Ventral Fin Plans / Advice

[Yamma-Fox]

Hey all,

I am planning on making up a ventral fin for my KF 5 going on floats.

Any advice on how to fabricate / attach it would be appreciated. Maybe someone might have a sketch... or even a fin in the shed that they would be willing to sell?

Thanks,

Brett

[DesertFox4]

Brett,
Paul from Wisconsin will likely pop in on the forums soon. He is our resident float guru and may be able to help with an explanation or maybe even better a photo.

Good for you putting it on floats. Not enough Kitfox float planes. Will hope for photos and even better, videos of float flying from beautiful Park Rapids, MN.

[cap01]

brett , sorry , guess i read your note wrong . thought you meant vertical. its been so long i had forgotten about the ventral fin. i do have one that came with the plane thats covered already. its upstairs in the hangar somewhere .

[Yamma-Fox]

brett , sorry , guess i read your note wrong . thought you meant vertical. its been so long i had forgotten about the ventral fin. i do have one that came with the plane thats covered already. its upstairs in the hangar somewhere .

Thanks for the note! I PM'd you in hopes you might be willing to part ways with it!

Brett

[av8rps]

Hi Brett,

Sorry it took so long to reply to your question. Hopefully cap01 will sell you the one he's not using.

If not check with Kitfox Aircraft as I believe the ventral fin is the same for all models.

If all else fails let me know and I will get measurements and pics of the ventral fin from my Model 4 amphib.

Oh, and for the record, a ventral fin is not required to fly a Kitfox floatplane. The newer planes with the taller vertical fin has plenty of longitudinal stability without it. And the older planes with the smaller vertical fins did ok without it too. I flew early Avid Flyers over a thousand hours without one. When I finally put one on I could barely notice the difference, except for tbe ventral fin hitting the dock when turning the airplane at the dock (LOL).

More important to fly a Kitfox on floats well is to know what to do with your feet on the rudder pedals, even more so than when on wheels.

[Yamma-Fox]

Thanks much for the good tips guys!

In the little time I had in my KF2 on lotus I found that it was definitely manageable without a ventral fin as well (although a little taxing in cruise). And I bet the model 5 might run a little truer, but I'd really like to test with and without.

And I'll post up some videos for sure on flying the lotus throughout the seasons! Really looking forward to the versatility and going into the "out of the way" places I didn't dare go with either skis or glass/aluminum floats.

It seems before I was always worried with: "how thick is that ice down on that winding river... how deep is the slush on that lake 100 miles away... how deep is the snow after that last storm. Or in the summer: that muddy-reedy swamp looks cool!.... and I'd love to park and camp at that little rocky island but dang would that beat the hell out of my floats...

With the "zodiac rafts" under my plane there are certainly some compromises, but on the flip side a lot of those worries fall away.

[av8rps]

The Full Lotus are a great float for all the reasons you mentioned. It definitely sounds like you are going to enjoy float flying.

[cap01]

found it the ventral fin