akflyer

nope, she dont have anything to do with this place But It took longer than I thought to get it back up and running.. At least we didnt loose any info! Gotta love the daily backups!

Nice pics! I really wish we had more flyins around here! There are a couple every year around the state, but nothing like you guys have down south with one going on damn near every weekend.

Put a few hours on my brothers short wing death trap getting my Zodiak and decoys etc from the duck cabin. Was snowing like a sumbiatch at 2500' as I was crossing the inlet yesterday afternoon.. WTF, this is spose to be summer time

What kind and size of tubing is that? Looks pretty big.

You could take it to a radiator shop and have it cut down pretty cheap. I had one built right down the road from my house and I think it was around 125 to 150 bucks, been a few years so I cant remember for sure. Took the guy a day from when I brother dropped off his bent up one (landing gear folded on landing and the radiator was no longer usable) to me picking it up at the shop and having it bolted on.

Mine had right around 121 hrs on it when I got it and it had been sitting under a tarp for a few years out in the elements. when I got it home, it fired right up, but since I was doing a complete rebuild on the plane, I figured what the hell.. new crank and seals just so I knew what I had to start out with in the "new" plane. seals are cheap, bent planes are not. I have pulled the exhaust a few times in the last 150+ hrs and it all looks clean with no carbon build up visible so I have not bothered to pull it down for a de-carbon.

On my brothers engine at about 250 hrs he decided to run some Mercury "power tune" through it. For about 5 minuted there was some really nasty black come out the exhaust, but then it cleaned right up. About 10 hrs later he has to tear it down for other reasons and it was clean as a whistle with NO traces or carbon around the rings or tops of the pistons.

I think if you use full flaps on take off, you will get a pretty good surprise. I can get off WAY shorter. Once I have established a good climb, I slowly bleed the flaps and increase speed. On floats it is REALLY noticable on the take off, in fact, I dont know if I could break water on a glassy day with no wind without the use of flaps.

Are you using full flaps for takeoff ? if so, how far are they dropping down

I agree, Zeniths dont fly... they are so effn ugly the earth repels them!

But sumbitch, light they are INCREDIBLE!

Congrats! Just remember on landing that the brakes now work real well... dont want to read a post tomorrow about how shitty it feels to look at dirt through the windshield. Been there done that and it SUCKS

OK I got you now... holy crap, that would have made the midrange WAY rich and allow the needle to move up and down. It is a wonder that you got the darn thing to run at all at anything other than an idle and WOT. I agree, it is nice when all instruments are as they should be and you are getting full TO power and a good midrange burn!

Nice that you got it sorted out, and that extra 1000 RPM will make a new bird out of it! Can you elaborate on the main in the plastic cup thing? Are you talking about the plastic screen that slips over it

no need for rubber mounts. Atleast, non of the ones I have seen installed had rubber mounts on them. I am not sure what the drag does to slow you down, I dont think I really noticed any speed reduction when I did mine. If I did it may have been 1-2 MPH. Not enough for me to loose sleep over. I did however loose sleep and a bit of nerves when I was trying to climb high enough to cross the inlet but could not go over 5600 RPM or climb at more than 50-70 FPM or I would see temps over 220. That was when I decided that the belly mount would be worth it at any cost

I put mine on using teflon 1.5" stand offs. Just held it up to the bottom of the plane, marked the holes and drilled trough the floor boards. Best thing I ever did in terms of cooling. I never see temps over 165 now and in the winter I have to run aluminum tape over about 1/2 the radiator to get temps over 140. If you zoom in on the pic, you can see the stand offs to get the radiator a little lower in the slip stream.

Nice shots Randy!

Man, I gotta get a set of BW for mine.. they look just perfect on the Avid / Kitfoxes! Hope the pending D is over soon and I can get back to spending money on toys again

Looks like a great day for flying and no better place to play than right there! We are so damn spoiled with what our back yard has to offer!

Sounds like an interesting trip so far. You are a bit more ballsy than me dropping down that low over the open water on wheels. I have done it once in a PA12 but vowed to never do it again (unless I am maneuvering for a landing on the beach, then I am within swimming distance of the beach ). Hope you make it home without too much excitement.

What are your initial thoughts on the Avid? Does she fly about how you expected? I really have a blast in mine, but cant wait to get the new engine in it and see how she is with double the power for take off!

We had them on my brothers Mod II KF with the narrow gear like that. Was not too bad even on pavement with 8 PSI. Was alot better on the wide gear though... Off in the dirt and sand I dropped them down to 4.5-5 PSI, but it seems that if you get any under that the bead will start rolling real easy. I would keep them up about 8 PSI for your flying and I think they will do you just fine!

SWEET! Nice pics! What GPS is that I am thinking about upgrading my 295 and yours looks like it has a nice big screen on it! I often envy you guys down south being able to do long cross country's and still have pretty much unlimited fuel stops etc. Up here, there are way too many areas that I want to go but are on the ragged edge of the comfort range in terms of being able to get gas and help if you need it. Guess that is why I always like to do CC trips with another plane. When I go with my brother we will load his plane up with gas (short wing piper death trap) cause we can load 75 gallons in the back of the plane in 5 gallon cans. He gets to be the pack rat and I get to have fun on the short strips

I have the Arctic Sparrow Mixture for mine, but Mike is gone now so they are not available anymore... I would not think you will have any issues where you are talking about flying. kind of a toss up on the jetting, but if in doubt, run one size bigger if you have any issues with EGT's.

#1 allow the engine to warm up good before flying! with the water cooled engine, you should see the temp start to come up, then it will drop back down as the thermostat opens, then it will start coming back up. I let mine get to atleast 130 on the second swing before I take off or apply lots of power for taxi.

#2 If the nose is pointed down hill, pull power! if you let the prop turn the engine it will go lean, you will get high EGT's and you can burn it down.

#3 Use full power for take off even if you have lots of runway in front of you. Pulling the power on take off or climb out early will let the engine go leaner. Make sure you use that main jet on take off and climb out as the extra fuel will help cool and will keep your engine happy.

#4 Make sure the prop is adjusted right or you will be chasing EGT's. With mine set for 6200 static it gives me about 6500 WOT straight and level and keeps the EGT's around 1150. I have in flight adjustable mixture but that never really comes into play until I hit around 3500' then I can start to lean it out. Anything under 3500 and I dont mess with it.

#5 Make sure you keep an eye on the rotary valve oil reservoir. if it starts filling up, it means the seal on the rotary shaft is leaking and water is getting in. If it is going down, it means the inner seal is leaking and it is going into the crank case. Either way, the rotary valve is easy to replace and alot cheaper than letting the oil level run out. If it runs out, you will have about 15 minutes before the brass gear shreds and the engine stops running.... I learned that the hard way when I rebuilt mine and did not get it bled right.

Other than these items to keep an eye on, I have no reservations flying my 2 stroke over open water, and over extreme mountain terrain with no areas to "land".

Keep us posted on the progress of the trip and what you think of the new bird!

The searey wou;d not do so well with a cargo pod on the bottom

The cowl should do just fine for me! Thanks

Did you sell your plane? hell, you have a float plane have you got her ready for flight yet? I did not even get out to look at my plane this time home. It was a whirl wind of divorce crap and bad weather so no flying for me.

Parts are looking good Joey! Good luck in the sand box, get yer ass back here safe and get back to work on the toys... Some people need to learn to re-prioritize and put play time before work time ( I am one of them lately it seems)

Holy crap, sounds like one hell of a trip! Hope Bill recovers quickly!

Looking good! Wish our weather would clear up. It has been blowing 25-45 since I have been home this time so no fun flying for me...