Willja67

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Everything posted by Willja67



  1. Willja67 added a post in a topic Hello from Utah   

    I only have access to the internet on my phone so i don't know if it's limited to the mobile version but it frequently does that to me as well. I just fix it(usually) before i post.
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  2. Willja67 added a post in a topic Hello from Utah   

    I live in Stockton and my plane is a project in my garage at present. The county really gave the airport the shaft a decade or 2 ago, you might have heard some of that story if you were considering building a hangar there. Now that it's become an alternate for Salt Lake international I bet it'll be even more onerous to operate or at least base your aircraft there. 
    Are you a member of the local EAA chapter? Pretty neat bunch of guys that've been helpful to me. A lot of us meet at Apollo Burger in North Salt Lake every Saturday at 11:30 for lunch. The monthly chapter meeting is this Friday at the Civil Air Patrol hangar if you're interested.
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  3. Willja67 added a post in a topic Hello from Utah   

    Where in Utah? I'm out in Tooele and have a KF1 which is essentially the same airplane as far as i know. If you're close it would be interesting to see your project.
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  4. Willja67 added a post in a topic "Bush Gear"   

    Do I detect a massive amount of jealousy?
    I don't know all the back stories of these guys but let's just summarize a couple of the most prominent that I do know a little about and have actually met and talked to:
    Mike Patey, came from a very large relatively poor family. When he and his twin were about 15 they got a business license,  rented their neighbor's tools and started a business building redwood decks for people and continued to be entrepreneurs from there. Mike went to college to get an engineering degree but the pace was too slow for him so he studied on his own. He's built over a dozen planes. Point being he paid his dues. He earned what he has. He put the time in to become the skilled pilot he now is. 
    Trent Palmer:
    As a teenager started filming with a camera rig on a rc helicopter and developed it into the business he now has. Used the skills from his business to become popular on YouTube.  The guy obviously has a work ethic if he can spend 18 hrs a day for a week straight upgrading his plane. Does he have all the knowledge necessary to do everything to his plane that's been done to it? No, but neither did Mike Patey at that age. The guy is obviously a good pilot and has obviously spent time developing that skill. And he seems like a really nice guy. I met him at an airport and he let me sit in his plane to try it on for size.
     
    As for the other flying cowboys I know less of their backstories but a couple of them were Alaska bush pilots and a few others own their own businesses.
    I get sick of people tearing others down that paid their dues to get where they are. This is America there are opportunities if you want what they have figure out a way to go get it. If I'm not willing to work as hard as Mike Patey or Trent Palmer I don't deserve to have what they have.
     
    Here is a lecture by Mike's twin brother at a local university. It's a good place to start off you want to follow their path:
     
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  5. Willja67 added a post in a topic Just picked up this Model 1 kitfox   

    That's what mine is.
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  6. Willja67 added a post in a topic E-Tec or Polaris 800 conversions   

    A few years ago when i never thought I'd fly behind or in front of a rotax i heard about them discontinuing a few models and thought it was all their 2 stroke line. I only learned a week or 2 ago they still made the 582.  Because I  have a 532 and all my thoughts were on being it rebuilt i never cared to research the 582. Easy to not find info you're not looking for.
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  7. Willja67 added a post in a topic E-Tec or Polaris 800 conversions   

    I weigh 220-230 and density altitude goes to 7000 in the summer, so definitely NOT looking for less hp. 
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  8. Willja67 added a post in a topic E-Tec or Polaris 800 conversions   

    I imagine you need a fair sized chunk of lead in the tail? I've decided I'm not rebuilding the 532 i have and am looking at other options. The 912 is way too expensive but I'd be interested if anyone has pictures of the engine mount. Ive been drooling over the BMW R1200. Installed they're about 155lbs fwf  which is more than a 912 but considerably cheaper.  
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  9. Willja67 added a post in a topic E-Tec or Polaris 800 conversions   

    Just found the above system here: http://www.airtrikes.net/engines.shtml Its all the way at the bottom of the page. They don't offer a kit, just a 12 page set of plans to take to your local machine shop. Looks alot like what you described Jim.  Might have to mount the engine upside down for our applications but that seems a lot easier than adapting a c-box to the engine.
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  10. Willja67 added a post in a topic Seat improvements   

    Here's how a guy made a carbon fiber seat for his KR2. He initially was going to use a sling seat as well. I imagine his technique could be used to make a seat for a kitfox. 
    http://www.n56ml.com/seat.html
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  11. Willja67 added a post in a topic Fiberglass wing tanks removal   

    I  can only tell you what is on the web page since I've never seen any in person. Sounds like only plastic to me. 
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  12. Willja67 added a post in a topic Fiberglass wing tanks removal   

    wingtanks.com 
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  13. Willja67 added a post in a topic Above the smog   

    I grew up in Grantsville. My family moved there in 1990 and lived there for about 18 years.  I currently live in Stockton. When were you there?
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  14. Willja67 added a topic in Avid fox flyers pics and vids   

    Above the smog
    Salt Lake and the surrounding valleys suffer from inversions which keep the smog down near the ground. Today the smog wasn't too bad and if you can get above it the mountains sticking up through it look almost mystical. A guy in my EAA chapter let me bum a ride today and it was gorgeous. Really looking forward to the day i get to see it from my kitfox. 




