Cloud Dancer

You mentioned earlier that it climbed like hell; what gear ratio in your B box and what pitch is that Ivo set at? What kind of cruse are you getting at those settings? I've got the same prop but will be running it on an Avid Flyer with a 582 (same horsepower) with a Box geared at 2.58/1 and need a starting point for pitch.

The guy that listed the Kitfox on E-bay pulled the listing. You can still use the link to get to indirectly get you to the  original listing and from there you can use the "contact seller" to send him a message to find out if it's still available.

That's cheating with four wings on that airplane, everybody knows you only need one right?

Have you seen that guy that landed a jet with a wing missing?

This guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=284&v=M359poNjvVA

Are there any damaged blades to go with that hub? I'm wanting to scan a semi complete blade and take some measurements off it as a base design. I can then widen it or make it more narrow, change the airfoil profiles, experiment with tip profiles and more within software and then laminate some wood blanks up and cut some test props out on the cnc. Is this the newer hub with the aluminum clam shell design?

Another option would be to chop the old wings and have the shortest wings on the group. Just on the group I'm afraid, as people have been cutting wings off for decades to make clipped wing Cubs and other tiny wonders. One of the best at it was Ray Stits; the same guy that invented the covering process used on many of our airplanes. Ray took the wing chopping theme to another whole level. An interesting fact; Ray was not an engineer! He was a self taught designer. Here's a little link describing one of his clipped wing designs:

https://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/perspectives-homebuilding/ray-stits-early-homebuilt-designer

I'm not saying chop it to improve it; because it won't. I'm saying there are those on this group that don't realize that without guys like Ray Stits they would still be flying Wright Flyers covered with canvas covering. Hang those old wings up in the rafters. Ten or twenty years from now you may see them in a new light and build something out of them. Maybe a biplane Avid Flyer is in your future. If so, please make it into a stagger wing enclosed cabin model. Getting the wings to fold would be interesting if not impossible but you got time.

Everyone knows who the Red Baron is. How many people know who the 2nd most decorated pilot from Germany was? The link below is old footage of him performing incredible flying skills after his motor is killed.

Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CBx7x5GCI&feature=youtu.be

Here's a link to the auction to see the current price. https://www.ebay.com/itm/382651656137?ul_noapp=true

If your coolant level gets below the level of the sensor it does not read correctly. That's stated somewhere in the analysis.

Building practices and repair practices for certified aircraft are just that; for certified aircraft, the same standards do not apply to experimental aircraft. While most A&P mechanics may be certified to work on metal structures many lack the credentials to work on wooden structure aircraft. Even those with the additional certification may not be qualified to work on composite structures. I've read AC 43.13-1B and it says nothing about repairs to composite structures made of wood and aluminum so I don't know what you are basing your refusal to sign off on all repair suggestions other than complete leading edge replacement for a non certified experimental airplane.

For those wondering; AC 43.13-1B does contain great information on tubing repair using sleeved methods from rivet structures to welded structures and a combination of the aforementioned.

Link here for AC 43.13-1B: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_43.13-1B_w-chg1.pdf

I've just watched a series of videos that document an engine failure on take off that resulted in a crash. There was a wing mounted camera on board that captured the events. After the crash is a detailed analysis of what caused the engine failure. I'll provide links below for the videos. I suggest you watch a video and then read all the comments within that video to see if others figure it out before you do.

Here's the link to the first part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VL5vJDr-hk

Here's the link to the second part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDxLaCUkdr4

Here's the link to the third part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yDh3H58uAI&t=542s

One things for sure, your going to know a Rotax better when your done.

Yes, I would put my family member in it and go flying with a repair on that wing spar. When I got done with it, the repaired section would be stronger than original spar and I would have ordered a couple of extra feet of tubing to build up a sample joint and tested that to failure to verify it was stronger. I don't give out advice I offer suggestions that I would feel 100 percent comfortable with if I were in the same situation. I've designed and built and tested an airplane; have you? I build within my knowledge and comfort levels. When I'm outside those limits I ether gain the additional knowledge and skills needed to complete a task or find an expert. 

