Just bought a Kitfox IV

[avidflyer]

Ouch, that had to wipe the smile off your face when you saw that. Seems like you are taking it in good stride though, press onward and get it back in the air. When it comes to adding things to an airplane, I'm reminded of the old adage, "if you want to put a part on an airplane that isn't absolutely needed, hold the part up in the air and then drop it. If it hits the ground, don't put it on" The moral of the story is everything adds weight, and weight kills performance in an airplane. Of course it ends up being a compromise, sometimes in the one direction, and sometimes on the other end of the scale. Hope you have fun with the new plane, JImChuk

[109JB]

Yeah, I was sick to my stomach when I saw it and still had over 3 hours to drive to get it home. When I got home it was 1:00 am, so just went to bed. After looking at it in the morning and taking my pocket knife to it I decided that it wasn't too bad. All together it is going to cost only about $100 to repair and that is all for covering materials. All of my poly fiber stuff is too old so I bought a $60 "practice kit" which will have enough to get it through silver.

As for the cushions, I realize I will need to customize, but I wanted to get an idea of what the stock cushions were, so if anyone has the thickness I'd still like to know.

I won't be adding anything unnecessary to this airplane. I actually want to make this one as light as possible. According to the logs, it is currently 560 pounds, but I plan to weigh it to find out what it is really at. I'll only be adding the essentials, and the upholstery is an essential to me but will only have what is absolutely needed to cushion my butt and hold an overnight bag.

Other things are going to get changed around slowly. I just plan to fly and have fun right now. The covering is solid, but it doesn't look too good. I love the polytone finish for repairs, flexability and durability, but am not a fan of the semi-gloss finish that seems to attract and suck in dirt. I eventually would like to recover this airplane with either Stewart Systems, or Oratex 600. I'm not a huge fan of the semi-transparent look of the oratex, but it may be worth it to save a few pounds. That's off in the distance though so I've got time to think about it.

[efwd]

Thurston, look at my thread (EFWD), page 27 at the bottom you will see what Josh Esser did to support the airframe. I did as he did and it made it to the airport unscathed.

[jmodguy]

I would NOT recommend Stewart systems. PM me for details

[efwd]

So fun. Thanks for posting. Always fun to see terrain that members are flying in. I would certainly enjoy flying over flat land. All the hills and mountains out here make for bumpy flights. These damn Santa Ana winds don't help either. This morning they happen to be making a wild fire here look like a blow torch.

[109JB]

I've been doing more flying and more experimenting with approach speeds, flaps, etc. Since my last airplane was a Twin Comanche that I approached at 105 and came over the fence at 80 with I have been working slowly to get my approach speeds down in the Kitfox. I started off at 60 mph approach speeds but that seemed to cause excessive float and eat up lots of runway. Now for solo "normal" landings I am approaching about 50 mph IAS, transitioning over the fence at about 45. This has been working ok for me for any flap setting. I'm doing pretty well but wondered what techniques others are using. If you experienced Kitfox IV flyers could let me know what your landing techniques are it would be appreciated.

[t j]

My landing check list in a Model 4 is FFFF:
Fuel,
Flaps (None for 3 point, an inch or two for wheel landing)
Fifty MPH on final,
Feet off the brake pedals.

[sturdee]

Congratulations, on getting a Mk4,
pitty about the damage ,there should be a check list on towing the fox for those who have never done it before.
I would say from looking at the pictures on the Trailor you where very lucky with just the top longeron needing repair.
1; get a couple of leading edge braces made or purchased to support the wing when folded, there’s an awful twist load going on to the pivot point ! Check inboard rib to spar scotch weld for security,
2:long distance towing jack up the tail spring and place a suitable block of wood under the tail spring before ratcheting down. Do this before folding less weight on the tail .
3;secure the flaperons so they don’t bang against the tail
4: fit a tube onto the fuel cap vents and secure over the wing to take any fuel sloshing away from plane.
5: cover the turtle deck area well as water weather will ingress your cockpit,
nice job on straitening the tubes , enjoy ! Safe flying

[beeryboats]

I wish you were closer to Indianapolis. Not being a two-stroke guy, I'm not sure what I'm dealing with on my 582. What prop are you running? I can only get mine up to about 5500rpm. I'm running a Warpdrive with about 11 degrees at the tip. Can you share some specs?
Not trusting the tach, I bought a TinyTach but I'm not sure I have it at the correct setting. I'll call the manufacturer tomorrow and ask. But in the mean time, I blew all the dirt out of the barn tonight! Just at idle though, wanted to make sure it was working....

[109JB]

I'll see what I can do to get you better numbers the next time I fly. I had given you some earlier but I also since found that my primary tach was off and was reading higher than actual RPM. I installed a new tach AND a tiny tach copy, AND i compared them to my optical model airplane tach and all three now match pretty well. Earlier I had said that I was getting 6800 rpm after takeoff at full throttle, and that is what the old tach said but now I can say that my actual RPM is lower than the maximum of 6800 RPM. It is more like 6400-6500 rpm and the airplane performs just fine. Next time I fly I will do a static RPM check and report back to you.