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Randy, are you going to be out flying this afternoon/evening?   Promised my son to go play.  Farings look like a simple solution, but I can see that the IVO is what I am looking for.

Picture was taken at Bold Airstrip on Eklutna Lake. While I had the struts off, I should have put on some Balsa wood Farings.  I think that with a heat shrink tubing cover would be a nice addition.

Im looking forward to making that part.  Looking at the dyno test, I'm wondering if the bottom end will be too sensitive to give us the slow flight characteristics we like.  Also wondering, can the C box take the hp?

Well, Im underwhelmed.  I was hoping for 5-7 mph cruise increase, but it looks like if anything, I only got 2-3.  At 6000rpm I get about 82 mph with me and full gas.  Was hoping for closer to 90.  But on the bright side, I got a new paint job, rejuvinated fabric, an epoxy liner in my fuel tanks and a header tank that doesn't leak.   Hope John isn't spinning in his grave over the changes.   Have a good 4 hrs on it now, and had a great flight practicing beach landings and slow flight from Nikiski to Anchorage.  Maybe for fathers day I'll get a Gopro to make some video.

The way I look at it , 2 strokes filter out bad company!

would be best to have in a .dxf format drawn to scale.   front and cross section views look to be plenty.  Do you have material?

Leni,

If you have a drawing, I have a CNC Mill and a teenager with time on his hands.

Paul,

Although tail wheel castor is a poblem if it comes free at the  wrong time, my conclusion has been that the factory brake pedal geometry causes most ground loops with these birds.  (it did with my first three GL) Do your master cylinders connect to the cross tube or to the floor?  If they are not connected to the floor, a hard rudder input will push the opposite brake into your foot giving brake input that intensifies the ground loop.   Attaching MC to floor reverses the action and drives the brake pedal into the foot that is applying rudder.  This way you get brake assist for rudder inputs.  Although I wouldn't want to press my luck, I'm pretty sure I could now maintain control even if the tail wheel was castoring.  I've seen several members post pictures of this setup that were better executed than mine, so there are a number of good ideas to draw from.  After wiping out my standard gear, I put on grove gear and have never looked back.  (wide stance and puts the load in the right place on the frame)

Good luck and be safe.

Congrats!!

I'm waiting to hear about someone using a webber four stroke.  I understand they are bullet proof as an industrial motor, are used by polaris on lots of stuff, and better weight per hp than a 912.  Anybody see one in an airplane?

Leni,

What Pitch Ivo are you using? 18"-53 or 35"-70"?   And what do those numbers correspond to?

You mean I didn't have to go to alaska rubber and have brake line made up special?

What kind of tubing did you use?  When I tried using poly tube on my set up, it expanded too much and the brakes were mushy.  Is that poly tubing or a more rigid type?

Oops, correction, I have a Maul TW, and have been wanting to switch to a Scott.

I have thought that infilling the trusses with plywood would work equally as well as sheet metal, and wouldn't require fabric removal.  Haven't done it yet on mine, but as I get more adventurous, I probably should.

Paul,

I  ground looped my KF 3 a couple times right out of the box.   The second time was on pavement and folded the landing gear.   We concluded the Scott tailwheel to be the culprit, but the brake geometry made it nearly impossible to recover once it started to go.  ie. hard rudder correction caused opposite brake action that was more powerful than the rudder input.  My fix was to replace the gear with aluminum spring gear, fix the dog on the tailwheel, and reconfigure the brake pedal geometry.  Since then, I have felt in full control, and my CFI agrees the set up is much better.  The spring gear is wider than the KF 3 gear and I think that helped a lot.    I also put on tubeless Nalco 21" tires that I could leave pretty soft.  With all those tweaks and some practice, I now feel very in control both on gravel and on pavement.   However, my pre-flight does include a tail wheel check to test the trip mechanism.

Randy,

Thanks for sharing.  That is exatly what I was looking for.  My spot has been very spotty recently, and this looks to be a much better alternative.  One of these days I 'm going to have to get over to the EAA meeting. 

YES 240+ is me.. a few extra pounds in fat fingers too.