Much faster than starting from scratch. Have you played with Solidworks? It's got some great features to calculate how efficient that spinner/propeller combination is. Here's a link to a YouTube video that can explain what I'm trying to convey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4lAhFsls5k&t=163s

I'm reminded that almost all my fishing poles are two piece and while I've broke a few in my life; I've never broke one at the joint. Same goes for the 2 piece sleeved mast on a sailboard which is in effect the leading edge spar of a wing.

There's a hole in that spar that's about 1/4" in diameter already. It has a tiny little fastener dropped through it to hold the entire wing to the side of the airplane. Ever hold your hand out the window of a car at 80 mph? Now imagine your hand stuck out over 15 feet instead of 2 feet with all that additional surface to hold against the wind. Now imagine that hole being flexed back and forth with each direction change and gust of wind. Why aren't you worried about that hole?

If I take a five inch diameter tree and cut a 1/2" saw cut in one side of it, what do you think will happen to it on a windy day? Nothing!  I guess a plywood prop should just fly apart at the glue joints because the way you see things; if it isn't one piece it's less than full strength no matter how you patch it? You do realize most wood propellers are plywood right? I hope you understand those those composite props are made of different materials laminated together? Why don't they just use one material?

That concrete example you mentioned brings up another point, did you put any steel in that concrete? Under every saw crack on the Interstate are rows of steel bars that are designed to expand and contract with the weather. That saw mark has no effect on the steel under the same saw mark. Mixing steel with concrete is another form of a composite structure. 

There's a huge difference between Gobbledy Gook as you call it and sound scientific principals based on various material properties and proven methods to create composites out of those materials.

It won't matter what I say; your mind is made up. Reminds me of an old farmer that used to come into my bar everyday back in the early 80's. A typical rainy day here in Iowa brought a lot of farmers to town to pick up a few things. We were watching a space shuttle launch on TV. The farmer turned to me and said "That's why were getting all this rainy weather." "All those dammed shuttles blowing holes in the atmosphere!" This old guy was dead serious. I made the mistake of pointing out he was crazy. I said what about all those shooting stars that burn through our atmosphere every day and night from outer space? A couple of holes more from the shuttles isn't going to change anything! He got pissed off and left. I didn't see him for six months.

I'm not trying to start a flame war but everyone has a right to their own opinion and with different backgrounds we obviously have developed different opinions.

 Those are life savers if you don't have an electric start and a bad rope angle to pull from. We used to carry plug wrenches and a can of WD-40 to start the old sleds. When those primers came around we added them. I've been putting them on my ultralights for decades.

Fred mentioned they can develop leaks. Not a problem if you install under your cowl somewhere and have an access door hatch. Even mounted on your dash like mine they are easy and cheap to replace if they start leaking. If I were installing it I'd probably go with the cowl/hatch door idea but since someone else installed mine I'm not going to change it's location.

You might still need a choke otherwise you have to hit the primer a few times while it's running or it will die on you. For some reason who ever built mine didn't put the chokes on it. I prefer the chokes because you can use them to cool down a lean running engine if you have to.

Here's a interesting link for those thinking about spinning a spinner out of metal.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgRLWAPgD7s

I mentioned people buy wood lathes such as yours and add riser blocks under the head and tail stock to get the clearance needed for spinning. I've seen them take the wheels out of an old pair of roller blades and use them to make spinning tools. After watching the video it will be a little more clear how the roller blade wheels are used. You don't want 6061 as a material for spinning. There are other grades that work better for spinning.

Your right, prices have gone up since the 80's. Here are the current prices per mile to build a road: http://blog.midwestind.com/cost-of-building-road/ 

My flying farmer friend has 700 acres he's willing to sell you at a discount. His land is in Delaware county and usually costs more than in Woodbury county. Here are farm land values in Delaware county. http://dollarsanddirt.com/iowa-auctioneers/delaware-county-farmland-values/ 

I checked on Woodbury county in your part of the state too. Here's the link for those prices:http://dollarsanddirt.com/iowa-auctioneers/woodbury-county-farmland-values/

Think what you want but I still think they paid too much.

Interesting. Did he say what program he was running the simulations with? If your an EAA member you can download a full working version for free. It's got some great analysis tools. Was he simulating fatigue with the original spar design or a sleeved design? How many hours to failure? Etc.

Since the wing is a composite structure it will be tough and expensive to rebuild it. As far as the glue goes; I have not seen a glue yet that won't break down from heat. The problem is the wood might catch on fire before the glue fails. An extreme example of glue against heat would be the tiles on the space shuttle. Each flight experienced some failing.

