Good old number 29

Yes, looking great. I have the same stuff. I did find that it seemed to sag after polybrush. I accidentally did one wing side at 275 instead of 250, and it turned out better. Here is a pic of my wingtip with the rivets showing a little. I'm just ready for stripes on the wingtips. I had delamination from using blue 3M maskimg tape on the wingtips. Only use the green stuff.

Here are pics of the hood. One hole on top, not two like I said. 

Jim,
The motor is fairly close to the top of the cowl.  I'll have to take some other pics, but the top has two rectangular ducts that stick down about two inches and fit tightly around the holes in the engine shroud. 
I almost got it ready to run today. Just a whole lot of other stuff to keep me running different ways. The cowlings are almost ready for paint. Not quite perfect, but I like it. If I want a perfect one, I'll finish this one better and make a mold with it, to make a nice cowl in one piece. Light and clean. Here are more pics. 

A link to more of the pics. 
<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/Theonlynamenottaken2/embed/story"></iframe>

Just waiting for the resin to dry, and I start cleaning it up and prepping for gelcoat. It was -2 this morning. I can mix a batch of resin and lay the glass, and it will stay tacky all day, until I put a heater on it. It's coming out okay. I should have pushed it out as far as I had it, and glassed it there, instead of pulling it in tighter. A little bit more clearance wouldn't hurt. 

More pics of the cowling mods. 

Thanks, Buckchop. I thought that drywall lift was just the ticket, too. 
I put the heat baffle around the muffler, to get some cab heat. For ducting purposes, I put it to the left, colder side of the muffler. It wouldn’t be hard to widen it to the same length as the muffler, if I want more heat. 
To clear the heat shield, I had to cut the cowling. It had already contacted the exhaust, wearing on two spots, one all the way through. I cut a hole bottom center of the cowl for a fresh air intake for the heater. The outlet for the heater baffle is on the port side, and the duct goes straight up and through the firewall, with enough tubing to go defrost, feet, or both. 
I made the cowling asymetrical to clear the exhaust with the least additional extra material. I have a plan for that. A little more to go on the cowling. 

Mounting Kitfox wings with one person, using a drywall lift. Yes, it can be done. I’m a pro with my lift. It was harder on the left side, with the pitot tube, but no problems. I put a 4x8 sheet of 5/8 rock on the lift, locked it flat, and covered it with blankets. Then, I set the wing on it. It was slightly weighted to the root end of the wing, which put it at a natural angle. I put a step stool under the tail wheel, to level the plane. Then, crank it to the right height, push it into place, and stick the pins in. Once the pins were in the spars, I pulled the lift outboard and mounted the struts. No problem doing it by myself. Here are pics. 

Stoddard’s might be my new favorite store. It’s a special kind of place. Reeve’s is up there, too, but it’s different. Since I was pouring out praise, I figured I’d give Finish Master a plug, too. I live 200 miles from Anchorage. I had to make several stops to get all my stuff, and I got to Finish Master, it was an hour before they closed. When I told them what I wanted, the lady gave me a funny look and asked if I needed it that day. Well, it’s 200 miles, one way, so that would be real nice. They took care of me, and I walked out the door at closing time. I do appreciate that. We are really fortunate to live in a place where there are businesses like these. They know their customers, and what you need. 

How much materials does it take, and how much does it cost, to cover a Kitfox with light weight Poly-Fiber? I only did the wings, which accounts for two thirds of the materials, at least. I used the aluminized paint, so no Poly-Spray. I used less than five quarts of Poly-Brush, and a less than half a gallon of reducer. That’s the pre-coat, brush coat, finishing tape application and coating, bad spray coat on one side of both wings, reduced brushing in coat of those same sides, and two spray coats, to give it that gloss, filling the weave. Half a gallon of MEK, and less than a quart of Poly-tac. Besides thinning the cement, I used MEK judiciously for cleanup. One gallon of Poly-Tone, with no reducer, sprayed three full coats on the wing, with good coverage. Four coats was just over a gallon, including the bit I spilled. I bought 25 yards of lightweight uncertified Polyfiber fabric. That was the remainder of the roll at Stoddard’s, in Anchorage. There’s plenty left for the fuselage. One roll of 4” tape, one of 3”, more than one of 2”, and I cut my 1” out of scraps, since they were out when I was shopping. One roll of anti-chafe tape was more than enough. Stoddard’s is great. Shop there. They didn’t have any of the aluminum base in stock, that day, so they pointed me to Finish Master. 
Cost?
Fabric, through Poly-Brush, cost $650. That includes my extra materials, which are more than enough to finish the rest of the plane. I have almost a gallon of Poly-Brush, a gallon and a half of reducer, quart and a half of Poly-Tac, a half gallon of MEK, and plenty of fabric.
 The aluminized topcoat was $410 for four gallons, with some extra odds and ends.  I have almost three left over. 
The bottom line is that the wings could be covered and painted for about $600, if you didn’t waste stuff, or buy extra, like I do. Hard to avoid, when you’re experimenting. $1,000 would do the whole plane.
Another little prop for Stoddard’s. They’ll take back the extra, unused stuff I bought and didn’t need. 

