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With the 2.62 gearing if you go with 3 blade 72", my guess is you might have to much prop. If you have to flatten out the blades to much, the prop won't perform as well as it could. A blade that's running flat still makes some drag, and not much pull. I remember when a flying buddy of mine bought a Kolb with a 377 on it. They had a 3 blade 62" IVO on it. Performance wasn't very good. I told him I thought it was overpropped and we took off one blade. What a difference! Then that plane performed just great. I guess time will tell, but don't be afraid to try it both ways. I had a 3 to 1 gearbox with a 70" or 71" IVO three blade prop on my first Avid with a 582, and it performed great. Take care, Jim Chuk

Jim, I'v e got the 3:1 gears and wondering if you remember which blade number you used?

Chris, Am I understanding that you want it to be able to wind up to about 6000 in the neutral position? Will Ivo take the blades back if they are'nt the right match?

Ron said they had problems with harmonics causing the prop to move in the hub when using 3.1 and 3.47 gear boxes. Anybody seeing movement with the indicator tape?

Made a call to Ivo, requesting info on what length, #blades etc for a IVO IFA for my KF with 582 and 3.1 gears. Says with the 3.1 use a 72" medium with 2 blades, and for 3.47 use a three blade medium 72" Ron at Ivoprop says the medium/3.47 3 blade is the best performer and the reason for the medium instead of the ultralight is the blades tend to shift with the 3.1 and 3.47. Anybody have any issues with that, or is it just marketing? I'd rather not have the extra 10lbs on the nose unless the medium is good for cutting brush.

I was hoping to fly if the pod was still at Randy's. Sunday won't work for me though.

Shoot me an e-mail with your phone number, and I'll give you a call next time I'm going to be in the valley.

It looks like the weather may cooperate, so I may go play a bit on Sat. Will you be around? if so, where are you on the lake?

Dave

Wow,

love the pedals and brakes. As briliant as Denny and Dean Wilson are, have never understood the lousy pedal design... my pet peave. while you are working on the seat, I would suggest playing with extra cushions under and behind the pilot. I have it that way in my KF 3, and it allows an extra 2" of comfort by staggering pilot and passenger shoulders. (as opposed to being shoulder to shoulder)

Dave, is your plane at Merrill? Is it flyable to come out to Wolf Lake? I would like to know how closely it fits the KF as well so I can let Randy at Plaschem know. The objective is to build new carbon fiber belly pods that can be fit to both Avids and KF's.

Yes, my plane is flyable and is parked in quebec parking at Merrill. Have been planning on bringing it home for some maintenance maybe as soon as this weekend. Will probably have it home for about three weeks. IFA prop here we come!!! Anyway, my schedule is really busy, so recreational flying is kind of out. Might be able to stop by and look at it and take some measurements, or if you are in anchorage, we could probably try it on for size.

Wow, Looks Great! Sometime soon, I'd like to take a look at the pod to see if it would fit my KF.

For you guys that use the spot regularly, I am wondering if you get a reliable position every ten minutes in track mode? I fly back and forth from Merril Field to Nikiski, and often times mine will only send out two or three locations. Makes me a little less sure it would get me out of a bind. Should I be trading it in on a new one, or is that typical?

Once you get your plane done, you could get your dual in it with my old instructor, Glen Morthrop. Cool guy with lots of hours, in a lot of different planes, and some experience in my Kitfox. He's a brave soul, he kept flying with me, even after a couple mishaps, and he is not afraid of 2 stroke motors. I need to go up with him again soon anyway, and that would let him refresh himself in the airplane. He lives in Eagle River, so it would be convenient to start your adventure at Birchwood. Send me an e-mail, and I'll give you his number.

Hmm, I cut and pasted them from a post on Feb 4 2012. Don't have access to the originals at the moment.

Here are the picks. Looking back over the previous discussion on this topic, I see that Akflyer has a fix for this problem that works well, and I think a couple others have modified the pedals to eliminate the problem.

I noticed you have the brake cylinders attached in stock fashion to the pedal pivot tubes. I found the hard way that in that configuration, a hard rudder input can bring the brake pedal into the opposite foot causing cross controlling brake inputs...ie.if you start to swing and try to correct with hard rudder, in the confusion, it is very easy to inadvertently input opposite braking that overpowers the rudder input. (hope that made sense.) Bottom line is that configuration is a recipe for ground loop inducement.. especially on pavement. To correct it, I mounted the fixed end of the cylinder to the floor board with an aluminum angle bracket. In that configuration, the brake pulls away from your toe as the pedal comes into your foot. Conversely, when applying hard rudder, the toe brake on the depressed rudder pedal comes into your foot, allowing more brake authority if you so choose.

I'll see if I can dig up the pictures I posted a while back. I'd hate to see you get a booboo on that nice new bird.

