What Have You Done Today To Your Kitfox?

[Kahle76]

What are you doing to your baggage are?

I’m building a shelf and then covering it with some velour that matches the the Kitfox upholstery. Decided not to use it for a baggage area.

[desertdave]

With expert help from Desertfox4 today I got my spinner installed.

[desertdave]

Replaced the jumper wires between my circuit breakers with copper bus-bars. Definitely cleaned up a lot of wires and crimp on connectors.

[buckchop]

Ok ill try a pic hope it works. Hahahaaa

[Maverick]

Your approach to spending your dime is one way of looking at it. I go fishing in Alaska every year or two. The amount of fish I bring back means that my salmon costs about $45 a pound and halibut costs near $55. I could buy it a lot cheaper but, I'd miss the experience of fishing. I'd miss the fellowship of spending 9 days with good friends from around the country. Consider that you said you wanted a hobby and something to do with your son.

Building an airplane is either because you love to build OR you love to fly and want to keep the cost of flying as cheap as you can OR both. For those who just want to fly there are less expensive airplanes available than building new however, the building process is not experienced in that way. Building an airplane yourself and then flying it are very rewarding experiences for which one may find it difficult to put a price on. Especially those hours spent working with your son on the project. When you build it yourself, you build it to your liking as a custom one of kind version of a standardized kit/plans.

If you goal is to make money, remember that there is a cost to an airplane regardless of who built it. Unless you build something that is potentially a grand champion you may not get your cash investment back but at the same time, if you can fly that airplane for 500 hours at 1/3rd the cost of renting, you've recovered some of the cost of your build. And then, there is the father to son factor. At your point in life, you may not ever sell the airplane. It may be passed down to your son, particularly if he is involved in building it and is enamored with flying it. In the cost benefit analysis, don't leave out the intangibles. As a woman would say (don't hit me ladies) can you put a price on love?

I haven't met anyone that owned a Kitfox that wasn't enamored with it. A Kitfox is one of the most modern old school airplanes there are and flying one is worth every cent of the cost. There aren't too many airplanes that will, get up and down in length of a football field, climb like a homesick angel and, carry a significant payload at 5gals/hr at 100+mph. If you want to get jazzed, watch some of the YouTube videos on the Kitfox like the Trent Palmer Kitfox Videos. DesertFox4 has some good ones I like here in the desert.

Also, I want to address your concerns about it being a tail dragger. If you haven't progressed too far in the build, it is possible to make your airframe into a tricycle gear plane. As well, you can make it into a wide body adding about four more inches in cabin width. Don't think I'm trying to talk you into something you don't want to do but, don't abandon the idea until you've considered more than $$. If you do decide to abandon the idea, this is a great place to find a buyer for your project.

Regards,
Fred

[Auster]

In the past days I've learnt a lot about the Bing carburettors on my 912ULS. On start-up the engine ran very rough. I shut down and after some investigation a friendly Rotax expert found one of the rubber carburettor mounts (between carb and manifold) had cracked.

We removed both carbs and disassembled them then ordered new mounts, new membranes, new float frames plus gaskets and o-rings. The floats
tested ok i.e. floated nicely and weighed within limits so were re-used. A few days later another friend and Rotax expert helped me assemble and mount the carbs and then demonstrated his method for balancing them. I'd not been getting it right. The test run revealed a very smooth running motor. The next day the airfield closed due to Corona Virus restrictions so I'm grounded but very happy to have my motor running again.

Why did the rubber mount fail? I blame age and winter starts. My maintenance schedule calls for an annual inspection but that would not have revealed this crack which started from inside. The schedule will be changed to call for replacement every 5 years along with an annual inspection. Winter starts are always a bit rough with the use of choke and of course the cold temps will make the rubber more brittle. Experience gained and lesson learnt.

[Auster]

Oh and I didn't mention the pic. Taken from the Kitfox flying past Venice lagoon last year. On the return trip we landed at the famous Venice Lido airfield and had a nice evening in Venice. Aren't planes fun?

[Maverick]

Welcome Bob. There are those of us that try to get it done on the cheap. I have $46,700 invested in my KF5. Allot of the cost of most Kitfoxes besides the initial kit is in the engine choice and Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS), and/or an Engine Information System (EIS), and Avionics. Like Eric, I lucked into an abandoned kit for $8750. I went with a used engine w/800 hrs on it, a Grand Rapids EIS and used steam gauges. Avionics are modest, a new GTR200, a used GTX327,uAvionics Echo UAT, Area660 GPS. I bought other things off other members of TeamKitfox like strobe lights, landing lights, etc. I got many parts from Kitfox, Inc. As Eric said, Heather and Debra are great. If you ever go see them, take some Snickers. Likely, they have the KF4 as a PDF but, I don't know that they do however, this is the right place to get help and surely someone out there has an inventory list.

Given your skills and apparent time to work on it, there is nothing on the Kitfox that you could not make yourself if you had to. The advantage of the kit is time to build but, having built a couple of planes from scratch, it just takes the desire, time and, effort to make what you need. Although, there are so many KF4s out there you shouldn't have to make anything.

Flight instruction is going to vary on a lot of things, i.e. what the local CFIs are charging. I paid $60/hr last week to get current and do the flight review. We used a Remose Light Sport plane that was $120/hr. I have no idea what the going rate might be elsewhere but the school that I used had a private pilot package for $13,500 and a Light Sport pilot for $9,500. Good luck.
Fred

P.S. Eric, you're most welcome.

[tim.green]

It's probably boring but . . . I've completed the removal of the protective coating and all glue residue from one side of one flaperon. It's in good shape with a couple of small hangar rashes that I'll need to fix. 10 hours total work time - I think the rest will go more quickly. Pix attached!

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[109JB]

Yesterday I got up and decided to put my pants on

pant on.jpg