Desert Rat here!

[Desert Rat 1]

Leaving tomorrow night for Bend, OR to pick up a Model 1. Anyone have a inspection sheet or advice to inspect trouble areas? Leaving from Houston, TX area and will be checking in this thread between now and May 5th. A leap of faith seems small at this point!

Thanks, Gary

[TJay 1041]

Leaky fuel tanks and bent seat truss is all that pops into my head.

[1avidflyer 1983]

Rib tails in poor condition.  

[Allen Sutphin 705]

Check out the paperwork, also. In all fairness, that is what you are really buying. The airframe can be redone, depending on how involved you want to get with your time and money. Since the homebuilt segment is the fastest growing part of general aviation, parts and materials are increasing in price. But used aircraft prices (E/AB) are also increasing. At least on older avid/Foxes, anyhow. The bottom fell out of the challenger market due to the rony bracket issue and wings failing. But most of them were credited to poor maint or failure to replace. But it doesn't take but one or two incidents for a bad reputation to get started. The Avid/Foxes is one of the few aircraft that I haven't heard much negative talk on. With the exception of " They are hard to land". go figure! To a C-150 pilot, yeah, they probably are! To a Luscome pilot, a piece of cake.

[nlappos 413]

Paperwork! Is it currently airworthy and registered? Some misbegotten souls cancel both and then try to sell the aircraft, which is at best a paperweight until the buyer does backflips to the FAA to regain airworthiness. Original airworthiness limitations signed by the Friendly Aviation Agency. Logbooks, with last annual documented, as well as the Phase I signoff.

Then general build quality, fabric health, rib health (coin tap the entire length of every rib) and rib tail (flaperon support) health. Spar insides for gathered crap and animal turds (fold wing and look inside with a good flashlight), Controls for health and lack of rust, and the structural tubing for lack of rust, straight sections, esp seat pan and gear attach longerons. Wing tips for ground loop rash.