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Posted

Yeah it would be a lot of fun if I had one flying plane but I don't. I bought this to fly while I work on my Magnum so I could have something to fly while I fix it. Now I have two projects. Not where I want to be, but this is not the site to whine on. I'm sure there are a ton of people with no airplane project that would LOVE to have one, so I can't complain too much. I just love to fly so much and my wings are currently clipped.

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Posted

I hear ya Chris! Yesterday I was going to try and save a few grand and pick up a set of floats that needed new bottoms put on them.. Till I started adding up costs n hours needed to make them fly able.. I'm more into flying these days so I dropped the extra coin and bought bolt ons..

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Posted (edited)

Project update: Firewall mods are complete so the cooling and oil lines and oil bottle now fit with the engine moved back the 1/2 inch. It's amazing how much can be affected by one small change! The cowl also now fits so I am starting on all the plumbing and wiring. Maybe I will be flying in another month or so. Fingers crossed.

Edited by ChrisB

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Posted (edited)

 I tryed to put up a couple pictures but kinda forgot how, I couldnt remember how to shrink them sorry

Great photos - Love the firewall - Is it factory?  Got to build mine from scratch.  What Company made your Soob?

But, you should have edited out that smokehouse unless you are just smoking meat there!

Any Revenooers up thar in them thar hills?  :lol:

Ed in MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

Willis,

 

Thanks for posting the photo's; it looks like you are real close.  Like Ed said, did you build up your soob or did you get one from a builder?  What redrive is that?  Is it a gear drive?  I noticed an oil line or something running to the front of the unit.

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Posted (edited)

post-399-0-70624100-1368383143_thumb.jpgJust for comparison, I am going to try to post a photo of my "Reductions" EA-81, built by the late Dave Johnson of Canada. Looks like my prop is a lot higher than the other engine photo.

ED in MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

Hi Ed, Randy , sorry was gone for the weekend just noticed your reply, Ed I built the firewall with tips from Randy, I just cut out the flat piece of galvanized sheet metal then  riveted on the angled pieces round the outer edge.The smoker is my brothers wood boiler he build nothing illegal lol.Not sure what a Reveenooers are ,I'm a little slow so will have to google it

  Randy , I got the engine with the rest of plane that was built by a fellow named Karlo Khunner,its a 2.58 gear reduction and the engine is supposed to be tweeked up to put out 100 hp or more.The gear drive actually has the engine oil running threw it at a reduced pressure. It sounding real good and luckly my brother is a mechanic so were getting all the bugs out. I learnt a good lesson a couple weeks ago while we were running up the engine in front of his shop ,the prop sucked up a rock and made a mess of the nickle plated tip :hammerhead: , nothing a couple hundred dollars couldnt fix though.Thanks again for all the help really appreciate it

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Posted (edited)

I was referring to the Federal Revenue Agents who track down illegal stills where the White-Lightning, or Moonshine, is being made, so that the government can control the trade and collect taxes - Now known as the BATF, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Just joking!

You need to watch the movie "THUNDER ROAD". ;>)

This is how Jimmy Johnson and other moonshine drivers got started in auto racing as we know it today.

Thanks for the reply!

The 2.58 reduction sounds like you could run a big prop or high rpms on your Soob.

ED in MO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

You Have Good eyes Ed, there could be some parts to one of them still type critters up there, in earlier  years , :flame:that stuff kicks too much for  old farts now lol. I have the 72" 3 blade Warp drive right now and sure seems to move some air.,

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Posted

Hi Ed, Randy , sorry was gone for the weekend just noticed your reply, Ed I built the firewall with tips from Randy, I just cut out the flat piece of galvanized sheet metal then  riveted on the angled pieces round the outer edge.The smoker is my brothers wood boiler he build nothing illegal lol.Not sure what a Reveenooers are ,I'm a little slow so will have to google it

  Randy , I got the engine with the rest of plane that was built by a fellow named Karlo Khunner,its a 2.58 gear reduction and the engine is supposed to be tweeked up to put out 100 hp or more.The gear drive actually has the engine oil running threw it at a reduced pressure. It sounding real good and luckly my brother is a mechanic so were getting all the bugs out. I learnt a good lesson a couple weeks ago while we were running up the engine in front of his shop ,the prop sucked up a rock and made a mess of the nickle plated tip :hammerhead: , nothing a couple hundred dollars couldnt fix though.Thanks again for all the help really appreciate it

 

 

 Check with Warp Drive and see what they would charget to repair the blade; they have been really nice and reasonable on the swaps and changes I have done with them and I think they could repair or replace the nickle edge if it is so bad that you don't twant to fly with it.  Next is to get that thing on a set of 26" Bushwheels. 

