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Arlington 2015

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Posted (edited)

I flew up to Arlington with a friend and hung out for a couple of days. Arlington used to be the third largest fly in in the US of A. I don't know if it still is. It's shrunk considerably over the years and this was the smallest I have ever seen, but still a fun time and great "fly-in" atmosphere.

 

I saw no Avid Flyers but did see a couple of Kitfoxes. However, no one I knew personally. One guy with a really nice KF7 was so full of himself I couldn't get away quick enough. That was kind of depressing as it always seems I have wonderful conversations with the owners of our little planes.

 

Had a nice talk with the highlander guys. Steve Henry was there as well as the guy who makes a very cool non steerable tailwheel. It could "turn" but it functioned exactly like the RV style nose wheel that is "steered" only with brakes. There are no cable and spring connections to the rudder. That was of great interest to me because it uses lots of resistive damping to kill any possibility of shimmy. It seems to be the way some folks are going when they want to run a large tailwheel and NOT have the usual associated shimmy issues.

 

The neatest thing I saw and almost bought was at the fly mart. A complete Avid Amphibian kit. Only partially built. Wings glued up but not covered. Some of the fiberglass fitted to the fuse. landing gear attached etc. It had a single ignition 582. Just a great start to an awesome project. I was really torn knowing that if I bought it I could store it as a future project for myself, sell the parts, or just buy it to sell to someone else on the board here. Get this...it was only $2000.00 or best offer! I was on the fence but decided against as my main goal is to fly and I have two projects and nothing flying already. Plus there was the usual issue where do I store it etc. I do not know if the fellow got his full $2000.00 or not, but even at his full asking price it was a STEAL. Highway robbery. In addition the seller offered 3 days of consulting to the buyer regarding his mods and the work done so far. Maybe the best aviation "deal" I've ever seen and I passed it up. What was I thinking? :huh:?

 

Anyway it was a great time.

 

Chris Bolkan

Edited by ChrisB
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Posted (edited)

ChrisB,

      Did you get any ideas for dampening the nosewheels?  I've got a Tri-Pacer shimmy dampener, but haven't checked to see if it still works - got some springs too.

EdMO

Edited by Ed In Missouri

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Posted

I know how a guy can be "torn".

Thats how I ended up with a substantial Minneapolis-Moline tractor at an auction one day a few years back!  :hammerhead:

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Posted

Chris, did you by chance get the gentlemans contact info?

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Posted

Do you mean for the Avid Amphibian auction? I brought the contact info home in case I decided to do a last minute buy, but chucked the info once the bid deadline had passed. Plus it was going to highest bidder, so it was going to be sold. When I left highest bid was $1,000.

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