Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0

SuberAvid+ ready to fly

13 posts in this topic

Posted

I have been woefully neglectful of he Forum for the past few months but what is a guy to do when he doesn't have an airplane to fly? We must keep our priorities straight. Well the date has almost arrived; the SuberAvid+ gets its DAR inspection this coming Monday, 18 Oct. For a flight starved guy it was fun running it up an down the runway with the tail in the air last week end trying to get some break-in time on the Subie. Now in between test flights I may have time to catch up on all the great discusions and adventures by C5 and others I have just glanced at. Attached are the pictures.

post-75-12872959635988_thumb.jpg

post-75-12872960691607_thumb.jpg

post-75-12872961609284_thumb.jpg

post-75-12872962641739_thumb.jpg

post-75-12872963640107_thumb.jpg

post-75-12872965387119_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Congatulations !!! now if you took pictures of those missing months I wouldlove to see them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Congatulations !!! now if you took pictures of those missing months I wouldlove to see them.

Thats AWESOME! I was wondering where you were hiding, and I figured it was in the hangar! Deffinately keep us up to date on how she flys! Any word from Jack on how his project is coming along?

What tires are you running? Those dont look like the ABW you had on the IV. I am really thinking hard about spending the dividend towards a set of the 26" experimentals.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Very sweet...! I'm a little naive towards the differences...are the dimensions the same as what's posted on their website? Can't wait for the flight report.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I am anxious to see how it performs. I can tell it has a lot more torque and hp than my 582 but the negative side is the extra weight. I guess I will see how it all pans out soon. I put on my short tundra tires (21x12's) to start with since I knew I would be running it up an down the runway a lot taxi testing it and didn't want the extra wear on my Bushwheels. I will plan to go to them after I start venturing out from the airport area to the gravel bars; that is if snow doesn't put me on skis first.

The basic differences in the dimensions from the Avid IV is the fusalage is 18" longer and 6" wider and all of the mixer contols are under the pilot seat running push-pull cables to the flaperons. This leaves the whole area behind the seats open for cargo. I made the seats easily removable so I have 6' from the rear of the cargo area to the front of the seat truss if I want to sleep in the plane. The other changes I did to this one that are not "standard" are I raised the skylight 1" in front and 2.5" in the rear and I built new landing gear that are 5.5" taller with 3 connections to the fusalage.

Jack has had some dificulty with his paint and has had to care for family members so his progress has been slower lately but he has been a great help to me whenever I needed an extra set of hands and advice. I hope to get him back up to speed on his through this winter.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I have been woefully neglectful of he Forum for the past few months but what is a guy to do when he doesn't have an airplane to fly? We must keep our priorities straight. Well the date has almost arrived; the SuberAvid+ gets its DAR inspection this coming Monday, 18 Oct. For a flight starved guy it was fun running it up an down the runway with the tail in the air last week end trying to get some break-in time on the Subie. Now in between test flights I may have time to catch up on all the great discusions and adventures by C5 and others I have just glanced at. Attached are the pictures.

Great looking bird. I just made my first flight last month. I am sure you will have the same wide grin l had on my face. Happy flying. Russ

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Great looking bird. I just made my first flight last month. I am sure you will have the same wide grin l had on my face. Happy flying. Russ

Russ,

Have you been doing your motivational duties on Doug and kicking his ass into gear to get his fat bastard in the air :dunno: We were counting on you to keep the fire lit under him :lmao:

:BC:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Russ,

Have you been doing your motivational duties on Doug and kicking his ass into gear to get his fat bastard in the air dunno.gif We were counting on you to keep the fire lit under him lmao.gif

BC.gif

I had a long talk with him on Saturday. He is building a leaf blower now. I told him taxing the fat bastard on his lawn would do the same thing.stirthepot.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I thought that was the purpose of these things; leaf blowing, bug killing and boring holes in the sky.

