How can i keep my kitfox from stalling & spinning in too ????

[Dorsal]

I speak for myself when I say I am an amateur builder and a pilot not an aircraft designer (and I expect that is true for many on this board). Modifying the washout, dihedral or elevator travel may give you the intended results or may make them worse. Moreover they may introduce an unintended characteristic that could be worse than the original risk. One nice thing about this plane is that it is a well known and characterized design. What you are suggesting is moving toward an experimental plane vs an amateur built plane which is fine if you know what you are doing. All that said, in addition to practice and training I use and recommend a stall warning device as an added measure of safety.

[SkyPirate]

P.S. heard this somewhere ,..don't know who said it first ,..but
"A wing is not a wing,.. unless it is flying"

unknown

[rogerh12]

" stall warning device as an added measure of safety"
Does anyone know of a good (cheap would be nice tooo) stall warning device for the Kitfox model 4 ???

I figure after I install it and make a recording of the sound. Then, I could practice shoving the stick forward everytime I hear it !!!!

Roger

[SkyPirate]

OK roger ,....maybe you should think of a different hobby,.. I'm not sure I want to be in the same airspace as your flying in

[SkyPirate]

sorry ,..I probably shouldnt have said that

[Dorsal]

Search for AOA (angle of attack) or LRI (lift reserve indicator) systems, they are good, not cheap and though some will say not necessary I like having one. Mine is an AOA which is integral to my Dynon system.

[Slyfox]

i guess you were just thinking out loud. the rest of us is just not saying anything

[rogerh12]

The old Cessna I fly in training had a simple air pressure driven alarm horn. When the angle of attack became too great a device on the leading edge caused air to flow through a tube into the cabin where a air-horn was located, or something like that. I was hoping somebody might know of a non-electronic solution to a stall warning device for the kitfox. Any suggestions?
Alao, I kinda feel like that model airplane engineer, you know the one in flight of the phoenix. He knew model design and thought he could apply it to a “real” plane and create a new plane, though nobody else believed him. My early background is soundly in models, and I wish I had a good Kitfox model airplane to monkey with as maybe I could work something out to make the plane stall more like the ercoupe or Zenith 601HDS I use to fly (both almost stall proof).

Regarding the Zenith, though the Zenith 601HDS with a taper wing has always been known to stall, and has a stall speed too high to qualify for light sport, I was able almost eliminate stalls altogether, and when it did finally stall it was below the light sport threshold of 52 MPH. How did I do this? Actually, just researching the issues and then simple re-rigging the plane and adjusting the center of gravity. It was so easy to do and so successful I disseminated my pilots manual( with the re-rigging instructions) to the 601HDS community. So now everyone with this particular plane can have a light sport qualifying version, where none had existed before. It’s become a popular mod.

So back to the kitfox and stalls, so I was thinking maybe I could do the same for the Kitfox if I just had some insight into the issues. Am I wrong? Maybe, but I have been known to be right before !!!!

Roger

[Slyfox]

what is it that you want, the kitfox stall is about 39mph and 35 in ground effect or there abouts

[Esser]

Moving a planes C of G can de a dangerous thing. In fact any rerigging of a plane can be dangerous and make the plane unstable. As for your comment about spinning when the plane's engine quits is slightly ridiculous. After you do some spins you will find out that most of the time spins are MUCH more aggresive with the engine not at an idle speed depending on the direction of the spin. The way you talk about shoving the stick forward when the stall horn goes off leads me to believe you haven't flown that much. It takes some serious oversite to unintentionally stall an airplane if you are flying normally. You should spend your hours flying and learning instead of trying to change something that you can't change. ALL airplanes stall. No matter what. If it is heavier than air and the wing isnt moving fast enough to generate sufficant lift it will stall. Some planes stall more aggressively than others but they all stall. If you want to rerig your plane not to stall, glue the kitfox wings to the goodyear blimp.

It's been said a million times. The plane only spins if you let it.