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I would get a piece of 1/2 pvc, plug the end with epoxy putty and drill about 4   1/16 holes angled away from the plugged end.  Insert it full length and then use compressed air to sweep the junk back out the fuselage end as you withdraw the pipe.  Repeat until clean.  Could also use water if air is not vigorous enough.  Could also use a sewer jetter tip on the end of an air hose. 

Since I'm not done yet to know how much scrap I ended up with, I don't know how much it takes to cover a kitfox, but I'm guessing your $6100 number is probably conservative.   I think the exchange rate has some impact on the price too.   But I wouldn't look at it that way.   I would look at it from the perspective of what is the best long term product.  Buy what you need for the wings and get those done..  If you have scraps big enough, do the tail feathers.  By then, you will have a pretty good idea on what you need for the rest of the fuselage, and your bank account will be pumped up again.  I would definitely use the oratex for the whole bird.  The only down side is that it is a bit tough to do fancy color schemes without resorting to painting the accent color.  But that is definitely not the end of the world.  I just don't have any experience with that yet.  As far as the sales job from Lars, he has been very helpful to me, and pretty much everything has been as advertized with the exception of getting everything I needed the first shot.  The factory screwed up and didn't send out the glue with the fabric.  Took another 3 weeks or so to get the glue.  Hope that helps.  

Back to the Oratex, I am putting 600 on my kitfox wings and it is a pretty sweet system.  Definitely a huge time saver.  I think I have about $2000 in the material for the wings.   The 600 is definitely tougher than the ceconite I have on the rest of the plane, but not as tough as the 6000.  If I was to do the whole plane, I'd do the areas prone to rock damage with 6000 and the rest with 600.  The only issue I see with it is it is difficult to get it tight in areas with alumnium underneath.  I put aluminum lids on my fiberglass wing tanks, and I've had trouble getting it to shrink enough. I think I'm just not getting aggressive enough with the heat.  I'll be back to it in a few weeks and post some pictures. 

166nflyer, so your mod was changing the mount location on bottom of cylinder to the floor itself. What distance from the pivot tube did you end up at?

Imft did you remove the tail wheel springs also?

Thanks for all the help guys

I've only flown tri gear. My instructor is setting me up with an aerobatics pilot to teach me the tail dragger

 

The attached pictures show the mod. The wooden dowels are just the last itteration of the design.  I never got around to making new pedals with the correct geometry.   Say the left rudder is full forward, this geometry puts the toe pedal into your left foot, and pulls the toe pedal on the right away from your foot.  My first ground loop was due to the maule castoring free when it wasn't supposed to, but my second one was not.   In that instence, I got some quartering tail wind on touch down.  It was after the second incident that I realized I wanted full control of the brakes.   With the original design, even if you manage to not give opposing brake when inputing hard rudder, the toe pedal is farther away and harder to fully depress.   With the change, the more rudder you give, the easier it is to add brake.

I don't know if you have flown it yet, but I see that your brakes are set up in the stock configuration.. ie. if your toe is on the opposite brake from your rudder input, as the opposing pedal comes into your foot, the brake gets depressed giving oposite braking to your rudder input.   This condition is a Ground Loop intensifier.    I corrected the problem by connecting the fixed end of the brake cylinder to the floor instead of the rudder cross tube.  As a result, the more rudder you give, the easier it is to add brake.  To get it all right requires a bit of fussing, but it reduces your chances of ground loop in the first 100 hrs by at least half and greatly improves control on hard surfaces.  Have fun!

110 hp at 114lbs and half the fuel burn of a 582 is pretty interesting to me!  I'd rather pack the extra pounds in the cockpit than in the engine.  Hence the question, has anyone heard anything about this motor? 