The Suber Avid+ now has its own birthday airworthiness card! I got about an hour in the air before dark circling the airport and checking that everything was staying within parameters. All stayed in the green. I didn't have the trim adjusted right so could not get it trimmed out and had to hold back stick in level flight (I reset it when I got back so will be able to log numbers next time). With a mild climb out at 4000 rpm at around 600 to 650 fpm I was burning 5 gph. I don't recall the exact speed. At 3000 rpm in level flight it was about 78 mph and 2.8 gph. 3500 rpm was 84 mph and 3.2 gph, 4000 rpm was just under 90 and about 4 gph. It definately is heavier than the Avid and stalls clean power off at about 45 mph and about 35 mph with about 3000 rpm of power in. I have to work on a better flap system because lever throw is so short (about 10 deg) from full off to full on, there is too much leverage on from the mixers on the flaps to keep them on without holding them. I rigged up a temporary bungee for the next flight that I can hook on them to hold them full on so I can see how it flies with flaps on. Rudder is very powerful compared to the Avid. I didn't push the envelope at all because I was mainly trying to get the feel of the engine and see if it was going to nuke on me. It feels good and strong, also heat ducts off the radiators work excellent even without collectors. The max water temp I saw in the climb was around 188 deg. Will have to see how it does in a full power sustained climb. I was concerned if the small nose radiators would be sufficient.

Hopefully will have enough time to get another flight in before I leave Sat for an elk hunt in OR. Life is so cruel.lmao.gif

post-75-12875616908894_thumb.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I had a long talk with him on Saturday. He is building a leaf blower now. I told him taxing the fat bastard on his lawn would do the same thing.stirthepot.gif

Good job, Russ! :funnypostabove:

Keep the lean on him! No mercy!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

I thought that was the purpose of these things; leaf blowing, bug killing and boring holes in the sky.

The Suber Avid+ now has its own birthday airworthiness card! I got about an hour in the air before dark circling the airport and checking that everything was staying within parameters. All stayed in the green. I didn't have the trim adjusted right so could not get it trimmed out and had to hold back stick in level flight (I reset it when I got back so will be able to log numbers next time). With a mild climb out at 4000 rpm at around 600 to 650 fpm I was burning 5 gph. I don't recall the exact speed. At 3000 rpm in level flight it was about 78 mph and 2.8 gph. 3500 rpm was 84 mph and 3.2 gph, 4000 rpm was just under 90 and about 4 gph. It definately is heavier than the Avid and stalls clean power off at about 45 mph and about 35 mph with about 3000 rpm of power in. I have to work on a better flap system because lever throw is so short (about 10 deg) from full off to full on, there is too much leverage on from the mixers on the flaps to keep them on without holding them. I rigged up a temporary bungee for the next flight that I can hook on them to hold them full on so I can see how it flies with flaps on. Rudder is very powerful compared to the Avid. I didn't push the envelope at all because I was mainly trying to get the feel of the engine and see if it was going to nuke on me. It feels good and strong, also heat ducts off the radiators work excellent even without collectors. The max water temp I saw in the climb was around 188 deg. Will have to see how it does in a full power sustained climb. I was concerned if the small nose radiators would be sufficient.

Hopefully will have enough time to get another flight in before I leave Sat for an elk hunt in OR. Life is so cruel.lmao.gif

Randy, thats friggin AWESOME! Nothing like the feeling of taking to the air the first time in something you have built from the ground up! Glad to hear that all went well in initial flight testing. How was the take off compared to your MK IV? I am sure you were not doing any real short filed attempts, but does it feel like she is gonna take alot longer to get off the ground?

I will be curious to see how the cooling is come summer time. Mine was fine with incowl radiators during the winter, but summer time she just would not stay below 180 so I went to the belly mount. I bet your radiators have more passes in them than mine though!

Again, Congrats on the first flight, it just does not get any better than putting the bird in the air after all that build time and re-designing to make parts fit!

:BC::BC::BC:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

Way to go Randy! :beerchug:

Lol, for some reason my ears were burning so I logged on to see this exciting news! What a great looking 'all growed-up' Avid, congrats on your efforts. Looking forward to some Avid+ flight info and adventure stories as you get to know her. I'm beginning to worry I'm in the race for longest Avid+ build, but like Jack expect to get back to working on mine when the snow flies.

P.S. almost finished Russ, just need to cut down a PTO shaft and that bad boy leaf blower will be giving new meaning to the phrase "BLOW ME!" w00t!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Posted

OK Randy, whats the good word? Hope you have been able to get some more time on her. Have you gotten any performance numbers yet? If I ever find an alternate and get more than a couple days off I will give you a ring and buzz up there and check the new ride out!

:BC:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0