rlmankins

Thanks, that gives me some hard# to play with.

I have the factory trailer. It is so easy to load. Back plane up to trailer, set tailwheel in ramp, hook up to boat winch. Pull on trailer, lock axles on trailer. Fold wings, drive off. Bought my airplane in Port Angeles, Washington. Loaded on trailer, drove 1300 miles home, everything happy.

That being said, I have a hangar and I will be keeping it in there. I will be towing the plane when I go on vacation. Wife can shop and I can go exploring. The entire package weighs less that a 1000 lbs. Actually hooked it up to my Harley and pulled it to the gas station to fill up. Got some very strange looks.

I understand that each one is different. What I am specifically looking for is the effect of placing a fuel tank behind the seat. Am getting very tired of the fiberglass fuel tank discussions. Can have aluminum fuel tank made by a airplane machinist friend of mine very in expensively but am somewhat concerned about 150 lbs behind the seat.

Anybody have a weight and balance for a avid mk4 heavy hauler with a 582.  trying to work out some things before I get to far along.

Just liked the look. If does not work out is easy enough to finish covering. Was really looking for any experience someone had flying one. Used to fly a quicksilver, think it might be similar. I guess I will give a report if I ever get done.

Am finally ready to cover my avid mk4. I am thinking about covering all flying surface and passenger compartment, leaving rear of fuse exposed. Seems to be pros and cons on this. Do not think as slow as the plane is that there will be to much drag, looks good, and might, I stress might help with crosswind. Be easy enough to finish covering if does not work out. Will only be used for low and slow, have Cherokee 180 to travel.

Any comments, have thick skin so anything is ok.

Looking for a prop for my avid mk4. 582 c box 3-1

7759109289

Thanks

Roy

Any updates on the engineering. Getting ready to start bracing and if I need to change anything it's time

In our offload cars we drill multiple holes in our thermostat to protect our engines. Since I live in southern Nevada and will never be flying in weather colder than 30 degrees I do not think warm up will be a problem. I guess the thermostat closes in long descents and when you give it power it opens dumping cold water into the motor which causes clearance problems with the pistons causing the pistons to stick.

My reasoning is if some water is circulating all the time there should more uniform temps in the motor. I do not feel comfortable removing the thermostat completely, 2 strokes do have a temp range they are happy at and we do want to keep our motor happy.

Any experiences or suggestions would be appreciated. I have done my homework but you folks seem to be very knowledgable and experience is always the best.

So I was speaking to my engine rebuilder and he was not that big a fan of clutches. I was not sure exactly why. Some of his comments. No vibration dampening because no rubber torsion ring, prop strike will cause crank problems, wear issues in clutch engagement parts, and I guess this goes along with that, having to rebuild clutch frequently. Also said novice installer might have difficulty installing.

Any comments?

I'm using the RK400 clutch with my 582 and C gearbox. It has been flawless and has smoothed out startup and idle with my 2 blade IVO medium. It would be great with floats.

Thanks, one more item on the to do list.

Anybody use a clutch for their c box. Was at airport, my buddies north wing weight shift has the clutch. Starts, idles, clutch engages smoothly. Seems pretty nice. Any reasons against using this?

Why not just buy the newer FG or plastic tank for the other wing. I dont like gas on my ass!

ED in MO

I have to quit complicating things, I assume that everyone has tanks in both wings. Since I only have tanks in one wing how would I mount the poly tanks in the other wing. I guess I would have to put a rigid support structure in place.

Any suggestions?

Someone asked about flaperons on this forum. Here is what I have in my manual.

Thanks

Roy

A second thought. I would try to do the fuel tank directly behind the seat in front of the mixer and not remove any of the control rods. A couple of my friends have greatly increased the storage space in their Avids by building compartments directly underneath where the cloth storage bag goes behind your head (if you are familiar with that). There is a fair amount of volume they have been able to gain for camping storage this way. I do not know how many gallons of fuel this would represent but it is not a small amount of space.

The reason why I would not go away from the rod linkages is they are very well known, work well, are very reliable and can be 100% inspected any time you want or need to. I just bought an Avid Plus with push pull cables and they make me nervous. I've already ordered new cables so I will be starting from scratch with new ones the first time I fly it. I am trying to figure out how often in terms of time/flight hours I will replace them too. There is no way to inspect push pull cables to know if you are approaching the flex life as far as I know. I know if my Avid Plus had rods and bellcranks, I would not be considering switching to push pull cables! Open cables like on the highlander are a different and completely acceptable alternative, but I do not know what you are referring to.

ChrisB

That seems entirely reasonable. I just found out the FAA is mandating inspection of the control cables on my Cherokee yearly. I have been doing it anyway, major pain but it is my a!! If it fails. Tank can be built in any configuration and that seems very doable. I want to keep it as close as possible to the front so that should work. I think the biggest issue is to keep the volume to a reasonable level, looks like it could hold a lot. Since I only have a 14 gallon tank I need the extra capacity anyway. In avids with higher capacity is there fuel in both wings? Might be easier just to munt the tanks in the other wing.

