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Avid Flyer update

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Posted

Some of you might remember my father buying a Avid flyer. Dean Wilson repaired the wing. He found two rear ribs that had broke loose from the spar and repaired the aileron rib ends. He also rib stitched the rear section of the wing, tightened the skins and painted the wings. All said and done it cost 3k.

 

We got it home and I went through the engine. The Carbs were all gummed up so I rebuilt them, the fuel pump, changed out all the lines from the gascolator forward, and cleaned the cowl tank with fresh gas until it looked clean.

 

After getting it running good I took it to a local private strip and did some taxi testing. Static runs looked good so I took it for a flight around the pattern. All went well so I took it around again with good results. On the third flight I was going to climb up and check some performance stats. After take off I climbed to pattern altitude and leveled off. I was just about to pull the power back to cruise when I felt the engine lose power. I looked at the RPM gauge and it was reading 4650. I turned the plane around and brought it back in with no issues. The engine ran fine under 4500. Once on the ground I did a static run and could not get more than 4700 rpm. I pulled the cowling and noticed the pro-line fuel filter did not have any fuel in it which was not normal. I pulled the gascolator and it was full of brown chunks. I pulled the line coming from the tank and nothing was flowing. I blew back through the line and felt it break free. The fuel ran out for 2 seconds then stopped again. There was crap in the tank and a lot of it. We had sloshed the tanks with fresh gas before flying it but there must have been some stuff caked to the inside of the tank that decided to break loose during taxi testing. We siphoned the fuel out and it was full of old tarnished fuel. The tank was plastic so we used carb cleaner to melt the rest of the crap out. A bore scope was used to check the final cleaning. After I knew the tank was clean I changed out the rest of the lines from the tank to the gascolator.

 

I'm happy to report that this weekend I put almost three hours on it with no trouble. All I can report is the wood prop is not tracking right and causing some roughness/vibration. A warp drive is on the way. This plane needs some weight in the tail. Its not super bad but more than I like. It had weight in the tail when we took it to Dean but he removed it. It's going back on. At this point there would be no recovering from an elevator failure. Has anyone installed a mechanical trim tab on one of these?

 

Thanks

Vance

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Posted

Oh here is a picture of the Avid.

post-720-0-07990500-1400888212.jpg

post-720-0-35416500-1400888273_thumb.jpg

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Posted (edited)

Vance, the plane looks great glad to hear you got the bugs worked out with no major problems. I see you have the Mk IV cowl do you have the larger IV tail as well? If so its pretty easy to add a trim tab that would help a bit. also where is your battery located? you might try moving some of the already had items aft if possible just to move the CG back. I chose not to go with electric start on our project just to keep the weight down and keep it rearward. Not sure what you're running for a tail wheel either but if its small and light you could go to a bigger heavier one. I went with a two leaf spring and matco 8" wide tail wheel its great for off asphalt opps and adds a little bit of weight as far back as you can get. just as well have your counter balance weight be useful weight I figure. I'm sure others will chime in with better ideas as well. good luck

 

-Robert-

Edited by High Country
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Posted

Ditto what High Country said.  You shouldn't have to add any additional ballast weight if you are just running a rotax 2 stroke; rather move the weight you have (battery, ELT, emergency gear) as far to the rear as possible to get into your CG range.  If you are planning to do any off field play, the larger 8" x 3.5" matco TW is a very nice upgrade as soon as you can afford it.

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Posted

Thank you for the input. I did reinstall the removed weight from the tail and flew it again. I started with 5 pounds. It helped some and I was able to raise the nose at full power but as soon as I decreased the power at all the nose would drop again. I installed the other 5 pounds and flew it again. This was the magic number. Now I can climb at full power, maintain level flight at cruise, and descend below 5000 rpm.

 

High Country, I have a Rotax 503 DCDI / 2.58 to 1 gear reduction / rear mounted starter. Good advice on the tailwheel. I will take a picture of my tailwheel and post it. Its a nice tail wheel but hard to break free to turn sharp on the ground. I have read that tailwheels that break free easy can get you in trouble with these small coupled taildraggers but I still feel it needs an adjustment. When I was flying yesterday on my second flight the wind kicked up. The wind sock was sticking straight out on approach. I got it on the ground with no trouble at all but got hit with a side gust which pushed me right. I got on the rudder and was able to correct the pending swerve. If the tail wheel would have broke free under the side load it would have been a fun ride. Brakes and throttle would have been my only other option. My brakes are different. The are Maco drum brakes which are activated with a dual handle system on the floor just under your left leg. I did not like the looks of them at first but the work well. They also have the option of pulling both handles all the way back at which time they cam over and work as parking brakes. Great for starting the plane....not so good for controlling the plane during landing because you have to take your hand off the throttle to actuate the brakes.  

 

I have looked at the battery and it is possible to move it back quit a ways. It's mounted right behind the seat. I'll have to build a mount and extend the leads. I should be able to remove at least 5 pounds of weight from the tail. I'll fly it like this for the summer then move the battery as an off flying season project.

 

This bird has a very small trim tab on the elevator (4"x4") and it is already bent way down. I would like to install an adjustable trim tab. Can you guys share what you are using for an adjustable trim tab?? I installed one on a taildragger Phantom Ultralight I built years ago. I bought the kit from Phantom and that was the best mod I ever did to the plane. Easy to adjust for climb or decent and took all pressures off the stick in flight. I am considering installing the same kit of this Avid. Thoughts???

 

Shoot me an email or phone call of you like. vancesimons@gmail.com / (509) 599-9477

 

I'M ALSO LOOKING FOR A CARBON FIBER OR FIBERGLASS PROP FOR THIS SETUP.

 

Thank you

Vance

Post Falls, Idaho

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Posted

I would really want to put toe brakes on the pedals.  That way you can use rudder and brakes at the same time and still do what you like with the throttle.  Have you tried trimming the plane with the flaperons?  2 of my 4 Avids didn't have trim tabs and using the flaperons just a bit would trim it nice for level flight.  I never set the trim different for landing or takeoffs on the other 2 Avids, just used it to fly hands off straight and level.  Jim Chuk

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Posted

Is this Avid flying still Vance?

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