Luked

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Everything posted by Luked



  1. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    Hi Robert,
     
    That looks like an interesting idea. Seems like there are tons of options with these planes. I'd like to stay with the Avid style bungee gear though. I guess I just like that look. I'm sure everyone would like to see some pictures though. I would definitely be interested to see what you did.
     
    Luke D.
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  2. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    IFMT, that would be great. I've been wanting to see what your upgraded truss looks like since you mentioned it. If you could measure some tube diameters it would really help too. Thanks a lot for your help.
     
    Luke D.
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  3. Luked added a post in a topic Luke's MK IV Project   

    Ha!, Thanks Larry.
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  4. Luked added a post in a topic The 180.. saving a ramp mummy   

    Man, that's a bummer. Sorry to see that it turned out this way. In situations like this, it's hard to know whether to just chalk it up to a bad experience and move on, or see if you can get some kind of resolution. Sometimes it's not worth the extra headache. I guess everyone is different. Of course, I know it would probably bug me every time I saw it. Like you said in one of your earlier posts though, this plane is a pickup truck of the sky not a hangar queen. If it's airworthy, maybe just go with it.
     
    The thing I can't understand is that this guy isn't willing to work with you a little more. Like they say, a happy customer might tell one other person, but an unhappy customer will tell ten other people...
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  5. Luked added a post in a topic Luke's MK IV Project   

    Small update for today. I got some stuff from Kitfox...
     
    John and Debra McBean were great to deal with, and got my order of parts to me pretty quickly. Parts quality and packaging was excellent. From what I can tell so far, I would recommend using Kitfox parts.
     
    This is my first wave of wing parts. I will be ordering most of the remaining items from Aircraft Spruce. Probably some more from Kitfox too though. We'll see how things go. Here's what came today:
     
    3 big boxes

     
    Gas tanks

     
    Various gas tank parts

     
    Various wing parts

     
    I also got PVC leading edge pieces, some ribs, and trailing edges that are not in the pictures.
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  6. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    Thanks Doug. That's really helpful information. I was considering going to 3/4" tubing on the top where it is in compression to increase resistance to buckling, but I haven't gotten down to the detailed calculations yet. Doing the calculations takes me a long time because I have to double check everything so many times to make sure I'm doing it right.
     
    My current design looks a lot like your rear bungee truss (except flipped upside down). My idea is to put closer spaced diagonals with shorter lengths near the center where the bending moment is the highest. It turns out the Bearhawk uses a landing gear truss that is almost exactly this design. You can sort of see it in the picture below.
     
    Thanks,
    Luke D.
     

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  7. Luked added a post in a topic Valdez fly in   

    Nice, I don't think I've seen any Avids in the pictures I've seen online of Valdez. Hope to make it to that eventually. My wife's sister and her family live in Fairbanks, so we might have to visit...
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  8. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    It sounds like the standard upgrades (steel gussets or plywood) have proved to be adequate. I wasn't happy with the way the gussets in my plane look (looks like someone did a rough job with a mig welder, and blew at least a couple of holes in the top tube), so I'm going to replace the whole truss. I don't know what is normal for the gussets, but mine has .040". They are pretty heavy. I modeled the stock truss on the computer, and then added the gussets. I don't remember the exact numbers, but they basically doubled the weight of the truss. I'm hoping to keep the weight closer the the stock weight.
     
    As far as pilot skill goes, I'm sure I'll put the plane to the test. I just got back into flying recently after about 16 years away, and it wasn't too pretty at first. I'm a low time pilot to start with, and on top of that, I need to learn to fly a TD!
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  9. Luked added a post in a topic Summer Shoes   

    Thanks for all the pictures you share on here. It's always to cool to see the stuff you guys get to do up there. The scenery is really pretty too.
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  10. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    That's kind of what I was thinking, but I just didn't know what kind of numbers are realistic. That's where feedback from you guys that have lots of hours in these planes is so helpful. You know what kind of a beating they can normally take.
     
