, it is a centimeter scale, not inch..)

Hi Turbo! What plugs are you using? If they dont have a “P” in the name replace them with the P version of the same plugs. P stand for protruding and the longer plug will prevent the oil from accumulating in the plug. This normally does the trick as at least one of the plugs remain usable.

The HKS engine has a good reputation. I know several owners, no particular issues reported. Reliable and low consumption. The only but is the power... it is closer to 50-55 than the announced 60 hp. Some years ago there were rumors about a more powerful model to come but no news since... If you do flatland and stay close to sea level it can be an interesting alternative but I would go for something different for mountain and bush flying...

Allen is 100% right! See this as an opportunity. Some ears ago I made a bad landing and the landing gear safety wire broke the seat struss (don't get me going on that... ). So after some consideration I decided to take the opportunity to tear down the entire plane and do a full rebuild rather than just repairing the seat struss. Just the minimum repair would have required quite a lot of tearing down and recovering etc. so why not... It was a second hand (well, a number of hands over 22 yeras) model C serial # 479 that I had bought some years before and I knew it was not in mint condition - but I got some surprises when I started to pull of the fabric... Just one example, I think this one is from the tail plane...

Btw, seen the damage on your plane from the tail wheel jumping the track, I guess you where unloading with the wings still folded. With the wings folded the weight is way back with a lot of weight on the tail wheel (or on the rear of the fuselage if the tailwheel jumps the track - happend to a friend of ours very recently...). With the wings folded it is badly ballanced and difficult to maneuver, strongly recomend to load and unoad the trailer with the wings in their normal position.

Good luck with your project and know that we are always here to share our experiences and provide any help we can.

Fred

That is very close to what I have in mind, a deported system with the brake cylinders under the seat actionned by (pull) rods. It should be fairly easy to incorporate a parking brake once I have the cylinders and lever mechanism under the seat. 

With your heel brake experience, what is the best postioning of the pedals? On most photos I find the brake pedals are not in line with the rudder pedals, they are lightly more in thge center and you have to twist the foot to reach the brake pedal with the heel. Is there a rational reason for this, and if this is your expoerience, it good or should they better be alligned? 

Heel brakes anyone?
Has anyone tried heel brakes on an Avid? I didn't know the concept before but it appears to have some advantages over toe brakes like not breaking against moving pedals, way easier to the geometry right - in addition to it probably being easier to apply required force with the heels than with the toes.
Anyone with experience and eventual photos to share? 
This is an example of an off the shelf product to a ridiculous price but rather easy to make yourself:

Or like this for a deported cylinder installation:

Hi Martin! 

I just noted this post... from back in June... I'm sorry I missed it and therefore and missed the meeting... It would be great to come another time.
Could you try to post earlier when you have Avid Flyer meetings, one week before would have been short even if I had seen it...

Regards
Fred

Bleeding Bloody Brakes...

So I'm tipping the plane forward so the feed line to the brake calipers is the highest point of the caliper. I push brake fluid in/up through the bleed niple in the caliper with a big syringe. I have the Matco MC-4 brake cylinders mounted vertically with the push rod up. 

I can see the air, then the air bubbles go through the brake lines and then just the red fluid. Probably pushing 3 times the required volume through the system. No more bubbles.
... and the brakes are still "mushy". This is the first time I'm using the MC-4 cyliners, is there a secret way to bleed those? I don't think it is a problem with the calipers as I never had this issue before and have bled them successfully several times.  

Hi Dan,

no, there 7 wraps on each side, the wraps are slightly overlapping on one side.  What you want is the part number 06-12400 at Aircraft Spruce 3/8 " shock cord. "MIL-C-5651D TYPE I SHOCK CORD: This cord has a double cover of glazed cotton over natural cotton. It has 3 markers: 2 for the year and 1 for the quarter. " so yes, yours is probably marine cord (like the one between the legs on my photo).
The change all depend on the characteristic and condition of the current bungees. When you change to the same type the difference is better ground handling but be prepared for bouncing at landing if the old once were tired...

Wow, this is not an airfield by a lake but an airfield in a lake.. When and where is this? Is it pure flooding? Is the airfield officially open while flooded or did you just benefit from the general disorder and landed anyway?