 

Jeff is running the 72" 2 blade IVO medium and has the wide bungee gear with 850 tires.  We have picked up all kinds of rock nicks in the prop and all from just flying from well manicured gravel runways.  I have the 72" IVO medium 3 blade on my Avid+ but with 5.5" extended gear and 26" BW's and have one tiny nick in the nickel edge in about 100 hours on that prop and a lot of off airport.  Prop clearance really makes a difference.

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Posted

Thats good to hear, I am planning on a set of 26" tires for it ,I have the 8" rims, were is the best place to order them from. I just got my prop back from warp drive and they did repair it, seemed like good guys to deal with. Randy ,would you put floats on your avid, i have never flown with floats but just wondering if the avid with the soob in it would be an ok combination in case a deal on floats pops up,  thanks again

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Posted

Thats good to hear, I am planning on a set of 26" tires for it ,I have the 8" rims, were is the best place to order them from. I just got my prop back from warp drive and they did repair it, seemed like good guys to deal with. Randy ,would you put floats on your avid, i have never flown with floats but just wondering if the avid with the soob in it would be an ok combination in case a deal on floats pops up,  thanks again

There are two options that I know about for current manufactured 26" Bushwheels and they both go on 6" diameter rims.  The Alaska Bushwheels makes the Airstreak model which is lighter than the true Bushwheel model and much better suited for our planes.  I have heard talk of a non-certified model but I don't know if they ended up doing that or just build the Airstreaks for that market.  Last I knew they were close to $2600 for a pair.

 

The other option is the Goodyear 26" but they are heavier and stiffer, so not as good for sucking up bumps, especially with our light planes.  The price is closer to $800 for a pair though.  I have no experience flying with these so cannot tell you how they perform.

 

If you already have the 8" rims, the Nanco or Cheng Shin 21"x12"W are not a bad way to go and they are made for the 8" rims.  They are light and soft and do a pretty good job; just not as tall.  Much cheaper though at under $100 a piece.  The other option I built was a set of 9" rims and took 25"x12" ATV tires for the 9" rim and cut all the tread off of them.  They ended up about 24" tall and worked pretty darn good; just about as you would expect between the 21" Nanco's and the 26" Bushwheels.

 

I would have no qualms about putting my Avid+ on floats.  I have no experience flying floats but I know that on wheels, the Sube performs markedly better under heavy load than the 582.

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Posted

Thanks again for  the info, i still got time to track down some tires since  but that will be a great start, I have the original set of 6" avid rims but they had the drum brakes  so i bought the 8"   rims off barnstormers. Glad to here the floats should work ok , | like ski flying so much  that i figure floats wll be kinda the same and we have hundreds of lakes up here with  some big fish that need to be caught. My flying buddy is putting some on a 701 zenair soon as he builds them so, ill see how his does

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Posted

Project update:

Control linkages: done

Engine mount: done

Rans bush nose fork conversion: Done, working on steering linkage

Cowl: Am going to completely re do cowl. Boot cowl setup Builder did not acceptable to me. Going with two piece.Looking for cowl. No luck so far but have a couple of leads. One possibility is the guy in Montana but am unable to determine yet if the "large cowl" he has will work. I am planning to put the plane on a trailer and drive it to Caldwell to see if it looks like a KF 5 cowl will work.

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Posted

Chris,

      Can you do me a big favor and measure (within a few inches) from the center of the mains to the center of the nose wheel - assuming you have the mains set back to near the strut attachment.  Have you calculated weight on nose wheel?

EDMO

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Posted

I'd be happy to and will measure for you. But know that my nosewheel is now in a different location than either the original Avid milkstool steerable nosefork or the RV6 full castering nosefork.

The original no suspension milkstool steerable nosefork was bent to allow it to be a sort of castering steerable combination affair with return centering springs and a single linkage to steer.

The RV6 style full castering nosewheel is just that, but the spring places it quite a bit more out in front of the original milkstool nosefork.