Cutting out each section in pieces and then grinding/sanding away the metal fragments and old glue sounds like more like punishment than fun but it would be cheaper than starting from scratch.

Another idea would be to build a D-cell spar out of wood between the two ribs containing the damaged section. Plenty of aircraft flying with wood D-cell spars. Either design it to include the damaged spar or start it just behind the leading edge spar as a separate component. Wood is cheap and easy to work with. You could still patch the original in addition to the D-cell add on. Any designers see anything wrong with that?

32 million dollars for a hunk of concrete less than a mile long here in Iowa? I worked for Carlson Construction for five or so years building mostly interstate highways. Roads only cost about 1 million a mile to replace back in the 80's. Add the cost to buy the land here in Iowa and things start to look a little strange. The highest farm land prices I've seen in this state was $10,000 dollars an acre and it's usually far less. Those hangers must be gold plated on the inside.

As far as the EU block on the website, that's strange too. It sounds like it's being blocked on our end here in Iowa. I wonder if it's a government thing or a local server thing?

A great guitar player came out of the Sioux City area. Tommy Bolin.

That probably is in the Rotax manual since none of those motors come with a gearbox. The gearbox output is opposite the engine direction. Challenger airplanes have used belt reductions for years with the Rotax engines and Quicksilver airplanes also.

I wiped the  finger prints off my screen and zoomed in. It is far deeper than first reported.

I agree with Turbo in his patch suggestion. Even sleeved you will hardly see the  patch once you get the fabric and paint added back.

I'd be digging out a bullet to slip in the chamber. Looks like a good place to install an electric fence! Not to change the subject but if it was an alligator I'd suggest converting it into some nice Alligator wheel pants for your airplane.

That hanger is still lower than the power lines at the end of my friends runway. I can always skirt off to one side or another of a hanger but those power lines force you to go over, under or 90 degrees to one side or another to avoid them. I keep trying to get him to move his runway to a different part of his farm but he likes it there. He is thinking about extending it another 800 foot and it's 1300 foot long now.

Draw something clever like a fancy fox head or fox tail or just a knob shape you like with a 3D program and save it as an STL file. Then I can either 3D print you a plastic handle or CNC machine one out of wood, plastic or metal. Light weight wood such as basswood or pine with a colored stain and poly finish is what I'd recommend. It could be just epoxied on your existing lever.

I had a friend that restored a 1957 Chevy but totally modernized it with power windows, door locks, custom electronic dash in an old original. Etc. He wanted cruise control but wanted to hide the buttons somehow to keep it looking 1957. I designed him a lever to fit over the top of his 1957 blinker lever. It has a channel in it for the wires and the button at the end to engage the cruise. It's all curved and flared to hug his column. I CNC machined it out of wood to keep it light. We painted it  the same color as the cars interior. If you didn't know anything about a 1957 Chevy you would swear it was an original part of the car and you would never suspect it was made out of wood. He's won many trophies with that car. You would never suspect that lever started out as a toilet plunger handle! It was the only piece of hardwood the right size I had the day I made it. It was going to be a prototype to test out my g-code but after it was sanded and painted there was no sense in making it out of metal as it was lighter and looked like part of the car.

Too bad it's not easier to shorten up the engine mount. What's the rim made out of on your tail wheel? If it's aluminum maybe you can find a steel version to add a couple of pounds in the back? An added advantage of a heavier tail wheel would be the inertia needed to get it spinning would result in a braking effect on touch down. Of course you get the opposite effect once it's up to speed and then your trying to slow the airplane down. I don't like adding weight either and if I do have to add any I'd like to figure out how to get some use out of it. In my case I'd probably just mount my B.R.S. chute further back in the fuselage. 

If you want be unique in adding weight to your tail, I'd suggest a tiny set of bomb bay doors in the back containing a small stuffed animal fox in a leather bombers jacket and parachute. You could drop him at your friends house.  In my case I'd probably use it to drop off a friendly canned drink by parachute. My friends get thirsty from playing all day in the summer sun on the Mississippi river and the sand bars.

We had a guy in our ultralight club we called "The Candy Man". He always made a low pass over after take off and threw out candy from his Kolb. The kids loved hunting the candy down in the grass.