I case you’re wondering how much aluminum is in the paint. 
I like this color. It is fairly close to the Bahama Blue that it was originally painted, but it has kind of a metal flake look, if you look closely. It looks like a deep blue at first, but the silver mixes it to almost gray. You have to stir, pour, and shoot quickly, because of how fast it separates. 


It called for three cross coats. I have four on it, and am debating a fifth coat, just because it’s going so good. 
 

I got my crankshaft back from ADB. He said that some you feel good about, and some you don’t. This one, he felt really good about. It looks great. I’ll try to get a video of the first runup. 
It’s really coming together. The Poly-Brush was a pain, but it came out good. I used to have a nice paint pump, but no more. I tried to use an old sprayer that I had in the shop. That was a mistake. It seemed fine, testing on cardboard, but when I shot it on the wings, it looked like good orange peel texture. I brushed it out, and bought a good Graco hvlp unit. Shot the PB, then went straight to Poly-Tone. It looks great. Not show quality, but I like it. I used Piper Trainer Blue. It’s one of three of their colors that has the aluminum in it, allowing me to skip the PS (Poly-Spray), and still get full UV protection. I figure that it will save time, money, and weight, and it’s close enough to the Bahama Blue of the fuselage, to pass. I have enough paint to shoot it, too, if I get bored. 
I got the hole patched up, in the bottom. The guy said he did it putting it on the trailer. I patched up the broken stringer, and did a quick patch on top of the paint. I was going to take it down to bare fabric, but there are two other rough looking patches right there, so I didn’t bother. I roughed it up with a sanding sponge, and softened the paint with some MEK. The patch stuck good. Got the finishing tapes on, and PB. Ready for paint. I’ll use the aluminized paint for UV, then finish it with some of the matching Aerothane. Yes, it came with some of the original paint.
 

Oh, yes. The finishing tapes all went on, as did the drain grommets. I had done just two sections of 2” tape over the rear spar, where there are rivets, as per the manual. When I put on the first coat of Poly-Brush, the fabric on top of the wing stuck to the rear spar, in places. It had been like that with the original fabric, too. I didn’t like it, so I added a full length tape over the rear spar on both wings. I shrunk the fabric at 250, and it feels tight. I did go over it with the iron, and get a little tighter on the bottom, near the trailing edge, after I did the finishing tapes. I don’t think it could have slipped there. Maybe it was because of the low ambient temp when I first did it. It seems to me that the Poly-Brush kind of slackened it up a bit. I think I saw a comment by someone, somewhere, who had a similar experience. All’s well that ends well. 



 
 
 

More pics. The broken stringer in the dirty old fuse, and burning drain holes with a sawed off bolt. 

Cannot leave blank. 

On today’s episode of Procrastinators with Planes:
 

That could be fun. There's a part of me that likes the turbo better in the air than on the snow. I think it's a better application, because of the constant rpms. Those e-tecs are heavy, though. Comparing outboards, they're closer to the weight of a four stroke than to a regular two stroke. Factor in the 200-300 horsepower with the turbo, and it's worth it, though. I'd want that in a Model 4. I didn't pay attention to how the bearing is lubricated. Kind of wonder about that. A direct injected turbo two stroke. We better put that to good use before someone outlaws it. 

Here ya go.
348 hp and 110 lb, batteries not included.
https://newatlas.com/siemens-world-record-electric-motor-aircraft/37048/

I found just one race online, that showed the whole thing with their finish time. It was 1:33: That was the 2017 competition. I don’t know how they placed, but there can’t be too much spread. I think it’s doable at 100 on the top end. 