    If I use 500 FPM, I should be able to figure out the rest by calculating gear stroke, acceleration, and then force. From there the stress calculations are fairly simple. The 6" rock is a good thought too. I think I'll assume that if you're hitting those, you have some tires that can help out a little.
     
    I have thought about beefing up the rear attach point though. Extending the gear leg length puts more force back there (especially when you hit big rocks). Moving the attach point back would help, but means adding more weight to create a new reinforced point on the fuselage. Adding more reinforcement to the existing point is probably more practical. Of course, I don't want to outsmart myself and make gear that's so overbuilt it just bends up the rest of the airplane
     
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  11. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    I didn't know the plywood reinforcement was enough for the WIB gear. That's good to know. Earlier in this thread, IFMT suggested a beefed up truss like the one he bought from Airdale because he had bent his original. I wonder how his replacement truss compares to the plywood add on.
     
    I did some calculations on some different truss designs with different tubing sizes. The problem is that I don't know how much force the truss should be able to handle (how hard of a landing to design for). The best I could do was try to reverse engineer the existing truss, and then design a new one that can handle more force at the bungees. I hope I can at least proportion the members in the truss to match each other so that I'm minimizing the weight. I guess I'm just over thinking this. Thanks for the information though.
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  12. Luked added a post in a topic Looking for info on landing gear options   

    Okay, sorry to keep posting all these questions, but I've searched and haven't found all the information I was hoping to find  .
     
    My seat truss (MK4) has a 5/8" x .035" wall tube across the top, and all other tubes are 1/2" x .035 wall. Someone added .040" gussets in the triangular areas, but the welds are pretty rough, they actually burned through the tubing in at least one place. I'd like to replace the whole seat truss.
     
    I'd also like to go with a wider gear like the WIB gear (tail dragger flying will be new for me). Does anyone have pictures or information on what type of seat truss upgrades they have done to use the WIB gear? I've done some basic truss calculations, but just want a little reality check before committing to a design. I'm also trying to minimize weight, so I don't want to overbuild this. I've been waiting to order tubing until I can nail this down, but I'm getting impatient to get this gear situation knocked out.
     
    Thanks
    Luke D.
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  13. Luked added a post in a topic Tricycle to taildragger   

    Well, that's that. Removing the nose gear structure was very easy. Now it remains to be seen how hard it will be to add some tubes back in. Start to finish was about 20 minutes,and I was taking my time. I used a sawzall, and it worked great. Very little work with the grinder will be needed,and I think the structure is in very usable condition.

    The only tubes that are significantly shortened are the cross tube at the base of the socket, and the one from the top of the socket to the top of the seat truss. It's yours to use Mark if you want it. Here are pics. You should be able to remove the stubs left from my cross tubes, and remove a small chunk from the middle of yours. Should fit right in. The one to the seat truss would probably just be easiest to replace.

    First cut.














    The "after" picture. One other reason I wanted to do this is to add an additional motor mount point at the bottom of the firewall in the center. I noticed that Kitfox does this as well.


    Here's the socket structure (3.7 lb. as pictured).

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  14. Luked added a post in a topic Where to buy bungee / shock cord   

    I remembered seeing an article linked from this forum about making bungees, so I looked it up again. They show a tool made from a pair of Vise-grips. This must be similar to the tietite tool. I see now why it's important. The article describes how the cord is stretched to that it narrows during the wrapping process. When tension is released, the cord expands again inside the wire wraps and creates increased friction for a firm connection. Here is the article:
     
    http://avidflyer.wikia.com/wiki/Shock_Cord_Fabrication_and_Replacement
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  15. Luked added a post in a topic Where to buy bungee / shock cord   

    Thanks for the extra information. I think that pretty much covers it. I'll check out the tietite tool.
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  16. Luked added a post in a topic Where to buy bungee / shock cord   

