Trackwelder

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Everything posted by Trackwelder



  1. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Let's talk gear geometry   

          Does any one Know what size tubing was used to build the Bush gear, I am not an engineer but I was an Industrial Technology Major in college and a lot of what I was taught was how to pick apart a design and modify it to work better, Tubing has different properties that can be taken advantage of depending on size and wall thickness, I have seen this gear and see one glaringly obvious but fairly easy to fix problem that will be the next point of failure.
          30 years ago I built a trailer that weighs less than 400 pounds and has hauled a 1 ton truck from LA to Des Moines with no problems by taking advantage of tubing that would do the job but not be any heavier than necessary, It is still going strong today, to bad I never get around to painting projects like that everyone wants to borrow my Backhoe trailer to haul their cars on and then complain about how heavy it was,
         In order to fix the problem I would need to Know the force that it came in at, a good guesstimate of landing speed and terrain would help and the size of the tubing, I have been working on the bush gear and can see the next point of failure that only the 1%ers like C5 are going to find, It is surprising that a 30 year old design for grass landing strips has been able to hold up to the forces imposed by the landings people are making now. Put the original gear on and if you can keep the prop out of the rocks I bet it does just as well. There is a guy on Barnstormers who has a Patent pending Air Shock design that I wish him luck with, Unless it is very heavy it won't work as well but I think the solution runs into the tubing and would like to know the thickness and the size, C5 gear failed where I originally thought they would, and If you just strengthen that you will have another failure in a similar place, By changing thee design slightly I think we could have the problem fixed but I would like to see more failures from you 1% ers so I can work on this problem.
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  2. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Landing gear safety cables   

    Thanks for that bit of info Paul We as in those who actually have a plane flying are pushing the limits as to how far these planes were designed to ggo and how far they make it. For a design that was built 30 years ago and meant to get people flying cheap while landing on a grass strip, it is amazing how far we have taken them. I went through the other group and wrote down all of the modifications Steve Winder put down and with those I was able to upgrade my fuselage to Mark IV specifications with the B model width and then made my own copy of Merle Williams fuselage widening kit. I have been meaning to write them down here, At the same time I have been looking at the damage done to the planes and re-engineering a few things, I have an I dea on the bush gear to put the strength in that it needs, But I need to Know what size tubing the gear is made out of,and preferably how hard the landing was that caused the damage. I have priced out 18 inch travel Rok Shocks and have an idea there, but I need to know what the weight comes to, designing it as a bolt on could be a bear butsince there is no fabric around that area of the plane It should be do=able with minimal welding, Now I just have to look at Steve Winders Numbers again.
        The gear I dsigned for my own kept the same positioning back from the leading edge, but went out 14 inches wider and 8 inches taller, those he had put tubing specs down for, now its on to uncharted territory, and money, The one thing I Know is that up to the Highlander, they used the same 2 1/2 by .063 tubing for the spars and were willing to sell the inserts at a reasonable price. I used 1/4 inch plywood in mine figuring the original load test was done without anything in it. I should have kept building but at the time I was looking for a 2 place airplane and had some weight to lose, now 210 lbs lighter The Avid Became a 2 person plane even if I had not made any modifications.
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  3. Trackwelder added a post in a topic 582 Exhaust joint leak fixs   

    Slightly off topic, but is that a stock motor mount? Mie looks nothing like it on the engine mounts but I don't know if mine is correct or not. They used to sell just the ball and sockets for the 2 stroke exhaust it might be time for a new set, they do wear out eventually.
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  4. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Landing gear safety cables   

    The Kitfox and the Avid gear are not the same, but 5 minutes with a file will make that change, up until model % I believe they are almost identical fuselages, There are several ways to strengthen the seat truss that Steve Winder had described, the easiest is to use an Epoxy ( he used Hysol 4130 I believe as hat is what Kitfox sells) and glue little triangles into the seat truss. If I was doing a complete teardown I might think about welding in 4130 plate, nothing any bigger than .062.
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  5. Trackwelder added a post in a topic The silent giant begins to stir...   

    I always thought it was a bad idea to spend all that money training people to be soldiers and then basically firing them by downsizing the armed forces, Lets see Weapons training that a police force never gets, people used to pulling triggers and people who have sworn an oath to protect the country against all threats foreign or domestic, bad idea to piss them off.
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  6. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Yahoo Group   

    Some body need to move all of the good information that Steve Winters put on the Yahoo group over here, When I first got my Avid I read that group from beginning to end and he had all of the tubing diameters and thicknesses plus a lot of the lengths for building the different models. I used them when I rebuilt my fuselageand took everything up to MarkIV specs, I know the wings weren't the only thing involved in the weight increase, so I changed spar carry throughs and strut carry throughs the only thing I didn't change was the rudder, although I have always thought that I could make the change later if I need it.
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  7. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Bought an Avid Catalina kit.   

    I hope PT goes well, I just got cleared to do PT from my last back surgery, I still work on my planes on good days I am welding on bad days I do math and drawings, I have to keep busy or I go nuts.
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  8. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Size matters.   

