THE ULTIMATE "HOMEBUILT"??

[av8rps]

This just has to be the ultimate homebuilt. And it gets better...he actually built 2 of them, not just one!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKNPOSpMpY

And better yet, the designer / builder of the Explorer is the guy that created the concept that Troy ultimately evolved into our modern Highlanders, (I admit I've been known to refer to my Highlander as "My big Avid Flyer). The Kitfox also is an obvious evolution of the original Avid design. And at last count there are about 30 derivative designs or copies of the original Avid Flyer.

Just thought you guys might enjoy seeing this incredible homebuilt that was built at Avid aircraft..... (wait for it...) in their spare time (they were shipping approx 40 Avid kits a month at the time). Ironically, the Explorer and the Avid are only two of his dozens of the designs Dean Wilson did. Between the 80's and 90's he designed and/or restored OVER 80 AIRCRAFT

Enjoy!

[danerazz]

That is impressive!

[LORENZ]

Any motor or GPH data on hand?

[FlyerChief]

There's a bit of info on Dean's biggest creation here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Global_Explorer

And a great story on Dean Wilson himself here...
http://www.avidflyeraircraft.com/assets ... Wilson.pdf

[av8rps]

Any motor or GPH data on hand?

One of the most impressive things about that airplane is that it performed really good on only two 250 hp engines, and it only used fixed pitch props. They went to 300 hp engines on the 2nd one, but I think that was more to do with engine altitude capability than anything. Another interesting fact if I remember correct, it uses no flaps...

Here's another link to more info on it. http://www.coastcomp.com/av/fltline2/avion.htm

[av8rps]

I posted the same video over at the teamkitfox forum, and that started a bunch of discussion about Dean's other designs as well as what caused the crash of his 1st Global Explorer. So if you want to learn more about any of that, slide on over to http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=6306

The world as we all know it would be a very different place had Dean Wilson not designed the Avid Flyer. I explain that on that teamkitfox forum, as most of us that enjoy this activity probably aren't even aware how much this one man has influenced our sport...

(My apology in advance to the forum host and moderator for derailing this thread off to another forum. I'm just too lazy to copy and paste all that information)