My rans conversion is a lot like the original milkstool nosefork, but has no caster bend. So it's fork is just perfectly in line with the nosewheel weldment. Sort of located in between the original Avid and RV styles. It is going to be actively steered with two linkages exactly like Rans does theirs. My feet and legs will be the steering and anti shimmy dampening and it will be direct steering unlike either of the other two configurations. I copied RANS. Their design works and is proven. I had to shorten the Rans fork which required a bit of creative design, but turned out well I think.

The nose tire can be as big as 800X6 but I am going to use a 600X6. I'll try an snap a photo or two and post. along with the measurement.

Chris

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Posted

Thanks Chris,

       Randy Schlitter showed me the new RANS nosegear when he brought 3 of his planes to my EAA meeting a few years ago - I have some photos of the gear from inside the plane - looks like good design.  I opted for the castering type after several years flying the Ercoupe, which I did not like.   Appreciate any info.  My nose wheel location is closer to the RANS / Avid.

EDMO

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Posted

The only input I would have to this is... I hated that type of set up in the pacer.  The direct linkage to the nose wheel sucks if your in soft stuff.  If the nose wheel catches, it can cock off to full deflection and you don't have enough foot power to stop it from going.  Toe brakes may help, but I sure didn't like it on the pacers I flew.  If you never planning on landing in sand or soft it works OK.

 

Glad to hear that your making progress on it though!

 

:BC:

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Posted

And it is even worse on the spring-loaded like Cessna or the castering - trick is to keep the nose up and drag the tail......

EDMO

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Posted

I get it. I'd rather be flying tailwheel anyway.

This plane was just supposed to get me by till I fixed my Magnum. Unfortunately it hasn't worked out. Tri gears are very sellable, this plane is ELSA, and it has a 100 HP 912. A lot of good qualities and I got it for a price no one could turn down.

Unfortunately the builder cut out the tailwheel bungie perches while modifying seating and creating his flap control mechanism so some welding would have to be done to convert it to tailwheel, I would have to re design the flap control and I would need new landing gear. I did not plan to keep this plane for long and was planning to spend a minimum of money to get if flying reliablly and just fly the darn thing.

Enough of my justifications.

The reason for the rans fully steerable approach was cost vs performance (tri gear realtive of course). I was able to keep half of the spring travel of the rans fork. The original Avid fork had none. I am able to go up to an 800 tire if I want to although it looks rediculous. The original Avid was a 500X5 with no suspension at all and the RV gear is sprung but a 400X4. The bigger tire (600X6) and rans suspension will be far superior in rough or soft terrain to either of the other two. I will just have to get used to the quirks. Every configuration of landing gear has some quirk or another. I will just have to get used to this. I believe it will be fine.

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Posted

Sounds like a plan, I was just pointing out issues I had with the direct link.  I'm glad that my BIL at the time quit filming just before we landed on a cyder blow to do a little caribou hunting.  The landing was perfect, the roll out not so perfect!  The take off... enough to scare the shit right outta just about anyone.  :lol:  ... now get it in the air and then get back to work on the magnum! 

 

:BC:

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Posted (edited)

I will correct myself - the trailing castering nosewheel is probably not as bad as the steerable on sand and rocks, but you still got to keep the weight off of the nose and use brakes for steering - but hey, you can lock-up the mains and not usually flip over on the prop!   :lol:

EdMO

Added:  I burned flat spots so bad on the mains of a Cherokee once that were so bad that the mechanic said it was a wonder that the tires didn't blow - didn't nose over tho!

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

Sounds like great progress. I'm just waiting for pictures of this project that wasn't supposed to be a project. I know how that feels all too well this week!

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Posted (edited)

Ed the distance from center of mains axles and center of front axle projected to ground and measured is 43 1/2". Weight on the nose wheel I cannot measure now because the plane is disassembled. The W&B measurements I did with the RV nosewheel would not apply because the RV nosewheel was so much further forward. next time I weigh it, it will be with the engine an inch further back and a different nosewheel location. I am excited to see how the weight and balance works out I think it will be nearly ideal. Here are some photos.

post-258-0-19963700-1394818268_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-29400600-1394818329_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-04812800-1394818400_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-60025800-1394818563_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-20642100-1394818619_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-88855800-1394817654_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-11011500-1394817701_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-09850200-1394817744_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-77070700-1394817783_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-66158700-1394818215_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-37848900-1394817532_thumb.jpgpost-258-0-97523200-1394817607_thumb.jpg

Edited by ChrisB

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Posted

must be the angle, that looks bigger than a 400 on the nose!  interesting set up on the front suspension too.  how much travel does it have?

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