Activity Stream

Activity Stream



  1. Av8r3400 added a topic in Avidfoxflyers General Hangar   

    Hey Leni!
    Leni - I know you are still on your Lotus floats (and will probably stay on them), but how long into the spring are "you" Alaska flyers on skis?


    (Did you get my voicemail Thursday?)
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  2. C5Engineer added a topic in Avidfoxflyers General Hangar   

    Go Kart to Matco Brakes
    Since both my other threads kind of went off topic I thought I would start a new one with the info on my brake swap. I'll keep this updated as I go along. Here's a parts list.

    Custom Brake Pedals from Michael Schuetz.



    Matco MC-4D Master Cylinders, Remote Reservoir Kit, and 1/8" line



    Kitfox IV Gear Legs, Douglas 8" ATV Wheels



    I'll be running Nanco 21X12X8 Slick tires.

    Here is the BEFORE picture. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have an AFTER picture


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  3. SuberAvid added a post in a topic EAA Chapter Chili Feed   

    Sounds good Leni; I'll keep my cell phone on and expect a call sometime on Sat.

    Randy
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  4. akflyer added a post in a topic EAA Chapter Chili Feed   

    Randy,

    I am flying up to Big Lake this afternoon for a Craw fish boil at my cousins place. He lives right off the end of schooner drive, not too far from the boat launch on the south side of the lake. In fact, I think he is just West of the Big Lake airport. I plan on taking off from here about 2:30 or 3:00 and wil be there all day tomorrow and head back this way Sunday mid morning. I will give you a shout and see if we can hook up. I can run over to your hanger and check out the new bird!


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  5. SuberAvid added a post in a topic EAA Chapter Chili Feed   

    Shucks, sorry I keep missing you Leni. Do you think you will be around for the Iditarod? I plan to take Monday, 8 Mar off and cruize out to Swentna area just to watch some of the activities. Hopefully we will have decent weather that day. Let me know if you might be heading that way. I'll be the guy trying to figure out your tracks .

    Randy
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  6. SuberAvid added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    Hi Joey,

    I have heard and read exactly what Leni said about the drag of uncovered gear, so I covered mine; 2 sets now. Personnaly I thought covering was the easy part; but I fabricated my own fairings, routing out the grooves for the gear tubing, gluing and shaping the trailing edges. Your gear legs look all ready to cover, and fabric is cheap. The paint is what is expensive. You will still have more drag by fairing the front and back tubes than covering the whole gear leg but it will be better than not fairing them; sort of in between.

    Randy
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  7. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    Brett at Airdale is sending me 3 more ft of the wood fairing so I can fair the front legs. Leni I will plan on using the Super Coverite. I've heard it's good stuff. All the giant scale guys use it.

    EDIT just ordered a roll of the Coverite Fabric..Looks like killer stuff.
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  8. Trackwelder added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    How about adding a few tabs and putting an aluminum panel on each side of the gear instead of cloth covering. I think Highlander LLC or something like that has an extended gear that uses that approach.
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  9. akflyer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    If you are going to try that, use super coverite. It is fabric and will last alot longer! You can cover a tennis ball with it if you take your time and work the wrinkles out with the iron. I would be willing to bet that the ultralight covering is about the same weight as the super coverite. You can get it in colors that will come damn close to matching your current covering too.

    Monocoat will shred on the first flight or first ding, the coverite is good stuff cause when you crash a model with it, it turning into its own hefty two ply and keeps all the powdered pieces in the covering making it easy to toss it all away in one shot

    I would cover the whole damn gear leg in it because you dont have the fairing on the front leg.



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  10. Av8r3400 added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    I would try the Monokoat on the gear, why not. It's not structural or lift critical, only a faring.

    If you can do this cheaper, why not?
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  11. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    I came up with a new idea today. Is it the fairing or the covering that provides the aerodynmic benefits?? Someone showed me this plane today.



    He just covered the fairings. I like this look. Now for the kicker..Leni feel free to make fun...I saw some of your old posts on "the list" about this very topic. When if I covered the wood fairing with Ultracoat/Monokote the stuff that model airplanes are covered with?? I have worked quite a bit with it. It shrinks up tight and is pretty strong.

    It looks like he faired the front legs too. Mine don't have that part.


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  12. horsepower added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   


    Joey, I have a friend that builds Super Cubs and he said you will gain MPH and lift by covering the landing gear. I was thinking about not covering mine but now I am.Leni must know what the heck he's talking about. Good Luck Randy
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  13. akflyer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   


    Do what ya want, but this is very well documented on damn near every aircraft out there. Cubs, Avids, Kitfoxes etc, the drag is way more than you would think. The unfaired gear and the larger tires will make you pay a speed and climb penalty. I am going to cover mine before I put them back on.


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  14. horsepower added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   


    Joey, You can always cover them later and that way you will know if you picked up any extra speed or climb. Randy
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  15. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    I talked to a couple of pretty experienced Kitfox guys today that said it was not worth the time to cover them and a heat gun would remove the fairings in short order. Hmmm wish I could see some hard numbers. I have some silver and some blue paint left over from my wings but I'd still probably have a couple hundred more bucks into this project by the time I got done if I cover them....hmmmm what to do.
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  16. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   


    Thanks! It was late last night when I was messing with them. I got them apart today. Whoever put the cotter pins in needed junk punched. They were AN pins and bent totally crazy. It took me forever to get them out. Anyways I think I'm going to test fit them and get going on getting them covered. I have some navy blue paint and silver left over from my wings.
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  17. Av8r3400 added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    20 x 7 x 8 is what mine are, too. I've never had need for larger...
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  18. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    None of the people who used to stock the Nankang N800 tires can get them anymore. Has anyone seen a source for these recently?? The tires that are on there are the 20X7's with all the tread shaved off.
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  19. Av8r3400 added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    Joey-- I just responded to you over at Kitfox. You could have given me a call, I just had mine all apart to put on the skis and new axles.