Agreed. I think the term stol should only apply to double digit deeds. 
I’ve been wondering what their top speed is, too, in the stol drags. I’ll probably waste some time trying to figure it out. We know it’s 3/4 mile, so it wouldn’t be impossible to figure out by timing them. The newer foxes, including the 5 and the STi, have a 140 mph vne, so there’s that. I might have enough duct tape to raise mine above its current lower limit, but not that high, without some real mods. I think that winning with it would hinge on short stops, a quick turnaround, and acceleration that hurts. Reverse thrust would be awesome, but doesn’t seem to be in the realm of an average Kitfox budget. You’d need some real engineering and machine skills to put that together. 
Say you only do 100, but you accelerate to top speed in two seconds. Maybe that’s optimistic, but you get the idea. Then, turn it around like a rubber band, and stop like a hockey player at the finish line. A new Porshe 911 turbo does 0-100-0 in 13.5 seconds, and 1,150 feet. That’s just touching 100, and slowing back down. Say, for instance, the plane accelerates and brakes exactly as fast as the Porshe. Once you reached 100, you’d need another 19.2 seconds to cover the extra 2,810 feet, so a total of 32.7 seconds, each way, plus turnaround. Yes, I know the plane won’t decelerate in the air as fast as the Porshe does on hot asphault. Maybe a dragster style parachute, or aircaft carrier-like hooks? Huge brakes, for sure. 

Okay, I’ll bite. I’ve seen the video, and imagined myself winning the competition, unlikely though it may be. My take on it is that you’re going to have to beat them with horsepower. Even with a better weight to power ratio, I don’t think 100 hp in a draggy plane will beat 140 in a sleeker one. Giving credit where it’s due, a sleeker plane with a capable and confident defending champion. So, is it even possible to beat Trent’s sweet Model 5, or whatever it is now, with a Model 1? And Draco, the Carbon Cubs, and everyone else? Maybe. I should be more positive. I mean, yes, I could do it for sure. Some VGs, better wheels, tires, and brakes, then replace the snowmachine engine with..... a better snowmachine engine! A couple years ago, Ski-Doo decided they had to make a mountain sled with a 2:1 weight to power ratio. They came up with a Summit 800 that weighed 400 pounds and had 200 horsepower. A good gear reduction, maybe some duct tape, to keep from ripping the wings off. There are plenty of those 800’s around. A little machine work to face up the redrive. I think I could do it for about double what I have into my plane, or half what Trent spent on his engine, however you want to look at it. And after I won, we’d all hang out, have some beers, and they’d let me fly their planes. Not necesarily in that order.
I do like the turbo Beemer idea. You should definitely do that.
Another thought, along the same lines. Instead of beating them at their own game, we should invite them to compete in the Talkeetna Stol competition. It’s different than the others, like Valdez, because you compete at full gross weight, instead of seeing how light you can be. That way, Trent could show up last minute, with his bags still in the plane, like at the stol drag, and it would just be like he was ready already. That would be good fun. Our low gross weight wouldn’t be a disadvantage, either. I’d like to see that. The straight 52 hp 503 Model 1 at 850 vs. Trent’s 141 horse 915 at 1,550 pounds. He’s still at an advantage there. Not sure where Draco weighs in. 1,000 horse and 10,000 gross? I better find one of those 200 horse Rotax 800’s. Now, if Trent or Mike throws down the gauntlet, you realize that we’re on the hook, right? See you there. 

I think that’s a great choice. I’m looking forward to your report on the Hirth. I’ve been scoping them out, online. I’m not in the market, but when that time comes, I’m thinking about going that route. Maybe the F23, maybe a 3202 or 3202. Looking at the intake runners, I think you’d want carb heat if you didn’t use the injection. 

My Model 1 had 66” three blade GSC props when I bought it. No clearance issues with using a bigger prop. I have a 503 with the B gearbox, so the bigger concern, justified or not, was spinning too much weight with it. Of course, going to a two blade would fix that, but then there’s more vibration, I’m told. Since the GSC props were out of date, and questionable for service, I went with Powerfin’s recommended 66” x 3, with their B blades. That keeps me under the lawyer-safe low moment of inertia recommended for people who aren’t careful with the throttle. 

I’ve been wondering, for all the talk about fuel tanks, why is it that I’ve never heard mention of fuel bladders used in Kitfoxes or Avids? It seems like the obvious solution. Lots of other planes use them. No worries about venting, or sucking air in a turn, since there are no vents, and therefore no air inside. We could even make them so they fit around the structure in the wings, instead of replacing it. Just wondering. Have none of us used a fuel bladder in a Kitfox?

My plane came with two props. One the same as this, with the square roots, and another, newer GSC, with the round roots. I was told that this (the same style) prop noticably outperformed the other. Since they’re calling for a return to the factory after five years, I went ahead and bought a new Powerfin for my 503. Not having tried it yet, I’m really happy with their customer service, and the fit and finish is great. It’s a beautiful prop. Too bad I won’t get to do the side by side by side comparison of the three. That new 66” three blade with stainless leading edge tape ran me about a grand. I might have the one prop serviced, and sell it. I just wasn’t that excited about using it, since I already knew the older one was better.