A while back I made a posting entitled “How can I keep my kitfox from stalling & spinning in too ????” as I was concerned about stalls and spins, and the possible results on me and the plane. This posting drew 57 comments, but no real answers outside of “keep your airspeed up” and “keep your turns coordinated” . Well, looking through some other post, I appear to have found the answer to my original question (at least on the Kitfox-4). While this solution appears to not 100% “completely” stall proof the kitfox, it does make it highly stall resistant. This posting was actually on Vortex generators. Here is the posting (and notice the effects of VG on stalls):
The vg's that come from Kitfox come with everything you need, right down to a little tape measure. They have vinyl decal material that is a template that you apply to the wing. It makes placement really easy. As far as placement, they're installed further apart near the wing root so that the inboard will stall first and the stall will progress outboard. I installed mine at 8% of cord after talking with the owner of Pacific Northwest Aero who is the owner of the company that the Mcbeans get them from.
Some people don't have much good to say about the vg's, but they made such a dramatic difference in slow flight. The plane is rock solid with very little mush. If you power off stall, with the stick all the way back, the airplane stalls then breaks, and instantly recovers without ever letting the stick forward. Power on the break is more abrupt with little warning. You used to be able to spin mine without much trouble, just stall it uncoordinated. With the vg's, it took three attempts before I could get it to spin. I would stall it uncoordinated and as the wing would drop a little bit it would recover. I've never flown something where you could stall it with the stick back and the ball off to the side and it wouldn't spin, or at least spiral. The plane just kinda slides off to the side, stalling and recovering. I was finally able to get it to spin by stalling it then kicking the rudder abruptly.
This posting was by Nick W. on his Kitfox-4-1200, which is the same plane I am building. I keep thinking VG just seem too good to be true, but when I read Nicks account of the test flight, I have to kinda believe it’s possible to really do something about stalls in the kitfox.
What do you think, too good to be true?
Roger