I just ran across this engine by accident.  Has anyone heard anything about them?  It looks to be a lot like Leni's 800 idea.  http://simoniniusa.com/?page=Engines&Engine=Victor-2

Its been A while since I paid any attention to this thread.   So far I have one wing complete and the other one ready to cover.  Using the Oratex 600 was a piece of cake once I got the hang of shrinking it over aluminum.   (the aluminum on my leading edge sucked up much of the heat, requiring a more aggressive use of the iron)   I am guessing I have no more than 8 hrs covering the one wing, and it looks really good.  My Oratex cost for covering the wings was $3000, but I may have gotten more tape than I really needed since it comes in fixed length rolls.  Hope to get back to it in the next month.   Being the lighter of the two grades, the 600 is certainly not as tough as the 600, but it is still a lot tougher than the ceconite I had before.   I decided to use the 600 on the wings where there is less potential for rock damage.   If I was to do the whole plane, I would probably do 6000 on the belly and underside of tail and do the rest in 600.   For anyone who values his time and doesn't want the wife going on about the fumes, Oratex is great stuff.

I haven't tried it yet, but my plan is to hysol a strip of 3/32 plywood to the trailing edge of the strut and wrap it in orotex.   Orotex is pretty easy to work with and tough as nails. It should also be a lot easier to fare out the root than the plastic  farings. 

Did you get the ultralight prop or the medium?

I'm a fan of the grove gear only because it puts the wheels wider and about 4" forward of the origninal.  Between the grove gear and fixing the brake pedal geometry, I can land on pavement with confidence.... However, too many agressive landings may have stressed the clamping bolts/nuts.  When doing the post mortem, it appeared the nuts stripped off the right clamp leaving the clamp nowhere to be found and a wild ride on touchdown.  When I get back in the air, it will be with 3/8 bolts instead of 5/16 with two nuts instead of one. 

Thanks for the links.  Just spent a couple hours looking into it, and I think I'll be an Avidfox guinea pig.   It looks like putting the 600 on my new KF4 wings will save a ton of time and will be a better product than polyfiber.  Only problem is color.  I really don't want another coat of paint on the fuselage, but am not wild about painting the wings either.  My viable color options are cub yellow, a dark blue or white.   Am leaning toward white with blue flaperons to match current blue.  Already got rid of the orange tail feathers.   Maybe I'll just go with a circus clown approach and keep the wing covers on year round.

I'd love to see your gps track.  

Thanks for all the info.   I am getting symetrical flaperons and lift/jury struts along with the wings.  Leni, from what you are saying, sounds like my mixer is essentially a KF 4 mod. at least in function.   With any luck I'll have a couple weeks of ski flying yet this year.

Well, I just put money down on a set of KF 4 wings. Need covering and a few repairs.  Hopefully it is the quickest way to get back in the air....... However, they are going on a KF 3 Fuselage.  Any thoughts about the downside of this monster?  I understand the KF 4 tail feathers are larger, and the mixer is different.  I believe I have a KF4 mixer.. roughly, bu not sure what other consequences might be waiting to bite me in the butt.

Since the prop was "delaminated" in my last mix up, I'll be biting on an IVO IFA.  What do you all expect my cruise will come in at?

Wow, Is the idea to run them full length?  I have been noodling on a set up like the Highlander STOL, but I don't think their slats increase the chord nearly as much as what you are trying.   Are you going to try and split the flaps and ailerons?

It seems like their flaps are at least as important to performance as the slats.  

I am looking for a straight set of KF 3 or four wings to go on my KF 3.   A straight KF 3 right wing would do the trick as well.

My grove gear was a great improvement over the original bungee gear, but after stripping the nuts off the clamp bolts (still not sure how that happened), I will be oversizing the bolts and adding two nuts.   Great gear, but they don't track very well with only one clamp in place.  (  

Looking for informed opinions on the prospect of using my Avid A wings that have been hanging in the garage for 25 yrs on my KF3.   As far as I can see, the dimensions all match although I haven't tried to actually fit them up.  

The spars are .070 and the KF 3 are .060.

The spar stiffener is plywood instead of the KF I beam

The struts are .75 instead of .875 on the KF.