    Remove the socket head cap screws holding the rotor to the wheelremove the bearing retaining cotter pin and nutslide the tire/wheel/hub assembly off the axle, leaving the rotor in place on the caliper (my rotors are snug in the wheel-tabs)the rotor can now be removed from the caliper and the rest disassembled
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  20. Av8r3400 added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    From a lesson I learned on my gear, take them all apart and put some anti-sleeze on the axles where they slide into the gear legs. This will help aid future maintenance work.

    I'll side with Leni, keep the farings and cover the gear legs. From what I saw on Brett's landing gear jig (he has one that now fits Kitfox, Avid and Airdale), the legs are actually slightly shorter than the Avid gear, but they make up for it with the larger tires.
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  21. akflyer added a post in a topic Where did you fly today ?   


    Coulda tested those babies out for ya yesterday.. landed in a big ole swamp to watch some of the Iron Dog racers come through. It was Wagon Master in his Mk IV with my skis on it, my brother in his Pacer on ski's and 2 guys in Cubs on skis. The cubs sunk in the wet heavy stuff to the belly pod. Wagon master stayed up on top pretty darn good with the exception of his tail which was sunk in almost to the stabilizer. One of the cub drivers had to pack a good runway to get him and his passenger off... this is in a bad ass 200 HP 170,000.00 cub that has every mod known to man on it (including a glass panel)... The Avids kicked everyones ass in the deep snow!


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  22. akflyer added a post in a topic EAA Chapter Chili Feed   

    I am not sure the date on the breakfast.

    I got a call yesterday morning about 9:30 that I needed to head out to the plane... Loaded up and flew up for the start of the Iron Dog.. we made it to the river about 20 minutes before they broke out off the iron dog trail and hit the river so we got some good shots of the first 8 or 9 teams. We jumped back in the planes and followed them for awhile but the light was VERY flat and the guys were only running 45-50 on the river... normally we roll through there at 100 MPH. We cruised up ahead and landed in the big swamp past sqwentna and got some shots of the guys coming through there. Loaded back up and headed to Fish creek lakes and spent the night at a buddies cabin. If I would have been thinking I would have given you a call from the air letting you know what we had planed. Was a nice day for flying.. I think I put on about 8 or 9 hrs.

    Should have some good shots in the next few days from on of the other planes that was in formation with us. I left the house in such a hurry that I did not even grab my camera.

    I think they got some shots of some tracks I put down on the lake... there was a nice big open hole and the river running between fish creek lakes was open... so I had to land, taxi in the water, and come in and out of it a few times... I wonder what the next guy that flys over and sees those tracks is gonna think





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  23. akflyer added a post in a topic Got my Kitfox gear today!   

    Cover them or you will loose cruise and climb. Round tubes are 60% more drag. Most guys reported that they gained 5-7 MPH in cruise when they did fair them. Climb will take a hit also. I did not fair my gear.... but when I took off the 24" tires and unfaired gear, went to 14' long floats that weight 100# more than my wheels and gear legs, I gained almost 15 MPH in cruise and about 150-200 FPM in climb.


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  24. C5Engineer added a topic in Avidfoxflyers General Hangar   

    Got my Kitfox gear today!
    The guy that sold me this gear flew them right to my hangar in his Cessna Cardinal today. I got a pretty smoking deal on them. They are brand new never installed. The tires are 20X7 with the shaved knobbies. I'm going to toss them and get the 21" Kingfox tires. Upon some initial measurements the gear will bolt right on...Thanks Leni for that info. I think it's just slightly taller. The only mod I can see straight off is I'm going to have to move the little tab on the bungee attach point out to the ends. It's currently about 1" from the end. Brett said the Kitfox bungees are routed slightly different.

    Now for my questions.....

    First off can anyone confirm that a 21" tire is as big as I'm going to find for an 8" rim??

    Second think it's easier to cut through that nuclear grey glue and wreck that pretty wood fairing or just cover them and paint them? I don't have any covering materials left over so that's gonna add another couple hundred bucks. The hangar next to me has a fabric guy but they are a biz and I'm sure their hourly rate is steep.

    Are there any aerodynamic advantages to having them faired and covered at 90mph?

    The parts are coming together. I'm hoping to be ready to start test fitting the gear here in a couple weeks.

    On a side note logged a 1.2 after work today. I flew a 200lb passenger with about 15 gallons on board. Big hit in performance after being used to flying solo but would still fly circles around a 172 with two people in it.

    Even the 20's on there dwarf my 8.00X6's that are on my plane now.



    Here is the business end. This stuff is all brand new with the factory plastic caps still installed. See the wood fairings? Think I should take the sawzall to them and then grind off whatever is left or is worth making them pretty and covering them at this point.


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  25. C5Engineer added a post in a topic Where did you fly today ?   

    Very cool Larry!!
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