cliff

I own PA72, Howdy neighbor!

I haven't been on here in a couple of years, stopped by to say HI. Hope you guys are doing OK. I'm still flying but no longer own an Avid although I got to fly off the remaining 20 hours of a new build on an Avid last summer. I plan to have a fly in at my airport next summer (PA72) , Hope some of you can make it. I haven't set a date yet but I'll let you know as soon as I know. Have a good one!

Lostman, maybe we'll see you next year.

We had a small turn out, only 15 or so planes, The weather wasn't great, but we got some flying in. We had about 100 guests over the 3 days, No one left hungry and the Backcountry guys were such wonderful young gentlemen. We look forward to doing it again .

Lost man,

 Stop in, I'm sure you will have a good time. Camping, food, drink. and cool airplanes. Maybe I forgot to mention that there is no charge for anything. Sort of our first open house. Hope to see you this weekend.

I have sprayed alot of U tech, never any Endura. Poly fiber's aerothane is good and I have used air tech on 2 Champs. I prefer poly tone on fabric, it is lighter and very easy to repair. 

Dholly, 

 We have been doing cars, motorcycles and dissassembled aircraft at our new facility since around Jan of 2015. We have just gotten set up well enough to do complete aircraft up to  a Cessna 206 in size. I have a Cessna 182 in the shop now that is almost ready to spray and a 150 left here last week. 

 Thanks for the words of encouragement, Hope you can make it here next time.

LSaupe, See you next time, Have a good weekend.

gas station is 1.5 miles away, I have a couple of airport cars you can use and plenty of gas cans.

TJay,

 I have been to multiple fly ins where Ultralight and PPg pilots are not too good at following  the rules. Some don't know the rules. 

I am keeping this fly in simple and it is my first one. I figure if a guy went through the private pilot course or the sport pilot course, he should have enough training  to fly a pattern correctly and compitently.

I have friends who fly ultra lights and have no license that land here all the time, But I personally know them.

I have hundreds of hours in ultra lights, in fact we are finishing up a Kolb right know, I love them. I have been flying them since 1981, I have seen the best and the worst that the ultra light community has to offer.

I am opening up my private airstrip to the public for a weekend, I am worried enough about the liability issues that I am exposing myself to. I am only doing it because I want to support aviation and I love it.

I am trying to keep the risk factor down by not having too many dissimular aircraft trying to land at a small airport with no taxi way.

I may have an ultra light only fly in some time in the future, We'll see how this one goes. 

Kenneth, I own a nose dragger and a couple of taildraggers, guess what I fly when it's windy. I only have a few hundred hours in taildraggers and a stiff cross wind still makes me nervous. You are welcome to come. Hope to see you in a few days.

I thought it was in the title, if not it is the 9th, 10th, and 11th of Sept 2016.  This coming weekend

No takers? 

I haven't been on this site much since I sold my Avid. I thought I would extend an invitation to you local PA and MD Avidfoxflyers to come to a no frills fly in at my private strip.  There are a couple of guys from the  Backcountry site  that will be here and some local pilots. We will serve food and there will be a fire On Friday and Saturday night, You can camp under your wing.  I will have a make shift shower set up and Porta potties.

The airport Identifier is PA72 Circle W Airport in East Berlin PA.  Use 122.9 for comm and both runways are left hand pattern.

Bring your own tiedowns.

Please private message me if you plan to visit. 

NO POWERED PARACHUTES, ULTRA LITES, OR UNLICENSED AIRCRAFT OR UNLICENSED PILOTS PLEASE.

The white coat must have complete and even coverage or the yellow will look blotchy. NO amount of cross coats of yellow will hide it.

if you are painting your plane yellow, you might want to spray a cross coat of white first. It will make the yellow look cleaner and brighter. This may be true with other bright colors also.

I recently buffed a 17 year old polytone job on a Kolb. It looked like hand rubbed lacquar when I was finished. I have had great success with polytone. Good product for all the above mentioned reasons including much lighter.

I was going to chime in at the beginning of your project but I didn't want to sound like a know it all. I do fiberglass work to Vettes and different Race car boddies almost every month. I always have the part being glassed completely attached to the vehicle while I am doing my work. It keeps the parts from changing shape from not having them exactly how they fit on the car.  Another thing I always do, is heat set the repaired fiberglass area. Heating it with a heat lamp, before moving forward with the body work. If you don't do this the first time you are out on a hot summer day, the fiberglass will move and get lumpy, destroying all the body work that you have done. Unfortunatly I found this ou the hard way.

What is the deal with chromed control sticks on some avids being unsafe?

It sold very quickly, I had over 30 calls from a free ad on Barnstormers.

  We sold our Avid, we think We have the project and parts sold. Looks like we will be finished with this type of plane for a while. I still have a retirement dream of an RV with an Avid in a trailer behind it, traveling the USA with my wife. That won't be for 15 more years. 

  We got a completely restored Aeronca L-16 Champ to take the Avid's place. Doesn't perform as well as our light Avid, but it is easier for my brother to fly and it is what we have always really wanted. Our Dad's first plane was a Champ and his last plane was a Cessna 180. We have an example of each now and remember the great times with the Old Man everytime we fly.

  I would like to thank all of you who have helped me with my stupid questions over the past couple of years. I will check in to see what is new every once in a while. 

 Thanks again, Cliff

The side longerons have gusset plates welded in. We were plannig to do some reinforcing under the seat, just didn't get to it.

What ever you use, Put a good scratch in it to give it tooth for a mechanical bond. I have done some interesting repairs with SEM panel bond. It is not flexible when dry but will stick butter to grease.

From what I understand from talking to  Mark is that he had a hard landing with grove gear and bent the fuselage. It really wasn't a wreck. It has an excellent repair done to it and is good as new. Maybe better because it was beefed up with a few gussets.

The fuselage came from a guy named Mark Schindler. He sold it to a buddy of mine and I bought it from him. I think Mark use to post on here, I talked to him on the phone once, He told me the history of the damage and who repaired it. I unfortuatley never wrote anything down and can't remember the whole story.