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Progress on the extended wings

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Posted

Jack and I have been making some good progress on my new extended wings.  Lift struts are extended and clecoed for now until I am sure everything fits.  Wings extended and inserts, lift strut brackets in place, glued and riveted and ribs glued.  Will work on wing tips with a few teaks next.

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Posted

Very nice work Randy

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Posted

Looking good Mr!

:BC:

 

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Posted

Looks Great!!!

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Posted

Thanks guys, it feels good to see them finally taking shape.  It will be good to compare performance against my stock HH wings when I get them done so others will know if it is worth the effort.

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Posted

Jack and I accomplished a major milestone last weekend; We hung the new extended wings on the Avid+ and got the mounting holes all drilled!!! (even though it looks like we did nothing with the old wing back on the plane and new ones back on the sawhorses.)  The extended lift struts fit great and the dihedral checked out at about 2 degrees for both wings.  The jury struts still fit good with only a bit of shortening required at the spar bracket ends.  One thing I had not counted on in reducing the wing washout to 3/4" was that the tanks have the washout built into them for the standard 2" washout; but after a bit of head scratching I was able to take most of that out pretty easily with some adjustment to the rear lift strut lengths and since I had clecoed them together and not welded them just in case there needed to be some adjustments made, it was an easy fix.  At 3/4" washout the angle between the spars is 1.2 degrees; at 2" washout the angle is 3.45 degrees.  I was able to get the washout angle at the extended spar tips to 1.7 degrees so I am pretty satisfied with that! 

One tool that proved very useful for changing and positioning the wings was a sheet rock jack; I highly recommend it to those don't wing removal and replacement.

Here's the proof!

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Posted (edited)

How long are those wings Randy?  Same as Catalina or Magnum?   I will be interested in hearing how 2 degrees of dihedral makes it fly compared to the 1 degree that Kitfox (and Avid?) uses.  The Birddog L-19 had about 3.5 degrees of dihedral if I remember right - more than C-170.  Good post.   EDMO

Edited by EDMO

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Posted

Hi Ed,

They are the same length as the magnum wings. (I can't thank you enough for the magnum wing build manual.  It has been a big help to compare the differences between the HH wing and the Magnum and add strength in places needed.

On the dihedral; I am not sure what the published dihedral is for the Avid but we measured the stock wings on both Jack's and mine and they were both at 2 degrees.  I didn't want to change that on mine because I like the way if flies and the very stable platform it gives so just wanted to match what was there before.

We got the doublers in the spar ends and wing tanks glued in this weekend!

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Posted

Extended Wings are done!  12% more wing area, 14% more flaperon area.  It was blowing a bit but I test flew it tonight and it definitely takes off and lands slower.  hopefully will get some light winds so I can do some good testing soon.  Danny shot some video but it didn't survive the email so only have the still pics for now.

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Posted

That looks awesome.

Wish I could have kept the 33 foot wing span on my Fat Avid. It was so nice. I know you are going to love the magnum wing span on the Fat Avid! 

I liked it much better, but it just didn't work with the original strut mount position. I really noticed the difference when I took the 18 inches off each wing.

Chris

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Posted

Looks like you did a really nice Job Randy

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Posted

Thanks guys. 

Wow, they are great!  Danny and I went out playing on the river tonight and I was able to almost match his extended wing, 170+ hp Cub.  It really lands and gets off shorter and I can haul it off easier at low speed.  Before if I didn't time it just right and touched the TW on takeoff it would kill it and would take forever to get off with the TW dragging the ground.  Now when I pop the flaps it keeps coming up even if the TW hits.  I was a little hesitant to land at full flaps (24 degrees) with the wind but one notch down (about 20 degrees) is rock solid.  The increased flaps keeps the tail up more on landing so I have to dump them off if I want to get on the brakes.  The controls are great with no difference between on the ground or in flight so the extra effort to strengthen and lengthen the spar insert as well moving the lift struts attachments out one bay and lengthening and strengthening them paid off.  I had a lot of flaperon drag initially but I lubed the bearings and cables last night and everything is smooth as silk now.  Also, I cannot tell that it hurt my cruise speed at all.

No negatives to report as of yet,  I still have to do a good series of stalls with it to see if taking out most of the washout  (it has 7/8" over the extended length instead of 2" in my shorter wing length) plus metal leading edge skins and moved VG's to about 1.5" back of the LE. and increased from 60MM spacing to 30MM spacing for 34" on the outboard ends.

Atached are some more pics with it next to Danny's extended wing cub for some comparison.

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Posted

Looks fantastic! Great job! Keep posting pics and maybe some video...

Clark

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Posted

That is a Great looking Bird!  The hard work pays off with some great rewards....it just takes longer to get there sometimes!!  Those wings look like they would hang on forever and float for miles.  Awesome pics too!  Perfect Avid advertising pic....you never know.  Cheers Randy 

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Posted

Yes , Looks awesome ,nice work ,did you swap out the soob for the rotax?

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Posted

That's the next project Willis.  The extended wings added 10 lbs total.  Not bad considering the added strengthening, length and leading edge skins.  I think the rotax should cut around 60 lbs. and add at least 15 hp with the zipper kit. Stage two coming up next.  Hope to squeeze it in before hunting season but at least it is flyable even if I decide to swap engines after hunting season.

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Posted

You'll be ready for Valdez STOL competitions once the boat anchor is removed and the Rotax installed.  I am thinking about ordering the zipper kit so I can do a vertical climb.

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