The Airdale Backcountry is an American amateur-built aircraft that was designed by Brett McKinney and based upon John Larsen's Avid Mk IV design.
[1][2][3][4] The Backcountry features a strut-braced high-wing, a two-seats-in-side-by-side configuration enclosed cockpit with doors for access, fixed conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration.
The Backcountry was designed to use the 100 hp (75 kW) Stratus EA 81 automotive conversion four-stroke powerplant.
[1][2][3] The improvements over the Avid design include redesigning the aircraft to comply with the European Joint Aviation Requirements at a gross weight of 1,400 lb (635 kg), including stretching the fuselage by 16 in (41 cm), changing the main landing gear legs to aluminum gear with a track of 74 in (1.9 m), increasing the angle of the windshield, simplifying the control system and designing a differential flaperon system, redesigning the structure in the cockpit area to improve baggage access, adding new seats, increasing cockpit headroom and legroom, introducing wider cockpit doors and more cockpit width, modifying the tailwheel spring for more strength and designing a new engine cowling to accommodate the Subaru engine and other engine designs.
[3][5] The company also offered a conversion kit for existing Mk IVs.