Allen Sutphin

Not only a Avid/Fox group, but a therapy group also!  Anybody flying around in a homebuilt airplane needs therapy, according to the rest of the world!

Not a real doctor, but I did play one in a school play one time. Cause the FAA wants to make sure they have something to chew if you make an error while flying!  And I have stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!

There is always the exception. And some do need all the fuel they can carry, just not the average Avid/Fox driver. But then, you don't fly in the average area, either!

To all you Avid/Kitfox nuts, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a safe flying/building New Year.

Actually, if one ends up with a 350-400 lb useful with full fuel, that's pretty darn good in my book. My opinion and mine only, no one really needs 25 gal + fuel tanks flying a two stroke engine, anyway.  Considering most flights are  1- 1 1/2 hours at the most for most people.  Not many are going to do 3-4 hr trips in a Avid or Kitfox so 12-15 gal is plenty. Three rules for cross country trips:  

  Fuel up and take off,  fly till you need fuel then land, then repeat #1. 

About the best I have used is the Comtronics system. It worked great in my challenger because of the noise. It has a hot milke between pilot and pass and PTT for the radio if installed or used. I've tried Flightcom, Sigtronics, and a couple others and all failed the passenger test. Any VOX system isn't very good in a high noise environment. I got the T shirt, coffee mug, sticker and a few hundred dollars less to find out. Lynx is probably the best, but I couldn't afford them.

Thanks, I don't know if this 55 HP will handle a 70" or not. I know it flys with a 68". But then a Kitfox has a big frontal area cowling. Actually too big, bigger than Hoot Gibson's boot.

For you guys running a 2 stroke on your 1, 2, or 3, what is your prop length?  I understand a lot has to do with what engine but, I am considering the ground clearance in a level attitude. I was thinking along the thought of a 68". The original Subaru had a 70" and ground clearance was at a min.  I am running the standard gear and know many are using the higher bush gear which adds a bit more length to overall height.

I used two tubes across the door on my challenger and used two pieces of lexan. Makes changing door glass easier and cheaper when you can do half of it when it gets scratched, and it will eventually.  It also makes it easier to fit the compound curve of the bowed out door with two pieces. A little care matching them up and the crack between them is very small. Or use a strip of rubber edging between the two.

Finally got my wings finished up thru the filler coat, or course a lot of time was spent installing new tanks and a couple of ribs and working part time. Will wait till I finish covering everything prior to painting which only messes up the shop once. I really like the Stewart System better than Poly Fiber cause now I can actually walk in a straight line from the shop to the house. Well, straight for someone in their 60's.

Yes its a nice engine and super smooth. Just like the stock market, fortunes have been made and lost in the aviation world. A lot of airframes can handle the NSI and do well with it. They had a good sales pitch back then and auto conversions were a big market.  Currently its not a hot market due to past problems with the PSRU's and not really the engines. Van was asked (RV fame) what the best conversion was for the RV series and his reply was take 10K and convert it to a Cont or LYCO. Of course nowdays, its more like 20K but considering 90% of kits are designed around a cert type engine, its still true. We older Avid and Kitfox flyers aren't left with much choice other than 2 strokes, but they do work in our models. I'd love to have a 100HP 4 stroke that weighs 120 lbs and burns 3 gph at a 5K price. But I am not holding my breath.

Nice airplane! And a decent price, if one has 40K laying around collecting dust.  Even the older Avids and Kitfoxes are going to hit the 20K mark before long.  Seems people are scarfing them up as soon as they hit the market. And one could hit the 30K mark with all the goodies that are available now.  The Rocky Mountain Ridgerunner kit is 15K and up for the 2 or 3 model. Add engine and goodies and you are looking at 25-30K. But a nice airplane!  If you want to play, you have to pay, with labor, sweat or money or both. I paid 9950 for my model 4 kit in 1991, the one that Jim has now. Completed and flying I had maybe 14K total in it. Those days are long gone.

