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Thread: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

  1. #11
    KFfan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Jim
    Thank you for confirming my intuition and stating it more elegantly.
    Lou
    KitFox II
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  2. #12
    KFfan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Doug
    FAA-H-8083-1A, the weight & balance handbook, is available on the FAA web site in PDF format for reference.
    Lou
    KitFox II
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  3. #13

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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Quote Originally Posted by dalords View Post
    Almost complete with my project (rebuild) Kitfox model 2. The plane never came with any weight and balance data, so I have to go off and recreate it. I was wondering what is the CG limits of this model? Is the datum the wing root leading edge like it is on a model 4? is anyone will to email me their weight and balance data sheet so that I can get an idea of what it should be? If so send it to dalords@cablone.net. I will be weighing the plane this weekend.
    I have a spreadsheet for calculating w&b for a type III, which I imagine is close. If you'll send me some data, I'll be happy to calculate it for you.

    You will need:
    Empty weight
    Gross Wt
    Location of main gear axle centerline from the leading edge of the wing
    Location of nose gear axle centerline from the leading edge of the wing
    Max allowable forward CG
    Max allowable aft CG

    When you measure the location fo the axle centerlines, the aircraft has to be level (it may already be sitting on a tricycle gear).

    Cheers,
    Chuck Gruby
    Petal, Kit Fox III Flying

  4. #14
    Senior Member jiott's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Quote Originally Posted by jiott View Post
    The W&B spreadsheets on the Kitfox website (Technical FAQ) should work fine for you. You just have to enter your own data for your specific aircraft, and use the fore and aft CG limits for your specific model. You should be able to get these limits from the factory. The worksheet methods and procedure will work for any airplane.
    As I posted above, I strongly recommend using the above spreadsheets on the Kitfox website; they are very easy to use once you have the data from going thru the procedure posted by KFfan. It doesn't matter which spreadsheet you use (model 4, 5, 6 or 7) as long as you use the fore & aft CG limits for your particular airplane. The spreadsheet doesn't calculate the limits, it only calculates the actual CG for a particular loading. You then take this actual CG number and compare it to the fore & aft limit range to see if you fall within it.
    Jim Ott
    Portland, OR
    Kitfox SS7 flying
    Rotax 912ULS

  5. #15
    Senior Member jiott's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    One more thing: make sure you plug in the "arm" distances for pilot/passenger, fuel, baggage for your actual airplane (given in the last page of KFfan's post) in the appropriate places in the spreadsheet. Then with that spreadsheet you can quickly explore what happens to the CG with various combinations of fuel, baggage, and pilot/passenger weights. The calculation formulas are built into the spreadsheet so you don't have to do any math.
    Jim Ott
    Portland, OR
    Kitfox SS7 flying
    Rotax 912ULS

  6. #16
    KFfan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Doug

    Here are the original W&B pages for S/N359. Happy calculating!
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Lou
    KitFox II
    582

  7. #17

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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Thanks everyone for the replies. Jim and Lou here is where I run into the problem, its not figuring out the weight and balance, its the wording in the manual that Lou sent. For the most aft CG it tell you to add a gal of fuel to the fuselage tank and then add bodies or weight in the seat basically till you reach your gross weight, then for the most Fwd CG it tells you to fill the fuselage tank all the way and add a single roughly 120lbs person. My problem, I don't have a fuselage tank, just wing tanks, so then do I omit that part of the procedure? for aft max CG add weight to my gross weight and take a scale reading, same for the Fwd CG, just add 120lbs in the seat and take the scale reading?

  8. #18
    Senior Member t j's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    The old kitfox manual weight and balance instructions had you weigh the plane with couple different fuel loads and a couple big boys to sit in it to determine where the CG would be located with those weights. You then knew if those loads produced a CG that was outside the limits. That is a very confusing way of doing it.

    The conventional method is to include only the things in the plane that would be in it for every flight except fuel and pilot. The only fuel in the plane should be the "Unusable" fuel. That will give you the Empty CG. All other loading possibilities can then be easily calculated.

    Hope that doesn't confuse you more.
    Tom Jones
    Classic 4 builder

  9. #19
    KFfan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    Doug

    Your last post caused my brain to flash back to, I think, seeing some pages that describe the process step by step. I have gone through quite a few pages of the documents I have. Tomorrow I'll see if I can rediscover them. When I do, I'll scan and post them.

    Tom
    You were posting as I was. What you relate vaguely strikes a bell.
    Lou
    KitFox II
    582

  10. #20

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    Default Re: Kitfox model 2 weight and balance

    That's kind of what I was thinking Tom. So with the basic empty weight add total fuel plus max passenger weight to get to total gross weight and then do the math to find max aft CG? Same with max fwd, except with only one small guy? I noticed on the spread sheet for weight and balance for model 4 on the kitfox website it already list max fwd CG at 10.2 and max aft at 16. shouldn't I fall somewhere close to that?

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