KF4-1200 is Mine! My NEW Plane! -to me-

Hey everyone,

Well, I got the plane home safe. The trip was quite an adventure for sure. We left my house after work last Thursday. We had a cooler full of drinks, lots of redbull and sodas as well as a case of bottled water. Since it's winter it all stayed nice and cold with a little ice. Threw it all in the back of the pickup and headed out. My brother drove a lot and we split it on the way out but I ended up driving most of the night. made it about 2 hours away from the plane by Friday evening. The pickup was getting 14mpg :eek: on the way out. I was only hoping it would not get too much worse with the plane! We got to the airport the following morning and saw the plane. She was better looking in first impressions than I had expected. Did a walkaround feeling the wings and body for any irregularities. Moved all of the surfaces and was happy with the plane. Not much to say other than we should go fill out the 8050-2 bill of sale. We made two copies for us to each have as a record of the sale. That was that!
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4430

The trailer was braced very nicely and the tires were almost new as well as the bearings repacked and lights worked. so we got to wrapping the plastic and loaded it on the trailer.

http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4442

I thought we did a great job. There was at least 10 layers in the thinnest spot. To put it on the plane was a chore and took three people. we started at one end and wrapped in one continuous wrap. I laid on the ground under the plane and one other guy on either side and we handed the roll to each other to make it go as fast as possible and to keep the wraps consistant. We convered it forward and backwards a couple times. Once done I used 5 rolls of packing tape and a roll of duct tape to hold it all together. Honestly afterwards, I wish we had just left it off the plane and focused on sealing the cockpit. The paint on the fabric is great for a short time dealing with moisture. The plastic wrap shredded in a matter of an hour on the road. :(

http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4447

I cut off most of the wrap but some stayed well on the front cowl. This is where I wish I had not left it on. Now that I have had a chance to wash the plane well there are scuff marks where the packing tape vibrated against the paint and road dust making a dark blemish. It's not bad really and I was able to get it mostly out with hot soapy water. I'm sure I can buff them out with a little rubbing compound and then use some carnuba wax on the whole plane. should shine it right up!

On the road we were able to hold 68mph comfortably. The plane rode very nicely on the trailer. In fact I would say that the kitfox on the trailer pulled about as nice as any trailer I've pulled. It was a real sweatheart back there. It just bumped along and was very stable. No odd tendencies and it backed up nicely too!

My Brothers truck was nice to use as well. It was very comfortable and gave us a lot of room with the extended cab. The only problem is that on the way out we got 14mpg and on the way back it was about 9.6mpg :eek:
That's o.k. I paid the gas bill and set the cruise control and was happy to be using a nice comfortable vehicle.

Now that's little beans compared to what is really the two major problems on the way back. The first was when we got just out of the hills of Tennessee we stopped to check everything. I was not happy to find the tail support bracket had bent and was looking like it wanted to cut the fabric on the tail next to the hard mount points. I grabbed the plane and lifted it up and my brother bent the brackets in to place. The bracket was made of soft thin metal. We then fashioned an ingenious support bracket out of some fencing wood that I had brought to just brace the cooler and stuff in the back of the truck. We brought a ton of tools as well as a saw. On the side of the road we cut the wood and used every bungee strap to secure the tail support in place. By the time we were done it was rock solid and the plane sat there peachy perfect. In fact the whole trip back it worked GREAT!
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4448

The second thing is actually a really bad problem. It was about 2a.m. Monday morning and I was on I-70 about 15 miles east of Hayes Kansas. I was listening to a cool sci-fi story and doing about 65mph. Just cracked open a RedBull and a cold water bottle. All of a sudden the wind hit me broad side and I felt the trailer shift behind me a little. Being super aware of what was happening I slowed way down to 20mph. That was about as fast as I could go but still the plane was rocking on the trailer more than I liked. We crept in to Hayes and found a motel to hide behind and got a room there. The sleep felt great. Got some breakfast and headed home again at 68mph.

Well until the last few miles the tail bracket-wood/bungee-brace seemed to know we were close to home and started to give out again. The tail wheel was holding just fine so we bent the bracket back in to place and made it home... It gave out along the way but I didn't know and it was a few miles so we just went on home with the tail wheel bumping along. It made it 1490 out of 1500 miles with the brace holding great with wood and bungee straps! 10 miles and it lets go! hahaha! after all of that it is almost comical.
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4451

Now!!!! Here she is in the driveway getting ready for a quick bath!
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4463

Now this is the moment I've been waiting for a LOOOOOOONG time. The only better one will be when we can take one of these in flight!
http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/pic...pictureid=4471

I'm so excited to fly it. I'm going to get the registration transferred and do some deep inspections and run up's first. Once those are good then I'll take her to my hanger where I have my other plane. KBDU will be her new home. Flying along the rocky mountains where the kitfox belongs!