There are several things you can do that seem to help out. 1. if you mix a little 2 stroke oil in the gas it seems to be doing something to the moonshine and it really lessens the attack on the older tanks. 2. empty your tanks after every flight. The guys that are doing this are not having any issues with the moonshine in the tanks. Make sure your fuel lines are rated for corn poo.. 3. Buy new tanks from kitfox. The tanks will work in an avid, but you make have to do a very little bit of fairing on the cap strips to make them match the rib profile. The difference is so subtle that when you are done, no one would ever know there was a KT tank in your wing. 4. You can drop in the plastic tanks from wing tanks.com.

I would not want to put a 28 gallon fuel cell behind the seat. You WILL have CG issues. If you are just talking about enough for a 2 hr local flight it may be OK but I would not want too large of a tank back there.

:BC:/>

What I was thinking of doing was to put about a 12 gallon tank behind the seat for local flights, leave the 14 gal in the wing. I can buy av fuel in Las Vegas, put it in the wing for safety, fly with the blended in the aluminum tank around town and on trips use av fuel. Does this seem reasonable?

Kitfoxes and Avids both used aluminum wing tanks for a while, had problems with leaks developing. I think it may be from the flex in the wings that caused the tanks to start leaking. I think most of the people who have had problems with fiberglass wing tanks were the people who were using fuel with alcohol in it. I think the lastest fiberglass tanks use a fiberglass resin that is less effected by the alcohol. Take care, Jim Chuk

I live in the country and only have acces to ethanol blended fuel. Can I open my tanks and add a layer of ethanol resistant glass to my existing tank?

Is it just the skin that is bent or is the tube bent also :dunno:/>

The tube looks like it is disconnected at the hinge fitting, not knowing exactly how it is made rod could be broken. It looks sleeved at the hinging point, and perhaps joined inside sleeve. To repair I would make a much longer sleeve.

Has anyone thought about moving the gas tank to behind the seat using a facet pump and eliminating the fiberglass wing tanks. Would be pretty easy to weld up a custom aluminum fuel cell to fit there, I believe you could change out the rod for cables, rod looks like a prob anyway under the seat, to make room for it. Not sure about cg but should be close. Not to happy about sitting on gas but not looking forward to gas tanks leaking either. I am sure this has been beat to death as a topic but can not find in search. Feel free to flame me, only dumb question is one not asked.

Thanks

Roy

The pics make it look like something I could do. It is bent at the fist hinge in from the outer end on the left side facing the front. What I was thinking of doing was to cut the skin past the bend, remove it, make new skin, over lap it, put the pole back together correctly, glue it and rivit it. A 6 inch overlap should be stronger than the original sheet metal. What do you think?

How badly and exactly how is it bent? Can you show a photo of the damage?

This is important to know in order to offer potential solutions.

Will take pic tomorrow

roy

Not wanting to piss is too many bowls of cornflakes here, but in light of recent events, added to some engineering consideration, I am more and more happy with my choice to go with a Grove spring gear conversion on my plane rather than any one of the number of "bush gear" options.

Just saying...

I am not sure how I would attach my floats with the grove gear. I really like the gear, what I wanted to do first but do not want to have to remove them.

Roy

My flaperon is bent and I would like to know if anyone has the construction details, I can not find them in the build plans.

Thanks for the advice, I spent the day doing an inventory and taking a hard look. Looks good.

I just purchased a Mk4 with heavy hauler wings. It had been landed hard and ground looped. Damage to fuse has been repaired in a worksman like manner and I need to replace 2 end ribs and the wing tip, included in purchase. This is a very nice plane and I would like to keep it that way. I have been going through th NTSB and air Canada accident reports for these planes and there seems to be 2 common causes of accidents, engine failure and landing gear collapse. I am haveing firewall forward (582 c box 3-1) zero timed at Oregon Aircraft Designs.

Tha strength of the crossmember under the seats looks questionable. I plan on plating both sides with light sheet metal to increase shear load, maybe 2 lb weight penalty. I have a set of super cub landing gear that happen to be very close to the same size as my float attachment points. These would raise my fuse about 4 inches and widen my track about 18". I am not sure that I want the drag of the carbane and oleo struts but do need advice on it. Does this seem a reasonable upgrade?

While all my cover is off it would be a perfect time for a fuse stretch. I am a low time tail wheel pilot and want my daughter and my grandson to learn to fly in this plane. I have a Cherokee 180 but there is no way that either one of them can afford to fly it, besides the gear is on backwards. Does this increase the directional stability enough to justify the work. Weight penalty look very negligble. Advice for and against would be appreciated.

Plane is very well built but was completed in 1994, has 186 hours on it. Empty weight currently with BRS is 537 lbs without floats, no idea with floats, gross with BRS and floats is 1200. There must be some collective wisdom on failure points, upgrades, best tweaks for the plane. Not looking to redesign the plane or add a bunch of weight, but it will be carrying precious cargo and should be as safe as possible. I have purchased a BRS for it and am interested in the collective wisdom for mounting it.

Last but not least, where do I put my fly rod?

thanks