If you were referring to stop drilling to keep the crack from going further, I wasn't about to take any chances with that windshield. It broke so easy that I didn't want to give it a chance to shatter and come flying into my face at 100 MPH. I had a sheet of 4'X4'X .090 Lexan that came with the kit and built the windshield out of that. I've heard of others that have had the plexiglass windshields break on them also. I know the Lexan scratches easier, but I'm sticking with that. I just bought a 4'X8' X.090 Lexan from a local commercial window builder/installer for $75, and that will make 2 windshields for me. Actually I got a break on the price cause my son who is a construction superintendent works quite often with this guy and they help each other out when they can. Take care, Jim Chuk

I've had good luck stopping cracks with a heated paper clip or about .030 wire. Drilling didn't work. Next time I do windows, I am going to try polishing the heck out of the edges and over size holes, then annealing it with the lamps like you guys have been talking about. As of now, I have chemical resistant .090 lexan that has lasted more than a year with only some minor crazing on the wind shield and skylight (one piece) Doors have cracks around all the screw holes, but they seem to have started at the edge not the holes, so I am thinking the polishing and annealing might take care of that.

what is the ebay item #?

Any Idea What kind of cost we are talking? This is pretty cool but I want an IFA prop first.

That looks like a great design. How much does it weigh?

What is the weight?

I am a bit interested, but have'nt seen pictures of one in forever. Do you have pictures?

Leni,

Do you have a paypal account? Post it and we can throw some $$ your way.

I wouldn't skimp on the gascolator. Every so often I get a little crap out of mine, and it makes me glad I have it. Pretty cheap in comparison to a very bad day!

Since the added material over the original capstrips is not "structural" and only to ensure that the fabric clears the tank, I think the plain wood strips that Spruce sells would be fine. I had some veneer plywood left over from my kitchen, so I cut some one inch strips from that and used it. Anything cheap and easy should work - as long as glue will stick the fabric to it. Blend it into the original at front and behind the rear spar so you do not change the trailing edge.

ED in MO

Anybody considered replacing the plywood with .040 aluminum? I have a wing tank that appears to have sprung a leak somewhere on the top, and I would like to manufacture a cover plate that will allow access to the tank for future repairs if necessary. Anybody see any reason why such a cover could not be screwed or riveted to the rib cap strips? I am thinking I will leave enough plywood at the leading edge to fasten the aluminum to and then use a couple strips of the plywood cut-out to stiffen the aluminum. Any ideas?

Hey Joey,

I talked about my VG's some on here but can't remember where. I don't think they made a great difference in shortening my takeoff or landing distances but they did seem to make quite an improvement to my aeleron authority. I found this to be a great improvement with the MKIV since I could get very little left stick movement with my winter gear on and leg pressed against the door. Also the VG's under the horizontal were a big improvement in elevator control. Between the two it made flying the plane in turbulence a lot more comfortable and probably did lower the stall speed some but at a pretty high angle of attack, so not sure how usable that is.

I think I placed mine at 10% of the wing chord and would recommend that you go much less than that; at least no greater than 7%. After looking at the most the cubs I have seen they seem to have them place anywhere from 2 to 6 of inches behind the leading edge and with a lot wider chord wing. I surmise that further forward probably works better at a higher angle of attack. It would be nice to use double sided tape and try a couple positions but it takes a long time to put them all on and I didn't look forward to doing it multiple times so I just went with the manufacturers recomendation. On my next wings I plan to put them further forward though. Hopefully you can give me your recommendation then.

I found the same results with my VG's . didn't seem to be much penalty if any with cruise, and no big difference in stall, but much more aeleron authority and putting them on the tail really helped with flare authority. I also sealed the gap in the elevator which helped a lot. If I remember correctly, I placed mine at the 10% point but with double sided tape. I used the tape in case I wanted to take them off or move them, but they are still held on with the tape two years later. Good Tape!

Nice pics Randy!

I love flying into the sunset / sunrise pics. We are so fortunate to see views that others only dream of or don't even realize that they are missing out.

Thanks again for checking on the bird for me! Hope to get things straightend out soon and get ready for the winter flying season. We need to organize a good flyin trip this winter. I can have John haul in lots of gas so we will have a good stash to get out and play. It was fun hitting rainy pass and I know there are alot of other places we can hit for those $200.00 hamburgers

I would love to get some more Avid / Kitfox drivers to come out and play for a weekend.

Got Bob's skis mounted last spring so I'm ready to play!

They were around for years but they are old technology, they have lots of expensive parts that wear out, and they weigh about twice that of a Matco. I messed with mine for 6 months before I literally pitched it in the trash and haven't looked back since. Even the certified guys are ditching them for other makes like the Scott.

Although I still have my Maul TW, It is on my short list to replace. My first ground loop was credited to the dog being worn out and breaking free into castor on touch down. I check the function every time on pre-flight, but have seen significant wear on the new parts in just 150 hours. Bottom line is it is a poor design made with subpar materials.