One would expect cold seizure since it is a common cause for failure in grey heads, especially on take-off. But that would be a guess at this point.  Tearing the engine down would be the only way to confirm the cause. And then one would have to look at each part as its removed. Most make the mistake of trying to restart it after a failure and that generally destroys the evidence. While you or if you tear it down, convert it to a bluehead on reassembly.

Anybody have any experience with Dellorto carbs. I know they are used on many motorcycles, and various engines. Not a lot of available info out there like there is for Bing carbs. This Hirth can use either Bing or Dellorto but came with a set of new Dellortos. They look pretty similar to Bing on the outside, anyhow.

You northern boys evidently are a little tougher than we hillbillies.  Days like that one, I am usually laid up in the recliner with a pot of Maxwell House. Worked out in that stuff for 30+ years and had enough of it. BTW, what engine is on the nose?

Thanks, my belt drive is 10" offset. Too high unless I can figure out a way to shorten it and get the proper toothed belt size. One thing about a belt drive is that it absorbs the engine pulses better and in a prop strike, you probably won't do much damage to the engine. It is off a challenger and is a 2.61/1 ratio with a standard Rotax bolt spacing for the prop. Fits my 3202 engine.

My old fiberglass tank was installed like that. I had a dickens of a time getting it out.  Ended up destroying the tank and then cleaning the spars off. Wasn't going to use the tank anyway. The fiberglass will break away from the spar pretty easy. I sprayed WD-40 around it and it leached under the fiberglass and it separated good. Don't get carried away with the WD-40, use as little as possible just around the FG. And then clean off the WD-40 from the spar with MEK, Acetone, or some other chemical you don't want near your skin.

Anybody seen a Avid/Kitfox two stroke running a belt drive? Anybody know what the offset (additional height) of a gearbox is?

He was probably as good as the Red Barron, but didn't have as many kills or wasn't as feared as the RB. I got interested in WW1 aircraft when I had a Fokker D-VIII kit from Aerodrome Aeroplanes. I have a pretty good library on the WW1 air war. They were the   real pilots!

Got my engine home this evening after a 2 hour round trip. A fuel injected 55 hp w/ exhaust, carbs too and all assoc. parts. Will need a gearbox instead of the belt drive though. Also included a Warp drive prop.  Ended up getting it all for $1750.00. Will need a motor mount, same as a 503 mount.

Hope everybody up there is safe!

Good luck in selling the NSI. I had one on my model 2 when I bought it, and ended up basically giving it away. Good engines, just heavy. Selling the airframe might be easier since it is a popular airframe. My model 2 is a tad tight for me at 6' (headroom) but I'll make do. Legroom is good and everything else fits. Some have said that a sling seat will give me a little more headroom.  The Kitfox cowl is a bear to try to see over and around. The Avid cowl is much better. Maybe a little rework is in order on the cowling.

My last comment on it, too. No sense beating a dead horse. Being an A&P/IA for 38 yrs + probably doesn't count for much. I wouldn't sign off on a repair like that!

Question is, would you buy that aircraft, put your family member in it and go flying with a repair on the wing spar? I don't think many of us would. Its easy for us to armchair a repair like that and give advice knowing we aren't responsible for the outcome. The only 100% safe way is to replace the spar. I always try to consider if it was my tail in the aircraft and answer accordingly.  Besides, wood, alum and fiberglass all have different stress qualities. And from what little I know about sailing here in the mountains, mast are usually cable or rope braced in several locations. And a sailboard isn't in a high stress situation unless you are being chased by a shark and I bet you would be praying the mast doesn't break.

A wing is designed so that stress flows thru the whole wing and no one section has it concentrated at a certain point. But it will build up at a repair or strengthened area and possibly fail at that point. Even though it has been sleeved or patched, it IS a weak spot. An example is to watch a 747 or a glider wing in flight. It bends and flexes throughout the full length of the wing not just a certain section. Even a relatively short wing still flexes some even though you might not see it. Repair or replace? Not a question you want to ask after it fails in a gust or rough air flight.  A fuselage has other tubes and paths for the stress to flow around, A wing spar does not, it is the load carrying member. Bite the bullet and replace it!