Lovely Kitfox. Bought a IV Speedster out of Colorado last summer that I thought had the nicest paint job I'd yet seen, but that changed when I saw these photos.
Lovely Kitfox. Bought a IV Speedster out of Colorado last summer that I thought had the nicest paint job I'd yet seen, but that changed when I saw these photos.
Jeremy Wilson
Kitfox IV Speedster
Hey Jeremy, how about a few pics of your Speedster. Your paint scheme looks interesting. So please share.
Also, the geeks on here like me would love to hear what you think of it after flying it for a while, and specs like empty weight, options installed, stall and cruise/top speeds, climb, what kinda prop, etc, etc, Feel free to brag a bit
I believe if you click my name on this post, look at my public profile, you'll find some albums on the right hand side of the page with photos of the Kitfox. If you can't find them, let me know. I'm usually too busy flying it to photograph it, but there's a certain number of videos I've created inflight which can be found by clicking the link found at the bottom of this post.
As for your request about details, performance specs, stall speeds, etc. that would have required me to be paying attention. Usually I seem to be too busy to glance at the airspeed indicator when I'm trying to keep 'er lined up with the centerline. And, my panel does not have a plethora of instruments, such as a directional gyro, or a vertical speed indicator, or frankly even a magnetic compass, so I'm a bit at a loss to give you numbers.
For climb performance, let's call it "scared cat". I rarely use full power for takeoffs any longer. Seems to jump off the runway about 400' into the takeoff roll. Can climb "like a banshee" if I want to, but I'm a bit sedate these days.
Prop is WarpDrive three blade, I believe 72" but not sure (that would require reading the logbooks) with metal leading edges. Have tinkered a bit with pitch to get better cruise performance, and had the shop dynamically balance it last fall. Cruise is realistically no better than 105 kts at 5500 rpm, but I typically cruise at 5000 rpm. My airspeed is in MPH and I think I get an honest 100 MPH at that. Usually too busy looking around and having fun to pay much attention to the gauges other than temps and pressures.
The color scheme is what first attracted me to the Barnstormers ad, and I love it. The aircraft was built in Colorado by Al Wight, and flown for many years by Walt Giffin, also in Colorado. Up close it's starting to show some signs of wear, but lovely at 50' and still pretty nice at 25'.
Bush gear, 100 HP 912ULS and basic empty weight about 690 lbs (again, you're forcing me to read the documentation) means it's pretty stable on the ground but wants to FLY!
Lastly, the panel. There's some round thingamajigs, a ball-bearing in a curved glass tube, a few temps and pressure gauges, and a basic radio and transponder. Some switches to play with when I get bored. I've supplemented that with an iPad2 and Foreflight Pro linked to a Dual XGPS 160 and now a Stratux ADSB-In home-build unit so I've got a magenta line to follow, traffic and onboard weather. All of that sits on my passenger's lap, or occasionally velcroed to a suction cup mount on the panel. I'll get a good photograph of the panel one of these days.
For this moment I'm done, as a massive storm is about to hit and we're going to shut down the computers. Thanks for asking.
I love this Kitfox!
Jeremy Wilson
Kitfox IV Speedster