akflyer

Administrators
 View profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    5,493

  • Joined

  • Last visited


Everything posted by akflyer



  1. akflyer added a post in a topic ribs   



    Most avids and kit foxes tend to be nose heavy. Without elevator trim, the quick fix is to run your flaperons REFLEXED (trailing edge pointed up). If you drop the trailing edge, you will creating a nose down pitch that you will have to carry lots of up elevator to counter act. Both of these will add drag. If you have the time to play with it, what can it hurt to try? Worst case, you strip the wing and go back to the original airfoil.

    If it was me, I would put the tip extensions on and fly the hell out of it. I really enjoyed flying my buddies MK IV with the extensions. Great roll rate (better than my HH wing) and I could get in and out just as short. Stall was damn near the same speed on both planes, with mine edging his out by only a couple MPH.


    • 0


  2. akflyer added a post in a topic Beautiflul Fall flying days   


    If you have the wide gear, then yes, I would go for 9 wraps.. Of course, you have to take into account how long the bungees are. I think they sent them out with varying length bungees because some use 7 or 8 wraps and dont have an issue, mine with 8 wraps will sag. I think on my brothers KF with the avid wide gear, his bungees were shorter and 7 wraps were OK on his.. Kind of a crap shoot depending on bungee length.


    • 0


  3. akflyer added a post in a topic Beautiflul Fall flying days   



    I have been seriously thinking about ordering a set of the bush gear so I dont have to mess with bungies anymore. I was certain that I needed 8 wrapps with this gear, but they are sagging with me and the kid in it, so I will have to add one more wrap and try that ( I should ahve logged how many wraps I put on it before). If I do go with the bush or spring gear, I will make you a hell of a deal on my wide gear.


    • 0


  4. akflyer added a post in a topic ribs   



    If I were looking at replacing all the ribs, I would drill out the rivots on the drag tubes etc. and slide the old ribs off, then put the new ones on. You are probly looking at a couple hours worth of drilling on each wing. This would be much faster than trying to pull all the ribs apart, slide them inplace in peices, get everything aligned perfect, and re-gluing them. To remove the old ribs, you use a heat gun and soften up the old glue then pop it off with a putty knife.

    The flaperons will get you all you need for slow flight, I would not mess with trying to droop the trailing edge, but that is just my opinion.


    • 0


  5. akflyer added a topic in Avid fox flyers pics and vids   

    Beach Time
    Playing on the beach with the kid

    Have not been enough days like this so far this summer!






    • 0 replies
    • 857 views


  6. akflyer added a post in a topic Beautiflul Fall flying days   


    Actually was a real issue.. We were flying along then smelled fire. Not good. Turns out we had flown over a camp hidden in the trees and I did not even see the smoke just got the smell. Since I had just been landing in tall grass that was raking the belly, I thought I might have gotten some around the muffler and it had ignited... I hate lil moments like that in a plane!


    • 0


  7. akflyer added a post in a topic Beautiflul Fall flying days   


    Great info on the tailwheel. That is the first time I have EVER had that happen on this plane. I loosened up the tail chains cause the brakes suck and I could not get it to unlock before, but it makes perfect sense! I will tighten them back up and get a set of the brake pedals that Joey bought.





    I had tension springs on mine to begin with and hated them. Maybe a combination of the two will be the ticket! Did you have to send in your old brake pedals or does he make the whole set up from scratch The stock pedals suck and you cant lock up the tires. I should have plenty of brake power to be able to hold this biatch straight without having any springs on the tail wheel. I'm thinking it's a good thing I have the wide gear or it may have gotten a lil uglier!





    That is a forest service cabin they built a couple years ago.. We rent it in the winter as a cool snowmachine destination. You can look out across Turnigan arm and watch the lights of Anchorage about 8 miles away.

    That is a runway out on a gas pipeline.. not spose to use it but we had a lil issue that we had to land and take care of that would not wait for the 30 min ride back to the airport


    • 0


  8. akflyer added a topic in Avid fox flyers pics and vids   

    Beautiflul Fall flying days
    Got a chance to go burn some sky for a few hours yesterday with the kid. Could not ask for a nicer fall day here as there should be snow on the ground already!