    Thanks Randy. That sounds good. I've got safety wire twist pliers. Do you remember how may wraps of the bungees over the truss (top and bottom) you use?
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  17. Luked added a post in a topic EarthX Batteries   

    Good to hear your friend has had good luck with these. I'm a long way of from buying a battery, but If I go with a starter on my plane, I'll definitely use one of these after hearing this. That's a pretty huge weight savings for a single relatively small item.
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  18. Luked added a topic in Avidfoxflyers General Hangar   

    Where to buy bungee / shock cord
    Searching through the archives, it sounds like there are different grades of bungee cord. I checked the normal places (copied from the web sites):
     
    Aircraft Spruce:
    4 mm = 0.15748 inches 6 mm = 0.23622 inches 8 mm = 0.314961 inches 10 mm = 0.393701 inches Wicks:
    1/4 in 3/8 in 1/2 in Aircraft Spruce is a lot less expensive. Is there a reason?
     
    The cords that came with my plane are of unknown age, and they look just like the kind you buy at the hardware store (very stretchy). Aircraft bungees I've seen before seemed much harder to stretch.
     
    Wicks has standard inch sizes, and they go up to 1/2". The old ones I have are about 3/8". I'm going to re-do my seat truss to make it strong enough to handle wide gear (bungee type) in case I decide to go that route down the road. I need to make sure it can fit the number of wraps required.
     
    I know all this stuff has been hashed out pretty good in old threads, but some of the information isn't specific on a few points. One old thread said 7 wraps for standard gear, and 8 wraps for wide gear. Another says 6 wraps for standard gear. Also, they don't say if they mean 7 wraps over the top and 8 wraps under the bottom, or 6 wraps over the top and 7 under the bottom.
     
    I think I also read that the standard gear uses 3/8, and the wide uses 1/2"?
     
    Can anyone shed some more light on this, or verify any of the specifics? I don't need official information of what Avid specified or anything. Just hearing what setup has worked for others, so I can replicate it would be great. Hoping to do some welding in the near future...
     
    Thanks,
    Luke D.
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  19. Luked added a post in a topic MK IV HH For sale   

    Hi Russ,
     
    Looks like a nice plane all around. Wish my kit came with the WIB gear. The trailer will be a nice feature for some buyers too. Here's a direct link to the ad:
     
    http://www.barnstormers.com/listing.php?mode=usersearch&user=149465
     
    Good luck with the sale!
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  20. Luked added a post in a topic Luke's MK IV Project   

    No problem Chris. I know where you were coming from. I think It's human nature to want to add stuff to things we build. Hopefully I can resist that.
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  21. Luked added a post in a topic Luke's MK IV Project   

    Just a little update to my project. I got my crankshaft back from Oklahoma yesterday. Everything checked out, and it's now got a yellow tag. Based on this, I think I will be building up a C-85 for the Avid. Hope to have some other updates in the near future!
     

     

     
     
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  22. Luked added a post in a topic Tricycle gear information   

    Well, I'm not sure how I did it, but some dimensions on the first version of my diagram were wrong. I noticed it when I was measuring some other stuff on the plane. I've updated it, and I think they are all correct now. Sorry about that.
     
    Luke D.
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  23. Luked added a topic in Files and Forms   

    Tricycle gear information
    Here is a diagram of the tricycle structure that was in my MK-IV, and some pictures before I removed it. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I had to use an ipad to take them.
     
    The dimensions are as accurate as I could measure them. If you want to use this to make a tricycle gear, you can double check the dimensions the dimensions that already exist on your plane to see how they compare to those on the diagram.
     
    Avid Flyer MK-IV tricycle gear dimensions revised.pdf
    (note: I had some dimensions that were wrong on the first version of this. Please use the file ending in "revised")
     









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  24. Luked added a post in a topic Tricycle gear information   

    Hey Guys, I added the diagram to my original post above.
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  25. Luked added a post in a topic Come fly with me…   

    Looks like fun. Exactly the type of flying I'm looking forward to. Thanks for the motivation!
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