Dean Wilson ‘40 Special’

[Logtrucker 44]

Dean donated his last airplane to Lewiston Idaho EAA chapter 328, however like most of our shops and hangers were out of room. So we need to sell.   Some specs, WS 45’ fuselage OA  15’10” inside cabin W 37.5”, headroom 37.5”, power 40hp continental, 0 smoh  new prop. No paperwork.  $15,000 Or best offer.    Jack.   509 254 3068

[Logtrucker 44]

Correction——inside width and headroom both 35.5” not 37.5” as stated,   Sorry.

[1avidflyer 1983]

Wow, did I read that right?  45' wing span?  Guess that is why it only needs 40 HP.   Do you know empty and gross weights JImChuk

[akflyer 1427]

If I remember right... wasn't that engine out of the first plane he ever owned?  Didn't he track it down, then designed the plane around that engine?  

15K is cheap for that bird!

[saskavid 47]

Interesting airplane for sure. Very interesting airfoil profile from what I see in the pictures. Structure  seems to share a lot of mechanics with the ellipse. How the wings fold and the front wings pins pull...streamlining of the struts and the airframe. A very cool piece of work. The workmanship looks just exceptional. wonder how it performed or does perform?

[1avidflyer 1983]

Was just looking at weight of the Continental engine, and this is what I found on Wikipedia.    That means a Jabiru 4 cylinder would be just a little less weight on the nose.  Hmmmm.  I see the plane's paperwork is still up to date as well, no airworthiness certificate yet though???  Wonder if the plane was ever flown?

A40-4

Single ignition, 40 hp (30 kW) at 2575 rpm, dry weight 144 lb (65 kg),^[2] Steel backed connecting rod inserts

A40-5

Dual ignition, 40 hp (30 kW) at 2575 rpm, dry weight 156 lb (71 kg)^[3]

[Logtrucker 44]

Glad to see you guys chimed in, I was privileged to have my Mk 4 in Deans shop for about a year while he was building it, we helped each other, of course, ‘who got the best of that deal?’ All of your thoughts and recollections are as I know them. Has it ever flown? All I can tell you is one Monday morning after we had checked out the engine, static RPM etc. I removed some wheat stubble from the axles. Beautiful work and engineering!

[Willja67 144]

I'm hoping that you might be able to pull it out and spread the wings and get a bunch of pics both overall and of little details.  There's an awful lot to be learned from a master just by looking at his work. 

[ChrisBolkan 130]

Here are some pictures i took of it in Deans shop. I was very impressed with it. He made the prop that is on it in these pics. I took a picture of the jig he used to make the prop. Pretty cool.

[saskavid 47]

So I'm just going to throw this out there... I am wondering how much like the ellipse the structure of the wing is on this plane? The ellipse wing being somewhat complex in that it had to be "skinned" in a full jig if I am remembering this correctly. This is such an aerodynamically neat plane on so many levels...

[ChrisBolkan 130]

This plane just has regular rectangular wings but it looks like he copied his Elipse wing struts.

[Logtrucker 44]

Dean called to tell me that the wingspan was 35’ instead of 45, embarrassing, to make such a blatant error. At 90 hope I’m not getting ‘Biden-Itis’. Weather has kept us old guys from getting the airplane out and taking more pictures with the wings out etc, but it’ll be warmer soon so don’t forget it’s still for sale!

[Cloud Dancer 69]

What's the story on the air worthiness certificate? Did it have one at some point? The only thing I can think of keeping this from selling is it must be a dead end to get it legal maybe? Such a pretty airplane, a shame it's hanger flying only.

[Logtrucker 44]

No serious action on the’40 Special ‘ yet. However I did find the logs and build records for it. Someone said they remembered a box of stuff came  with it. So it’s ready for DAR after prop install and checked out. SOMEONE—should‘pull the trigger’ on this one!

[Cloud Dancer 69]

I was attempting to pretend I could read and understand FAA lingo so I downloaded the requirements to obtain a Light Sport airworthiness certificate. I think this airplane may eventually qualify but it seems you first need a regular air worthiness certificate issued and you can later down grade if it meets the requirements to a light sport certificate.

That's too bad because it leaves a lot of potential buyers out in the waiting room on this nice airplane. 

The wing length now being 35' is both good and bad news. At the previous stated 40' length it sounded like the wings may have been lengthened to carry the heavier Continental motor of less power than previous engines used in Avid Flyers. I'd love to have a Continental up front compared to a 2 stroke any day.

The 40' length also had my mind racing trying to think of what kind of trailer one would need for such a long beast. That problem went away with the announcement that the wings are 35' long but now we have the wing loading issue which probably changes stall speed. The ailerons look like they no longer hang below the wing which probably make it a faster airplane but also give up some control authority at slower speeds unless they are slotted? I really couldn't tell from the photos exactly how they are configured.

All this stuff effects which type of air worthiness certificate it may or may not qualify for. And then there's the problem of not being the primary builder. There's something in those regulations about the original builder being able to pass along the design specs and maintenance requirements to another individual but it also sounded like a paperwork nightmare to me considering it's the F.A.A. we are talking about and so far I don't have anything good to say about any of the officials I have contacted.

The F.A.A. wonder why there's a pilot shortage and don't realize they are a huge part of the problem when it comes to seeding and growing future pilots in this industry. 

It looks like it's configured for a single door that's hinged to swing up but I didn't see anything on the wing to secure it in it's open position. Does this door come off for summer flying? Can you fly with the door open? Has anyone tried to crawl in it? It's hard to tell if it's easy or hard to get in and get a leg over that stick.

I was just looking over a friends ultralight version of a Cub. It's a cute airplane but you need to be a bit of a contortionist to get in the thing. His stick detaches to get your left leg in position and I think it would be impossible to get in his airplane without removing the stick. Once inside it's actually got more leg and knee room than my Avid Flyer.

I think I like the look of my round tail on my Avid Flyer better than the later squared of tails of the the Avid Flyer and Kitfox airplanes. I'm not so sure what this tail looks like, maybe more like a Flight Streak line control I had as a kid? The struts on this airplane on the other hand do look sexy! Those chopped off wheel pants remind me of a half helmet for a motorcyclists. Probably won't clog so bad as full wheel pants but may help out in the drag reduction department. The gear legs themselves also look sleek but I don't know the suspension setup. I didn't see a photo of the tail wheel either. I suppose the wings have anchor points like the original Avid Flyer to hold them in the folded position?

Is there a turtle deck in the back like the Avid Flyer? Same process to fold the wings? I have a friend that wanted to do a little traveling this summer but I'm not sure I could talk him into traveling that far just to look at an airplane.

[1avidflyer 1983]

Gross weight 1320 or less, never had an inflight prop, two seater,  Those are some of the requirements for a plane to be flown as a light sport with a sport pilot license.   An airplane with an experimental or certified airworthiness certificate can qualify.   A cub or champ is legal, as is an Avid flyer.   JImChuk

[Cloud Dancer 69]

From what I've read I agree with you; it can qualify as a Light Sport but I'm not so sure someone without a current regular pilots and medical can fly off the hours to get the paperwork needed to then get it cleared as a Light Sport. Maybe someone that's been down this rabbit hole before knows all the turns but the F.A.A. like most three letter agencies are terrible at explaining the details. You could talk to ten different agents working there and get ten different answers on any given day.

Let's hope more of the airplanes currently in museums and storage sheds make it back to the tarmac someday. They were never built to be dust collectors.