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Hi all just posted some new pictures of the upgrades I made to the kitfox this winter, Fabricated a new instrument panel, added a ventral fin and added 2 inches to the leading edge of the vertical fin, installed a parking brake valve, added flat pads to the rudder pedals to try and increase the lever advantage to the brakes.
What is the purpose/advantage of adding 2 inches to the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer?
Hi Steve, to increase the area of the vertical fin the model 1 - 2 - 3 and very first 4's had a short rudder fin the later model 4 had about a 9" taller tail assy so this is a way to increase area without cutting and welding others have done this and I'm hoping it will improve the flt char. abit if not it will be easy to remove.
I had a Gredes park valve so I used it but Matco makes one that I would have used had I not had this one. The biggest thing with using the Gredes valve figuring out how to go from AN fittings to the Nylo fitings that I have in the plane, mounted the valve between the rudder pedals on the firewall installed a push / pull cable and connect the hyd lines and bled the brakes. Yes there has been more than a few time I wished I had a park brake. The Matco valve has nylo type fittings on the valve assy.
If you look at picture 3 you can see the valve between the pedals the push / pull cable is mounted at the center lower pedestal just above and left of the cabin heat control knob.
Well, I've flown the Kitfox approx 10 hrs since I completed the mods I did last winter and finding the right alternator feed wire for the Stratomaster E1 tach has been one big improvement it is now a working tach. The parking brake valve works good, and the mod of the rudder/brake pedals to a flat pedals is working good. The addition of the dorsal and 2" addition to the vertical fin have really been a nice improvement. I am very pleased with the way that mod makes the plane fly just that much nicer, not that the Kitfox III is not a good flying plane as it was, but this make it better.
I converted the nav light bulbs to LEG bulbs and changed the flashing beacons to LED's and that is also nice there is so little electrical drawn now that it doesn't show on the ammeter.