Quote Originally Posted by kitfoxJeff View Post
Wow, thanks for that great info,... I printed that out.
I bought it from a guy named Paul Stropki and it was in Dalton Ohio, and I bought it as a crashed plane about a month ago, I fell in love with it, so I sold my kf3 in 5 days and went and got this one. It is meticulously built, beautiful craftsmanship, flying since 2002 always hangered and babied , Has skiis too, The damage was minor in my opinion, but enough to make it totaled, un-rebuildable, as they said. A right wing strut was the major damage, hit a chain link fence on roll out, at idle, I need a prop, some small fabric repairs, and I need to add some re-enforcement to the wing root, tubing, still making decisions on that, and trying to calculate some forces. I am in love with the plane, I need about two to three more full days of work on the details. Then just a paperwork process. This is my third kf but the nicest set up by far, engine looks like brand new, not a spec of dust or oil anywhere, it has about 650 hours, but looks new, new new,.. love it,.. really look forward to this. My kf 3 I never went more than 60 mph with, and never traveled more than 70 miles away with the rotax 670 2 stroker. I also have a Cessna 172, but hope to use this new kf5 a lot more than the Cessna, affordable, and more fun to fly, as well as cooler looking, tundra tires seem to be about 22 inches tall. Nice size tail wheel too. I do not know how to share a photo on this site or if it is even possible. Keep in touch.
Those of us with the IO-240 on our kitfoxes are a small community, and I was wondering whose airplane you bought. I was a bit saddened to hear that it was Paul's and it had been damaged and hope no one was hurt. Back in '03 I was just finishing my Series 5 Outback and 2 guys were kind enough to give me a ride in their recently completed IO-240 powered planes. On the way home from OSH I stopped in the Chicago area and Jeff Hays gave me a great intro flight in his sweet Series 5, then it was on to Ohio, where Paul did the same for me in his beautiful airplane. Glad to hear it is rebuildable , because as you mentioned, Paul did a great job on the plane and is a meticulous builder. With those demo flights under my belt I got home and got up the nerve to do my 1st flight the next week. Been having fun in 199CL ever since. Good luck getting her airborne again. Bruce N199CL