Willja67

I almost posted a new thread asking for this since I bought the pvc leading edge for my plane.  If I ever see you in person Doug I'll give you a nickel.

I got bit by my own ignorance when buying my plane. I didn't know enough about 2 stroke engines and was so eager to buy a plane that I jumped on the first one that looked ok.

The seller lied to me about multiple things although I'm lucky the plane has an air worthiness certificate and in general is a solid airframe I should have paid about 4-5k less than I did. 

The rotax 2 strokes are only good for 5 years or 300 hrs before requiring new seals etc. I didn't know that and got a plane that needed an engine rebuild. To date all my flying has been behind 4 strokes and I knew next to nothing about 2 stroke operations. I would recommend learning those differences. Buy a dvd or get training otherwise you could end up trashing an engine (best case) or an airplane and yourself and passenger. 

The prop was also in need of replacing. It looked like it was in great shape but it had 3 wood blades bolted into a plastic hub. That plastic hub was recalled in 1989 and replaced with an aluminum one. Apparently whoever had it at the time never got the memo. Needless to say I took it off as soon as I learned that. 

And it had an aluminum fuel tank in the wing that was not plumbed. The seller told me it was fine and could be plumbed back in. I was dumb and didn't look into the tank. The aluminum tanks had a habit of cracking at the welds and were then sloshed to seal them. The sloshing compound frequently started flaking off which is obviously a bad thing. The flaking was dead obvious as soon as I did look in the tank. 

I'm enjoying rebuilding my plane and customizing it to make it exactly what i want. If that's not your thing make sure you know enough to not get burned. It would be a good thing to have someone who knows what they're looking at go over any plane before you commit to buying.  

I would like to see some more detail on your suspension. It would be worth its own thread. 

are you taking about the offset of the vertical stab? My plane has a small plate that allows the horizontal stab to be centered on the fuselage not the vertical stab. 

There are vast differences in skill level and natural ability. The gentleman that did the welding when I installed bush gear on my bird is 85 has thousands of tailwheel hours and never had a ground loop. I managed mine during my first solo in a taildragger, dumped the plane on its nose. Consequently I'm a little gun shy and decided to stack the deck in my favor. Part of the game is evaluating your skill level vs what the plane requires.  If you're such a good pilot that you've never had an issue with the stock gear then you're too be commended, but you don't get to tell the rest of us it's not an issue. There are plenty of bent birds bearing witness to the fact that it has been an issue for a fair number of us. And there are plenty of bent birds with poorly designed bush gear as you mentioned, so unless you get the design right you still might have problems. 

Bottom line is it's not as simple as I think you're trying to make it out to be. 

On my KF1 I found that the v braces were interchangeable between right and left and the stab would be properly aligned either way but there is a front and back to the v braces if that makes sense. If you have the leading tube of the v brace on the trailing tube of the stab then the whole stab will be cockeyed.

Those are some good ideas Jim. I did build a little contraption to test out my idea. I cut 2 butt ribs and screwed my old lexan transparency to them to see how floppy it was in the middle.  My build was really sloppy so it ended up more line a saddle at the trailing edge which I'm sure adversely affected the stiffness, but I think it will be more floppy than I want. 

Did have one idea though inspired by Dhollys comment on the turtle deck. 

what if I make a new bent aluminum angle but peaked in the middle? It would add stiffness to both the lexan and the turtle deck and it would give me even more head room. 

I was going to make a new  turtle deck anyway, i was going to get rid of the windows and the hinge in the middle of it just to save a couple ounces. I was worried about stiffness, rightly so as Dhollys comment indicates, but this might just solve that with a minimum of weight and complexity. 

Am I going to be listening to it oil can right above my head if I take it out? I can imagine that would be disconcerting and highly irritating. If so that's a good reason for leaving it but with my plan to sit in the middle i can only just put a finger between my head and that brace and that's without a headset. 

Ok next question on a possible part to leave out when I put it all back together and that is the skylight support, specifically the rib profile. I just noticed none of the newer foxes (5-7) have the support. I'm not concerned so much with how much weight that will save as I am with the extra inch of head clearance. The polycarbonate seems pretty stiff when supported on all 4 sides especially with the airfoil curve in it. Thoughts?

Proof positive that there are very few original ideas:

Scott Palmer's model 4 Kitfox has this exact mod. Would be nice to see inside how it was done. 

totally missed the counterbalance weights when looking at that pic, but on mine they're aft of the rudder when folded so no issue there.

How did you raise it? Metal or wood?

If i don't go above the tube the h-stab bolts to i think i should be fine.any structural considerations?  Would probably want some support under it so the fabric dosen't buckle it. 

Ok next question, we all know the KF1 could use some more yaw stability. So what if I raised the stringer going down the spine to add a strake kinda like the P-51D?

I guess it stays. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find all the tail structure to be almost completely free of rust. 

The upper portion of the fuselage frame is also mostly free of rust. Not sure why that is.  There are drain hole grommets or there were and it looked like they were correctly placed. But that doesn't explain the rust on the elevator idler. And other locations where moisture couldn't pool. 

yes

If it's structural definitely don't want to get rid of it but if it's just for looks then, I'll take the weight savings

Maybe Ive just missed this but Ive never seen plywood over the top of the wing tank before in any pics. I admit since I wasn't looking for it I may not have seen it.

I just started stripping the fabric off the wings and found this:

Is this normal? Looks like a lb of weight that could be lost to me. 

I like your videos, have subscribed and watched several of them multiple times.

I shamelessly admit to watching most of those videos. But apparently unlike you guys i don't have a flying airplane(in a year hopefully). So I use them for motivation. Ive always loved airplanes and flying and didn't need those guys to light that fire, but they are fanning the flames. 

Maybe if we make the distinction between backcountry  and true Bush pilots we can lower Leni's blood pressure. 

I won't debate any of that with you Leni, but you're living in a different world up there. A few years ago I moved up to Anchorage and drove through Canada in the middle of December and it was sobering to drive for hours without seeing another car, without cell service and knowing that if I went over the edge I might never be found. One thing I loved about Alaska was that airplanes were seen as a necessary part of life. Definitely not the case down here. General aviation is on life support down here, and if those namby pamby pretty boys get people interested in flying, buying airplanes, and keeping aviation alive then I think we might do well to encourage it. I can see the flip side that inexperienced pilots with no concept of what Bush flying actually is will be pouring in,  and may get themselves killed doing it and that will do damage to the cause,  but if aviation is dying anyway down here I'm willing to entertain  the options that might save it. 

Lowell Fitt produces some vacuum bagged fiberglass fairings for the jury struts and tail struts. He said he'd sell me enough for my plane for about $100.

That just hurts. Glad to hear these injuries were minor. 

Wouldn't happen to have been this one would it?