    I think I already told you this on another forum, but the Just Aircraft uses 2 1/2 x .063 tubes for spars and has an insert that brings them up to a claimed wait of over 1500lbs, everybody stops at 1320 anymore because of Light Sport regulations, the wings landing gear and tailfeathers are interchangeable, but I would use the newest version I could come up with. I priced out the spar inserts from Just Aircraft a few yeas ago and they would sell them separately at that time for $79 expect them to have gone up a little. If you hunt for the sandbag test that avid did they tested to maximum of over 6 G's if I remember right without the spar inserts and the wing returned to normal, that gives you extra safety margin for weight unless you are flying acro, the size of the plane is actually roomier than I think you were led to believe, I think if you can fit in a C150 you should be able to fit in an Avid or Kitfox, Cessna was good at taking a good design and making it weigh more and haul less
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  9. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AN Hardware   

    I was there in the mid 80's, I was th company scrounge and drove everywhere around Europe to trade our extras for what we needed, I got run over by a new seargeant in a HUMMER in Grafenwehr and that did in my career, I have had a bad back ever since. I don't trust New York drivers either. I spent most of my time as an acting jack Sgt so I could have more influence while trading and they didn't have to pay. Spent many a weekend at the Topper club in Frankfurt.
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  10. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Flying Expenses... The proper way to explain it to the wife   

    220 221 whatever it takes
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  11. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AK 670 Powered Kitfox on Barnstormers   

    How much trouble is it to build a mount to turn the engine right side up in an Avid, I am not sure why it was originally turned upside down, but I am planning on a right side up installation, Is there anything I should be looking out for, when I bought this plane the first owner had mounted a firewall and had about 2 inch spacers between the mount and firewall, I had originally thought it was for Balance, are they needed or should I just bend up the firewall to fit the engine in the proper place.
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  12. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AN Hardware   

    I was at the rock near Butzbach and Giessen Ayers Kasserne there are still a lot of bombed out factories around that area too.
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  13. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Smart Diesel   

    The government bought me a bunch of titanium if it goes up to gold's price I could buy a new plane
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  14. Trackwelder added a post in a topic 582 been sitting   

    I picked up a puller for the a box gear, Not many AvidFoxes flying with it, but I would be willing to loan it out if someone needs it, I have my 277 rebuilt for the ultralight.
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  15. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Smart Diesel   

    I welded railroad tracks with thermite mostly, and also worked on switches and Frogs, you would cut out 40 lbs of bad metal and weld it back in. It was a good job until you had to work on other jobs on the railroad and putting in concrete ties finally took out my back and retired me, any clearer
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  16. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Illustrated Parts Catalog for Rotax 912 & 914 series engines   

    There are finally people replacing there carbureted models with the fuel injected ones, the price of a 912 has come way down. This could be helpful for those buying used.
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  17. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AN Hardware   

    we are getting off topic, but where I was stationed in Germany the post sat atop an underground airport that still has WWII airplanes in it, they would take off and land through a tunnel and when we took it we just blasted most of the entrances closed and left it set.
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  18. Trackwelder added a post in a topic My new ride   

    When we travel to Diamede, we have to take an aircraft, I have walked the top and think I could Bring an Avid in in the summer but Doring the winter they usually plow the ocean, My mom grew up up there and I enjoy the trip up, we have a cabin we can use whenever we get up there. They still have the seal hunting and there is talk about going for a whale, that is something I want to be up there for.
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  19. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AN Hardware   

    I know where there are 4 train car loads of suburbans, you just need an excavator to dig them up, We had a derailment on the Main line and they decided it would be quicker to bury them than to spend the time to haul them out. The Railroad wastes a lot of money on cargo because it costs too much to stop a coal train, or UPS.they Have a quarter million or more resting on multiple trains if they are late they are free and one derailment can cost millions in lost reveue before the track is back up.
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  20. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Smart Diesel   

    It should be getting close to a useable weight, the things it needs are to be a popular enough car engine that there are plenty to be had, a light weight PSRU and cooling system, If there are enough of them built there is a possibility of lightening it up enough to be used as an aircraft conversion. I still like diesels, if nothing else you save the weight of the ignition system, the one I thought was going to make it is being used in UAVs right now so it may come available within a few years, the DAIRwith the scott stroke engine
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  21. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Smart Diesel   

    I have heard of very few diesel conversions that work, there is the dieselis aircraft, the website is in French so I can't reap much about it, the engine was used by bobcat in a 385 I think excavator,it is a peugoet and was used in a few other cars that weren't sold in the US, the power is about 100hp and it is fairly light weight as diesels go, I personally love the idea of diesel engines, no plugs to go bad and the older pre computer engines were simple, the VW diesel was fairly heavy but there are a lot more vw industrial engines than people would think. with the fuel mileage or Gallons per hour that these new snowmobile engines burn you are getting a very economical engine to operate and the snowmobiles wear out before the engines do. I just passed on a running and driving Yamaha for $4000 that I could have pulled the engine from and parted out the rest for about what I would have in it, My wife finishes nursing school in 6 months and she has promised me a new or new to me plane, I will probably build another, there was a Norman explorer based very closely on the Dean Wilson explorer that was like a tiny camper and flew at close to legal LSA speed, that one interests me, but maybe I will check on a new Kitox IV with my new weight I can easily get away with it.
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  22. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Fookididdy FookFook that was an exciting landing!   

    Steve wittman Used finger Patches around all those tubes, I am still putting them on my rudder pedals, yours could steer a tank.
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  23. Trackwelder added a post in a topic AN Hardware   

    Well, not everyone can bring a Cadillac out of work like Johnny Cash, I worked for the railroad and some of th things I was told to through out in a dumpster found one a little closer to home, anyone need a two-stroke powered grinder? 
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  24. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Size matters.   

    Rmendler you have about 20 lbs on me and my instructor his 582 got airborne in nothing flat and I had to drop the nose on climbout to see what was in front of me, I wouldn't worry about getting airborne, Landing speed was registering somewhere around 30mph but on grass we stopped in nothing flat.
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  25. Trackwelder added a post in a topic 3 blade or 2 blade prop   

    The inertia limits with a wardrive propeller limit a B Box to 66 inch, I need to get a bigger prop or new blades for mine. The C and E box have about twice the inertia limit.
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