I have a KF 3 and am 24+ and 6' tall. I sit on a booster seat so my head is almost touching the roof, to get better visibility and to offset shoulders with my passenger. (a seldom event) I have no problem getting in and out. I have also flown some elderly folks of my size that were able to get in and out even though they needed the assistance of a cane to walk.

Good luck.

While you are making cushions, you might consider making the pilot's about 4"thick on the seat and about 2.5 on the back. This arrangement allows pilot and passengers shoulders to offset making for a much more comfortable seating arrangement for two big guys.

I had to pull out my tanks to repair a leak, and found rather than repairing the fabric, a piece of.032 Aluminum screwed to the cap strips made for a repairable installation. At the leading edge, leave a bit of the plywood in place to screw the aluminum to.

Great feeling to see it fly!! Enjoy!!!!

Leni,

Did I understand correctly that you tried the ultralight blades with a 3:1? I'm pondering listening to IVO and doing the medium 2 blade and maybe building my own pitch adjuster. Do you know of anybody with the medium. IVO claims better performance.... but what is sales BS and what is the real deal. Also, I seem to remember you posting that you have found a source for the motors. Would you mind sharing that?

Thanks

Hi Joey,

The attached schematic is what I used to wire mine into my stick controls. I had one of our electrical engineer sketch it out for me to be sure I got it right using the automotive relay switches since the switches in the control stick have to be low voltage. If you don't use the stick switches you will not need the relays and you should be able to just use the schematic that Chris shows. The polyswitches I used I ordered from Digikey along with the relays and I think you can get the mini LED's ther as well but I found them at Radio Shack. I think the part number was different but I just used the other specs (trip amperage, etc.) that Chris gave to find the right ones.

I don't have a picture of my panel but I had a instrument cutout with a blank in it in case I ever wanted to add some instruments, so I mounted the relays on a tray on the back of the blank and put the circuit breaker in the middle with the fine and course pitch LED's on each side; all on the removable blank plate. It made a good clean setup that was easy to see and label.

Even with the Subaru, the high RPM's make for higher EGT's. As you add in pitch and the RPM goes down the EGT's go down. You may have to richen the jets/needle to get the EGT's in safe range if you are going to run at 6800 for an extended period of time on T.O. I have gone to one size larger main jets and raised my needles to the bottom clip on my Subaru and I still have to limit time at full throttle (4800 rpm) or my EGT's climb into the red. I usually just start to add in some pitch as I am climbing out.

Randy

Randy,

Do you happen to remember what the digikey number was for the relays?

Very cool Joey!

You are going to love it! The only problem with the IFA is the motor. Chances are you will end up having fits with it from time to time. I think it's just the nature of the beast. However if setup properly, even if the motor fails (which it will) it won't leave you in a bad situation. And motor problems aside, having an adjustable propeller is nothing short of AMAZING!

If you think your plane has get up and go now, wait till you hit go on the ground and that 582 goes straight up to 6800 and you hold it at 6800 as you lift off and climb out for the first 1000 feet by adjusting the prop! It will be loud and proud and feel like a piped snowmobile. Most people don't use the 582 that way because it isn't practical with a fixed pitch prop, but it will RIP!

There are several pretty cool tweaks you can do with the IFA. One is to install a Mercotac http://www.mercotac....CFU1yQgod3V8AKQ in place of the aluminium plates and brushes. Much more reliable setup than brushes especially if the brushes are exposed to any moisture. Another cool trick is to install polyswitches as your limit switches instead of relying on the giant circuit breaker which has to be manually reset.

I had a ton of fun with my IVO IFA, and now that I will be flying behind a Rotax engine again for a while, I wish I had it or my GSC IFA back.

If you have not installed manual mixture control, on your engine yet, you might want to consider that too. The IFA can change engine load so much that it is nice to be able to tweak the mixture too.

Just some thoughts,

ChrisB

Chris,

I'm looking into the mercotac, and see that the two conductor devices that are rated for 3600 are only good for 4 amps. The next speed rating is 1800 at 30 amps. Which unit did you use? This looks to be a much better deal than the slip rings from IVO. If I understand correctly, the breaker is a 10 Amp breaker.