Jan '09 KOTM - Steve Kellander

[DanB]

Steve,
Nice writeup...and certainly a nice plane. Steve gave me my first Kitfox ride 4 years ago. That was the most expensive ride I have ever taken as I am now building one just like it. I have flown with Col. Kellander twice from Phoenix to Homedale, ID. The performance, responsiveness and pure fun is simply great!

[RandyL]

I don't know what he did in building it but Steve's 4 sure does fly well. He was kind enough to give me a ride at last year's Factory Fly-in and wow, from the moment I took the stick I noticed it felt very good. Very responsive and smooth, and don't those cruise numbers look a little better than normal? (And he doesn't even have wheelpants)

Steve is a real Kitfox supporter too, always doing what he can to help builders and folks new to the Kitfox world. Of course he does duty here too as a TK.com moderator.

Nice work Steve!

[DesertFox4]

Thanks Randy for the honor of KOTM. TeamKitfox has really taken off due to your hard work and dedication and it's great to be a part of this new community. Thanks again for letting me park my humble little Kitfox amongst those beautiful Kitfox of the preceding KOTM's. It may never win a beauty contest but as you can attest Randy, it is a blast to fly, but then aren't they all.

Dan, always great flying with you as we did today. Sorry about that expensive first ride. No I'm not. The next flight to Homedale,ID (Kitfox Aircraft's 25th anniversary Labor Day fly-in) will be with your Model 4 out front. I know you know the way now. Keep at it a little every day and you will be flying off your 40 hours sooner than later.

[Slyfox]

Steve,
I have the model 4 with speedster wings. My question, I thought the 4 had I think a VNE of 125mph. I see you have a top speed of 132mph. Did you do something different to go this speed?

[DesertFox4]

Steve,
I've seen several 4's with the 140 vne.
I believe the vne on the model 4 was predicated on the thickness of the windshield material used not the length of the wings. John McBean might be able to shine more light on this. The thinner windshields would start to deflect (push in ) at a lower speed . Mine will start to deflect very slightly at 140mph. . When I was building the model 4 in Murle Williams shop Mike Gibbs was building an almost identical version and his was also 140 vne. Both of our 4's had all the speedster mods except mine had the longer wings. Mike's by the way would hit 140mph straight and level at full throttle. His had wheel pants and the medium Ivo prop with a large spinner on it.

[Slyfox]

It's going to be interesting to see what I get with my 4 after I change to the 912ULS. With the 912ul I would get 103kts open throttle. I have the .090 windscreen and it will start to push in at about 120mph. What kind of windscreen do you have? I don't have wheel pants, because I have the big 21inch wheels, the grove gear and speedster horizontal and elevator. I have the pvc struts for the wings. If the speeds go up that much, I'm going to have fun fun fun with my NEW 4.

[DesertFox4]

Steve, seems like my windshield is a little thicker than .090 but would have to look it up. You should see an increase in cruise speeds after the 912S is installed. Also an increase in fuel burn.
We are not sure exactly why my 4 , and Mike Gibbs, got the speeds we did. I really think it has something to do with the wide body mod. but can't quantify that not having wind tunnel access. Obviously wheel pants could help a little but I enjoy landing on desert strips and grass strips so no pants for me at this time. Maybe a radiator scoop would be nice but mine works even here in the desert summer heat. My cowling intakes are probably too big also. I think there is a lot of drag to be reduced inside the cowling if baffling was used to clean up the flow over the engine. I can imagine several ways to eek out a couple more mph's however my 4 now is one of the fastest in our 'group' so I can keep up the way it is. I used to have the slowest Kitfox in the bunch and that was more frustrating especially on cross country trips. I guess what i'm saying is i'm out of the building mode and into the flying mode.
Good luck with the engine swap and let us know the results.