The Avid A is rated at 950 gross and the KF is rated at 1050.

The Avid A has rounded wing tips and the KF has droop tips.

The Avid A has trailing edge cable and KF has formed TE.

My thoughts:

The main difference is the struts (which I suppose I could have a .875 or 1.0 set made,)  I would guess the shear on the bolts is less than the yeild on the .75 tubing, although I gues if would fair even worse than the .875 if I ever flip it again.  (the .875 didn't want to support the Fuselage in the inverted position without bending)

My guess is that the primary gross weight limit on the Avid A is with the  Fuselage and landing gear not the wing.  Is there something I am missing?

The flaperons and airfoil seem to be identical.  Is that correct? 

Since I have the extra fuel tanks, I am thinking of adding at least one if not two to the avid wings.  This will require removal of a drag tube, but the tanks are rivited in so should take the drag load.

Any opinions on the droop tips vs rounded or the cable vs formed T.E.

Also considering inserting a strip of 1/8 plywood in the center thirtd of the spars and filling each side with foam to increase rigidity.  Any thoughts?

Thanks for your help, I'm dying to get back in the air, but can't afford the 200 hrs to build a whole new set of wings.  My other option is to buy a complete set of KF 3 wings I found for sale and ship them to AK.  Still no struts though.

Congrats Leni!  Great pics!

Agreed.  In my KF, I practiced 300' engine out 180's and felt like there was reasonable margin.   Really pushing it below that though.

Regarding the seatbelt.  I had a 4 point harness, but still banged my head a bit.   As I am pondering the chain of events though, I am more seriously thinking the flip may have been the result of a chain of events that started with the right side gear clamp coming loose.  The gear clamp was nowhere to be found, and the threads on the bolt were stripped off.  Also broken was the brake line.  What I have no explanation for is the fact that the swivel end of my rubber brake line was broken off as was the brass adapter that was screwed into the gear.  In short, the brake line broke in two places with the adapter part missing.   If the gear clamp came loose earlier and the brake line was compromised, application of the brakes would have caused me to veer off the runway.  As I think of it, that may be why the left tire is black as if it had been scrubbing against the gravel, and the right is just dusty.  Anyway, anybody with Grove Gear might want to check the condition of those bolts on occasion.  Could be mine were over torqued.  When I dig out the bolts I'll post a picture. 

How did it happen?  Really quick!!  Was alone and I'm OK. Happend at Moose Point about 15 miles by beach from the end of the road in north Kenai.

Contributing factors

1. was warm and had the door open (little less lift on left side) in addition to my fat butt.

2. static port in cabin made airspeed read low.  Probably touched down at 45-50 instead of 40, leading to a bounce on a 3 point landing.

3. Somewhere in the 3.5 seconds it took to flip, the bracket holding the right side gear stripped the threads off the bolts holding it on.  If this happend during the bounce, the uncontroled departure was inevitable.  Never did find the bracket piece.   Bolts on the other side were fine.  Nothing bent on the fuselage or the gear.  Seems strange that bolts would give way before the gear or tubing.

4. Was trying to perfect my precision short field landings.

5.Headwind quartering at 2:00 at 5-10 knots.

6. A tempting of fate by giving her a new paint job.

Lessons:

1. Dont practice landings on narrow strips in remote locations.

2. Close the door before landing.

3. Need more practice powering out of a bounce.... (done close to home!)

4. Quit talking about installing an outboard static port and do it!

Damage:

Prop

Windshield

Cowling crack

Right wing tip and two inboard ribs.  Front spar seems to be slightly bent back but probably can be fixed with re-instaled drag tube.

Struts look like linguini. 

Wing attach points may be tweaked a bit.

Missing Gear attach bracket.

Wounded pride, a couple million mosquito bites, and a nice sun burn.

Jeff, you going to be out playing today ?

Randy, If the weather is good We are going to go up to kinik river flats this evening.