Does anyone have experience with radiator mounted on the fire wall and if that setup works very well? I just bought this “C” model and the previous owner put the radiator on the bell of the aircraft. I would like to return it to its original configuration, if it works. Contact me trailgrader@aol.com
Does anyone know where I can find constuction manual for a “A” model Avid or Bandit… Thanks
Hello eveyone, i’m from Romania, i write again. My name is Viorel Toma. I have an Avid flyer Mark 4 the wings is ok, but the fuselaje is broken, i intend to build a new one. I have material, but i don’t have MANUAL DROWING, for build. Who can help me with a TECHNICAL PLAN?
Thank you all! Contact me at brothervio@yahoo.com
Hello!
I’m Manuel Caetano from Portugal!
I’m helping a friend in the process of registering an Avid Flyer Mark IV, for that we need an FAX or E-mail from the factory, confirming some data. In order to deliverthat info to INAC (our national aviation administration)
I’ve contacted with the former owner of Airdale, but before December no one answers me either by e-mail, and every time I try to call i get a recorded message or no answer!
Can any one help me contact them, or at least confirm the contacts?
I apreciate any answer
Aeronautical greetings
Manuel Caetano
Will someone please help me by telling about the brake tubing please?!
You can reply here and also at rashilkohli@hotmail.com
For Sale- Avid Mk-IV. Completed in 1999 with a Rotax 582 turning a GSC ground adjustable prop, TT AF&E 133hrs. The wings are the aerobatic airfoil but were built to the heavy hauler wingspan. The airframe was powder coated at the factory. Aircraft has always been stored indoors or hangared and is in excellent condition. Panel is currently set up to use a KX99 for communication through a headset with PTT and a Garmin GPSIII pilot for navigation. LSA eligible, comes with a fresh annual inspection. $19,900 Contact – Gary Whittaker, garywhit@charter.net or 423 246 5759 evenings before 9PM eastern time.
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Rolled out of the hanger at Clarion Field
I recently made contact with Mark after he made a post on the Yahoo Groups to let us know he was changing the site to a blog platform. I am looking forward to the interaction and ease of sharing information that this brings to the site.
Like most of us builders, I simply love flying. There were very few airports or airplanes in the small town where I grew up, so I enlisted in the Navy with my sights set on being in Naval Aviation. I soon found myself as an ASW Technician flying in Lockheed P3C Orions on a regular basis. This was an awesome adventure that I started to miss just a few short years after getting out. The history of the VP Navy includes volumes of tales and legends of amphibious aircraft. My squadron flew the SP-5B Mariner for a number of years in the WWII era, but they were long gone when I got there. The P3C Orions were not amphibious, but we sure spent a lot of time over the sea and I always wondered what it would be like to land and take off in the water. 
Several years ago, I finally found an EAA Chapter to join that was reasonably close to my area of travels. The Club (Chapter #263) was working on an Avid Catalina at the time. I was the newest club member and excited to become part of the wing building team. We spent a lot of hours during the cold winter getting them assembled, covered and rib stitched. It soon became apparent that most of the club members interested in building activities had their own projects to work on, so progress on the Catalina was slowing. There was some talk about selling the project and it looked to me like it would be long gone. I was torn with what to do because I already had a Fisher Horizon project well underway. My lovely wife was visiting our daughter in N. Carolina and I knew she wasn’t going to be pleased with two unfinished airplane projects hanging around. I also knew she wouldn’t be back for a week or two, so I had a little time to figure out how I was going to stay out of hot water. I agreed to buy the Catalina one day and placed an ad on-line the next day. With a little luck, the Fisher was sold within a few short hours.
After becoming the new owner, I spent a lot of time reading through the Builders Manual and trying to get myself oriented. I knew there would be plenty of opportunity to design things to suit myself without asking for problems. To that end, I decided to just follow the book as much as possible. The first thing to go was the 583 Rotax engine, simply because there are not enough people around who know about them being used on aircraft. The proceeds were used to buy a 582 like Dean called for in the Builder’s Manual. I also removed mounting hardware for powered landing gear, as it was not part of the original design and adds unnecessary weight.