    • 18 replies
    • 3,313 views


  9. akflyer added a post in a topic Pi$$ing contest over at Kitfox forum......   


    How was the school? I was gonna do it this fall but its not looking good for me getting time off for another month or so..


    • 0


  10. akflyer added a post in a topic Pi$$ing contest over at Kitfox forum......   


    Damn, this has a familiar sound to it.. and that is why this forum was started.. I have a tough time with political correctness, and when your acting like a jackass I tend to call you one Got me booted off the Matronix site for a bit But we cant hack on Jett Pilot too much, without him I could have never become the #1 Snakeoil salesman!


    • 0


  11. akflyer added a post in a topic SuberAvid+ ready to fly   



    Randy, thats friggin AWESOME! Nothing like the feeling of taking to the air the first time in something you have built from the ground up! Glad to hear that all went well in initial flight testing. How was the take off compared to your MK IV? I am sure you were not doing any real short filed attempts, but does it feel like she is gonna take alot longer to get off the ground?

    I will be curious to see how the cooling is come summer time. Mine was fine with incowl radiators during the winter, but summer time she just would not stay below 180 so I went to the belly mount. I bet your radiators have more passes in them than mine though!

    Again, Congrats on the first flight, it just does not get any better than putting the bird in the air after all that build time and re-designing to make parts fit!


    • 0


  12. akflyer added a topic in Hangar Talk   

    embedding a you tube video
    Hey guys,

    It took me awhile to figure out how to embed the you tube videos here. It seems different versions of the software do it different ways. Here is how this software does it (super darn easy)!

    Hit the "reply" button, or start a new topic.

    Above the box that you are typing in, there should be the tool bar that has the "B" "I" "U" etc. in. The one you want should be on the far right that looks like 3 pictures. When you put the cursor over it is should say "insert media". Click this button and paste the youtube link in the little box that pops up.

    So, you need to open the youtube video that you want to embed, and copy the link out of the browser address bar (drag your cursor over the www.XXX part and highlight it, then right click the mouse and hit copy). Hit the "insert media" button and then paste the link into that window. Whala. you just embeded a video! this will work with youtube, google vids, videome etc.

    If this does not make sence to you when you try it, I will try and explain it further.
    • 11 replies
    • 2,029 views


  13. akflyer added a post in a topic SuberAvid+ ready to fly   


    Russ,

    Have you been doing your motivational duties on Doug and kicking his ass into gear to get his fat bastard in the air We were counting on you to keep the fire lit under him


    • 0


  14. akflyer added a post in a topic Aftermarket seal kits   



    Yes we have had great luck withthe aftermarket seals and gaskets, but as Bob said the pistons and ring kits were junk. Both Bob and I had failures of the rings at ~ 5 hrs use. The single rings turned to butter and we ended up with engines that had the compression of a turbine.. You could litterally put one finger on the prop blade and spin it around like an old rubber band powered dime store balsa plane.

    If you are looking for the best carb boots, I would say go with the JBM Industries boots. They dont rot out and crack like the Rotax boots do in a very short time. JBM also has the head gasket rings that hold up very well and can be re-used sevreal times.

    Bob, On a side note, It dont look good for me having much time off in the near future to play. Saturday, while on vacation along the east coast my alternate and his wife fell into a river while trying to take pictures and both drowned. Looks like I will be stuck at work for awhile till I can get a suitable alternate..

    < to those who leave too soon
    • 0


  15. akflyer added a post in a topic SuberAvid+ ready to fly   



    Thats AWESOME! I was wondering where you were hiding, and I figured it was in the hangar! Deffinately keep us up to date on how she flys! Any word from Jack on how his project is coming along?

    What tires are you running? Those dont look like the ABW you had on the IV. I am really thinking hard about spending the dividend towards a set of the 26" experimentals.
    • 0


  16. akflyer added a post in a topic Covering Supplies   


    I will go back and check my records, but I think I used 2 gallons of poly brush, 2 and a half gallons of poly spray and 2.5 gallons of poly tone. The worst thing you can do is keep hosing layers on and try to hide the weave of the fabric. It is a fabric plane, and you should be able to see the fabric, especially if you are using poly tone. What colors are you using? For most colors, they all look better and brighter if you start with a base coat of white, then shoot you top coat on that.