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  15. Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc   

    Talked to George Happ today and learned that the Matco A8 axel http://www.matcomfg.com/AXLEASSEMBLYA8-idv-2555-1.htmlwhich is 9" long is meant to be cut to length depending on the installation. So that's $150 that can be spent on something else. Now i can arrange a firm time to get the brackets welded on and the new gear installed!
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  16. Willja67 added a topic in Close Call's and dumb stunts   

    Best ground loop explanation I've seen
    Title says it all and I'm in the category that's already had one.
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  17. Willja67 added a post in a topic Flaperon repair jig, jury strut fairing   

    Thanks for posting this. Definitely going to be doing this on my bird
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  18. Willja67 added a post in a topic Flaperon repair jig, jury strut fairing   

    What was the weight gain? Did you get any more climb performance? 
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  19. Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc   

    Bungees and hardware just arrived. One step closer to having the brackets welded on and getting this girl on her new legs. Still have to save some pennies for the wheels, brakes and axels. I was hoping to use the axels i have but the link George Happ at Matco sent me were for 9" axels and the ones I have are 6.5-7".
    I'm also building a plywood deck for the trailer to mitigate some of the risk of the tailwheel jumping the track again and doing further damage to the plane. 
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  20. Willja67 added a post in a topic Kitfox 1 aka "Foxy Brown"   

    If the prop hub is plastic then don't use it. They were recalled in 89.
    This is the gsc prop that came with mine:
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  21. Willja67 added a post in a topic New legs for the Avid   

    it looks like you've got a hose support clamp holding the fairing over the springs? Any brands that are better than others? How did you mount that spinner over the cabane? I'm trying to come up with ideas how to fair my gear. 
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  22. Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc   

    Also got the top half of the cowling marked and trimmed. I was actually surprised how well it fit after trimming.you can see the trim line on the bottom, between 1/4-3/8" on the aft end tapering to nothing at the front.
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  23. Willja67 added a post in a topic Repairs & Mods: custom cowl, new gear,etc   

    Next project started, fairing the outboard leading edge strut attachments.  Living at 4500 Msl where the density altitude can go over 7000 in the summer and reading all the comments about how fairings help with climb rate i decided to start working on that as well. VG's are in the plans as well. That's the same white foam under the duct tape that i used on the cowl. It bends nicely when it's warm but cracks when it's cold.  I'm going to use drywall mud and sand it smooth before i glass it.

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  24. Willja67 added a topic in Kitfox I   

    Operation Cannibal Fox
    I'm guessing most of you are familiar with Trent Palmer and his kitfox, which he just installed a turbocharged 141 hp Rotax 915 in. He's dubbed it " cubkiller" since the goal was to outperform the carbon cubs at the Stol Drags at the High Sierra Flyin. Here's his video from the flyin: 
    So "Operation Cannibal Fox" is to beat Trent Palmer and his "Cub Killer" in a Kitfox 1 at the Stol drags.
    Right now it's mostly a mental exercise because i lack the funds to do it but i want your input on what it would take. Reason for this is even though "cubkiller" is supposed to be the poor man's way to compete with a 300k carbon cub 40k for a 915 doesn't feel very poor to me. 
     
    Here are my thoughts and the mods i would make to do it. 
    1. Cover in Oratex 600UL for the lightest weight covering possible. 
    2. Carbon fiber vacuum infused cowl and anything else to shave weight 
    3. Install BMW R100 turbocharged engine. 
    4. As many streamlined struts and fairings as possible. 
     
    The biggest one on the list is the BMW R100 turbocharged engine for obvious reasons. It seems to be a proven fact you can get 80 reliable NA horses out of a R100 and i was reading last night about how 100 turboed horses is pretty doable without major mods to the engine and if you want to go for 120 then you have to go with lighter pistons etc and you still might have a hand grenade. But let's just run the numbers on the 100 hp turbo since its the cheapest simplest alternative. 
    My bird weighs in at 468 empty. Let's just say i shed the fat on the airframe and the engine and turbo bring it in at the same weight.  With just me and fuel for the race that's 732 lbs with 100 hp that's a power to weight ratio of 7.3. If I can shed the 35 lbs extra I'm packing even better but we'll plan like that's not going to happen.   
     
    Freedom fox weighs in empty around 930lbs and I'm guessing Trent weighs in about 160 plus 40 lbs of fuel with 141 hp on tap yields a power to weight ratio of about 8.0 lbs/hp. So we've got him on power to weight barely, but he's got a Fadec controlled constant speed prop and mixture control which is probably a huge maybe insurmountable advantage. 
     
    So what do you guys think? Is it doable? What would it take to beat him doing it as  cheap at possible?
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  25. Willja67 added a post in a topic Operation Cannibal Fox   

    How about 240 hp?
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