I moved the fuse to home from the airport several months ago. The big idea of working on it at the airport before and after work didn’t pan out so well. It seemed like I was always short on time, didn’t have all the tools I was going to need, was too focused on getting something else done, or just too tired from a long day of work. Now it is here in my garage where I can work on it any time. I have to say that just getting the shop organized enough to work on a plane with a 36 ft wingspan is a challenge in itself.
Bringing it home has helped with the rate of progress, but a lot of time has gone into searching for instruments and designing the panel while slowly reorganizing the shop. Now the panel is cut out and mounted to the fuse with all but two of the instruments in place. When all of the panel switches are mounted, there will be just enough room for a GPS and a hand held radio.
The fuse is going up on stands sometime soon, as the bottom of the turtledeck still needs to be covered. Most of you already know that being able to rotate the fuse will help with many things. In the case of the Catalina, the bottom of the fuse is only 6 or 8 inches off the deck and it is pretty hard to accomplish much of anything on the underside or in the nose without lying on your back or standing on your head.
So far as parts and materials go, it looks like I have collected just about everything I need to just finish it up. At the moment, I know that I need the correct exhaust configuration with the 180 degree bend at the inlet to the muffler. The lower fairings for the engine housing are missing too, but I am pretty sure they can be easily formed out of aluminum. I will likely need to buy a different prop to replace the IVO In-Flight Adjustable, but that is a ways down the road. Perhaps I can call on our friends at Airdale to help with these things and whatever other odds and ends crop up, but for now I just need to quit looking and start building again.
Tom
Here is the email I received from Vince:
I picked up the kit Jan 15th 2006 from Steve Winder in Caldwell, Idaho, when he was working with Airdale, LLC. FAA Rep Mike Roberson signed off my LSA in Dec. 2006 and I started flying whenever the weather permitted that winter. I flew the plane about 100 hours in 2007 with trips to the Arlington Fly-in and then on to many grass strips in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. 2008 found the plane again in the three states with a dozen trips to the coast to chock up another 100 hours. The Rotax has been a good engine and the plane has been fun to fly.
I do have an Avid Magnum just about completed and another kit to follow, so I will be selling the Avid Plus in the near future.
If you have a wanted column; I’m looking for a metal prop, Senenich 74DM7-0-58 or equivalent.
Best regards,
Vince Nartker vince_at_vje-laser.com
Wow, I finally finished my Avid Mark4 Remod project. I thought I had bit off way more than I could chew, and have learned I will never, repeat never, get myself into a project like this again. It really started as a labor of love but turned into some serious and lengthy work. I made great progress for the first year giving up golf and spending every spare minute I could find working on the plane. But after a period of time I ran into things needing to be done by someone who does this stuff for a living. Only problem is, like most A&P IA’s they over booked jobs and are behind a year or two on one to twenty jobs. Mine guy was no exception. I got put off for a while and then my enthusiasm started to wane. My plane sat over 8 months in the main hangar with only 20-40 hrs to complete. I finally got his interest, (or got back in to the work rotation) and work began again, with the job completing on Halloween 2008!
Ed D’Antoni is the latest builder profiled on this site, please click here to see his story. Ed built an Avid MK-IV with HKS engine.
After retiring in Dec of 2006 I started looking for an aircraft project to fill a couple of years of my spare time. Having owned an Avid A model a number of years ago I started looking for a deal on an unstarted Avid or Kitfox kit. I missed a few good deals and finally made a deposit on a mark IV in Eugene Oregon.
Part of the deal was that if more than $500 worth of parts were missing I would get my deposit back.
Calgary is 894 miles from Eugene Oregon; I left Calgary at 6 AM Monday morning and overnighted about 100 miles north of Seattle then a few miles from my destination on Eugene. On arriving in Eugene Oregon inspection revealed missing parts included; all of the hardware, wood strut fairings, aluminum trailing edges, wing drag tubes and a few critical control parts that would have to be fabricated. I had an aircraft Spruce catalogue, and a rough estimate or missing parts totaled $3500.