    I used a turbine HVLP gun that puts most of the product on the surface not in the air (I love that gun) so I had very little overspray and waste.






    • 0


  17. akflyer added a post in a topic Ambitious Homebuilder   



    YIKES! While you have to admire the guy for wanting to fly, this pretty much shows you how much they value human life over there The guy has ambition and a huge set of balls, but I really think he may be lacking in the brains department


    • 0


  18. akflyer added a post in a topic broken trailing edge wire   

    I think it is doable, but my concern would be getting the bottom fabric the correct tension after you try and hodgepodge it back together. You should be able to wrap the fabric back around and hit it with a heat gun ( I know the manual tells you not to, but you are about out of options the way you are trying to do it). I am certain that the fabric was not fully tensioned per the polyfiber specs as you cant shrink it at full temp on the under cambered wing so you do have a little left to play with.

    If you cut the fabric on the rib, you will have 1" of fabric overlap right on the rib, then use a 3" minimum tape on the seam to give you the required 2" overlap on the seam. If I am loosing you on that one let me know and I will try to draw something up for you and post it so you can get a visual on where I am going with this.


    • 0


  19. akflyer added a post in a topic Helmet cameras   



    Just a quick clip to show the vid quality. This is in the water proof housing with the wide angle lens. I will work on some quick clips from the snowmachine also to show it on day and night rides.

    This was in a 24' Hydrasport running 35-40 MPH in steady 3' seas with the occasional 4'er showing up. Would have been a much drier ride without the 20 knot cross wind tossing all the spray back on me


    • 0


  20. akflyer added a post in a topic Helmet cameras   


    The battery will last for 4 or more hours. And you can recharge from a cell phone charger. I put a 12 volt accessory outlet in mine so I can recharge.

    I use Pinnacle Studio and I think I am at version 12 now... I'm glad you replied, now I will get of my butt and get a quick boat video edited that I took with it.


    • 0


  21. akflyer added a post in a topic Flight up the Pacific Coastline   

    Beautiful country! I would be hard pressed to fly over a beach like that without putting tracks on it.... Did I mention I love Alaska cause we can do that on just about any beach we want

    I love it when people get out and fly these birds over areas of, gasp, rugged terrain or open water especially with a 2 stroke in the nose! Keep the pics coming! I hope to be able to add some pics muself as I will have 3 weeks off next time and plan on getting out and burning some sky for once this summer.


    • 0


  22. akflyer added a post in a topic broken trailing edge wire   



    The trailing edge wire is pretty much cosmetic so you should be able to just pull it tight and clamp it with a nicopress. My worry is why the cable popped with only a little bit of tension put on it.

    Any chance of posting apicture so we can really see what you talking about?
    • 0


  23. akflyer added a post in a topic Finally Soloed   



    Mark it yes, the chug was to assure it did not leak it all out between stops When you have a wife who insists you get a shovel head, you done did found yerself a keeper (can you guess which finger I am holding up right now)

    Should not be too tough to find and instructor who will train in your plane, and the TW endorsement is a piece of cake.. well, as long as you have wide gear!

    I hate it when my back goes out.. damn, this getting old stuff SUCKS!


    • 0


  24. akflyer added a post in a topic hello   


    That is pretty damn impressive that a few strips of tape would make that much difference! I know that on my lage scale RC models, it takes about 1/3 the aileron movement to get the roll rate I want when I seal the hinge lines. It would be intersting to see which of the two did the most good for you, sealing the hinge line, or making the trailing edge thicker
    • 0


  25. akflyer added a post in a topic Finally Soloed   



    OK, the bike pics is makng ole Lenio a wee bit on the jealous side... ahhh the good ole days before wifes and kids.. You can bet that when the dust settles here and I lick my wounds that I will be joining you fellers on the open road!



    oh yeah, Nice bikes guys! < may you never leak out all the oil between pit stops!
    • 0