Jeromef

We have here in France an exceptionnaly mild and calm autumn weather. Yesterday I  made a flight from my home airfield in Paris area to the Loire valley and back (a 4 hours flight with an intermediate stop in Amboise (LFEF). 

Some pics of   famous castles:

Many thanks JimChuk for putting your life at risk by taking pictures atop of a ladder!

The mods needed on the kitfox mount seem to be quite extensive and not easily doable by a basic shop!

That, and the need to demonstrate the flightworthiness of the extensively modified plane to the french aviation administration, make that I think I will stay with the 2 strokes for now!

That would be very nice , thanks

What is the extent of modification needed? Does it need to cut/weld airframe structural tubes?

Alternatively, would it be possible to modify the Kitfox mount to fit the Avid firewall fixation points?

Hello all

I have the project to switch my MkIV from 582 to 912 (as my current 582 is nearing the end of its potential)

However, Avid Kitplanes does not seem to sell engine mounts anymore. Has someone an idea where to get, either a complete engine mount, or at least the drawings to have one built from scratch by an aeronautical shop?

It seems Avids  come in different flavors:

We have 3 Avids in the same hangar (see picture):

At left a "C model", reengined with a Rotax 912: no shock absorber

At center a Mk IV, waiting to be reengined with a 912 (it had previously a Jabiru): shock absorber mounted direcly on the door frame.

At right mine, supposed to be an "Avid Lite": the shock absorbers are mounted in the same way as yours.

I'll look at  that next weekend, I am at work for now.

Mine was registered in Germany in 1995, that seems coherent.

 The plane was assembled and first registered in Germany. The vertical fin shape is definetely Mk IV.

I suppose S/N 12740 should in fact read 1274D.

My plane looks like a Mk IV, but the registration papers are  for an "Avid Lite". The plane weighs 483lb empty with a Grey Head 582, a ballistic chute and 2 fuel tanks installed. S/N is 12740.

What exact model is it?

Yes sure, the narrowest is some 30 metres wide; but I wont try that!

This monument near Etretat marks the place where the famous WWI ace Charles Nungesser and his plane "l'Oiseau Blanc" (the white bird)  were last seen during his ill-fated Atlantic crossing in 1927.

Some believe he actually reached the Canada, but was killed in a crash landing in desert area of the Canadian coast.

The famous cliffs at Etretat on the French coast of the English Channel, as seen from my Avid this afternoon. Weather was quite hazy, but nice on the coast

No need for that, there is already a nice airfield just near (LF2834)

Hello all

My hangar neighbor bought a new  912 engine  mount from Avid Kitplanes about one year ago.

Today we tried to install the motor, however this was not possible because the parts had wrong dimensions. In particular the center distances on the rods did not match those on the motor, with an error up to 2mm!

Did someone have a so bad experience with those parts before? What are the possible solutions? Avid Kitplanes does no more answer to mails for a while.

The castle of Maintenon, some 60km SW of downtown Paris, as seen from my Avid.

The XVIth century castle was totally renewed by King Louis XIV to be given to the former nanny of the royal chidren, who toke the title of Madame de Maintenon.

The King eventually secretly married her late in his life.

Bought a set of those Iridium plugs and tested them this weekend: Easier start, smooth run.

We have here in France quite unusual temperature levels for June, yesterday I flew my MarkIV with an ambient temperature of 32°C.

As usual, I waited for taking off that the coolant temp reaches 50°C. I kept 6500RPM up to about 700ft, when I remembered that I had forgot to remove the keys on the car, and landed immediately. When I toke off again a few minutes later, the high temperature warning flashed on initial climb indicating a coolant temp above 90°C. I throttled down to 5500RPM, an the temperature took some time to cool down. Is it normal, or should I suspect a problem with the cooling circuit?

Did you count it for three landings in your logbook?

To continue the tour of the historic sites around my home airfield, this is the La Roche Guyon castle, seen from my Avid.

It has two parts, the upper one being the tower built in the XIIth century  on the cliff to mark the border between the king of France own domain and the duchy of Normandy (which had been given to the Viking chief Rollon to settle the peace with the "Northmen").

The lower part was built in more peaceful times between the XVIth and XVIIIth century.

The castle had gone virtually intact thru centuries, wars and revolutions when it was heavily damaged by a stupid USAF bombing on Aug. 24th, 1944 (although the last german soldier had fled one week earlier !)

The castle still belongs to the Larochefoucault family, its original builder.

The Renaissance castle of Anet in Normandy, seen from my Avid.

The castle is considered as one of the finest examples of French Renaissance art. It was built in 1548 as a gift of Henri, king of France, to his beloved Diane de Poitiers.

The old castle of Chateau Gaillard, in Normandy, as seen from my Avid.

The caste was built by Richard the Lionheart, king of England and duke of Normandy, at the very end of the XIIth century to protect Normandy from his powerful neighbour the king of France. Richard called the castle "my beautiful one year daughter" as it was built in in a very short time, given the huge amount of stones used.

It was besieged and captured by the French after only some years. (Reportedly, the French soldiers entered the castle by the toilet duct!)

Did you make the carbon floorboards? They look nice.

I just cut them out of carbon fiber plate.

I don't think its a good idea to use carbon fiber in the cabin area.

In case of a crash, carbon fiber is brittle and can form very dangerous spikes.

In  modern gliders, the cabin is made  of  a composite of mixed carbon and aramid fibers, in that way it can delaminate without breaking

At long last I succeded to replace the brushes on the starter in place!

For those who want  to do the same, the proces is:

• install the + brush on the brush holder
• Put in place the brush holder on the collector, take care of correctly aligning the notch on the stator.
• Ask a friend to take the holder in place with the tip of a screwdriver
• Put in place the starter cover on the + terminal (dont forget to put the insulator plate first)
• Put in place the starter cover (correctly align the notch )
• Reconnect the "+" cable
• put in place the firewall patch
• Start the motor and enjoy the flight

Following the starter trouble on my 582, I followed "nlappos" advice and opened the firwall to acceed the back of the starter. After removing the rear cover, I could remove the brushes holder and confirm that the "+" side brush was totally worn. I had ordred an received the replacement parts,

Now the hard side: I did not yet success to replace the brushes, because if I put the brushes holder in place first (manually compressing the springs to put the brushes in place on the collector) I am not able to put in place the rear cover, because i should blind mount the + terminal thru the cover.  Conversely, if I mount first the brush hoder in the cover, I am not able to compress the springs to put the brushes on the collector!

Has someone a trick I could use?