LSaupe

Mine stays pretty flat (have the Model III washout).  I get that a little bit though when I start to add flaps.

Looks great.

600 or 650 triple would make sense.

Love the idea!

Name that sled suspension...Polaris XLT?

Here is a quick setup on one of the Flightstars in the area.  Pretty simple and works great. 2 old water ski;s and a snowmobile ski.

Here is a good thread.

On my model III build manual the max flap setting is set by the realization of less aileron travel in the mixer.  I would have to look it up, but something like "apply full aileron deflection and pull up the flap lever until the stick moves inboard by "X" inch (or thereabouts).   

I hear ya allonseye.  My one concern here is the proximity to the fiberglass fuel tank.  If it finds it way against the tank (between fabric and tank or spar and tank) I might end up with an unhappy result down the road somewhere.

Thanks TJC.  I have one of those, unfortunately the head is too big,  I will keep an eye out for a smaller one though.  Very handy devices.

I will try a small magnet on the remaining screw to see if there is any attraction.  I magnet, the size of a nickle on a string would be perfect (as gravity would take it right too it).

Yep, thought about whether to drill the rib and repair or do the fabric (both kinda undesirable at this point), but either would have a high probability of success.  

Real bone-head move by me today.  Long story short I lost a screw I was removing from my fuel tank indicator today.  It is a small stainless screw about 3/8" long (looks to be about an 8-32).  The head diameter is about 1/4".

It fell down the inboard rib/cord of the wing and came to rest at the inboard trailing edge of the wing.  It is in the aluminum V channel against the inboard rib (lowest possible portion of the wing).

Problem is, that it is very tough to get to (given the spar and gas tank).  Only about 1/4" gap between the aft spar and lower fabric, and it went by there just fine unfortunately. There is hence only a small rectangle with which to access the area (roughly 1/4" by 1") - the gap under the spar between the inboard rib and gas tank.

How best to remove?  It has an under-camber wing.

I don't want to fly with it loose in there.  Headed out of town for a few weeks so trying to come up with ideas to attack it with when I get back.  Anyone run across this before?

My initial thoughts (in order of presedence and hassle)

1. Raise the tail of the airplane enough to allow for gravity assist (might need to be a bit high with the under camber wing).

2. Insert a flexible 1/4" tube with vacuum to try and hold/pull out (not sure what vacuum level/flow I could get out of a 1/4" tube 24" long though)

3. Try a flexible stick with some sort of glue or adhesive on the end.

4. Open a hole in the fabric near the screw and repair afterwards.

5. Find a way to inject some epoxy (possibly down a tube) to bond it in place.

6. Remove the wing and try to shake it out.

Any other idea's?

Larry S.

Yep, at the root end.  Never saw that before.  Maybe they changed it for later models.

Beautiful area of the country!

Quick question, the taper on the inside of your flaperons.  Is that a Model 1 thing or did you add that detail for another reason?

Another quick offering.  I added my flaperon weights per the locations in the Kitfox drawings.  However, I also installed a model IV rudder, which has a deepr cord than the Model III.  And... the counterweights would have met just aft of the model three rudder.  However, I cannot fully close now as they will nut clear the rudder (need to be moved outboard slightly).

Hopefully you have already done a folding test, but... did want you to be aware of the problem I encountered.  You probably already know this, but flaperon counterweights are still available from Kitfox.  Yours look just as nice though and you got to put the TJay stamp on them!

The honeycomb aluminum cabin frame looks interesting.

Also, for what its worth... make sure your aileron bellcrank is on correctly.  I had mine on backwards for a long time before I noticed it.  Functioned just fine (as far as clear travel and range of motion), though opposite control.  The visual on the flaperon is different than an aileron.  I was looking for things to go up when I point the stick that way, and they sure did (just the leading edge vice the trailing edge).  Glad I finally caught it before the first flight.  Several folks had looked at it prior, and like myself, it didn't trigger as incorrect.  Really gave me a pit in my stomach when I saw it.

I leveled the fuselage for rigging and and set mine at 1.25"" and it worked real nice right out of the gate (though the leveling doesn't really matter for this particular measurement, just a measurement relative to the font spar - I shot mine with a laser against a scale off the front spar).  You can dial things in with the flap lever once you start flying. My final setting after flying a bit was right about 1.0".

BeLite is coming out with a two place which appears to have similar characteristics to the Avid/Fox birds.

https://www.facebook.com/BeliteAircraft/?ref=page_internal

Still blows my mine that the FAA wants you to fork over 1/3 the cost of your plane just in order to keep doing what you have been doing.  To me, the few tangibles are not worth it.

Thanks for all the feedback.  I am not sure what he is proposing for the install as I am not sure what ADS-B really is yet, so can't talk intelligent on it (something to do with plane separation and vehicle ID).  Other than the sticker shock.  We are using this plane to obtain our PPL so hopefully we can get all this done before 2020.  Up to the bride after that if we dump more money into a device we might only use once or twice a year.

So... would it be correct that we could still obtain flight following with the old transponder and no ADS-B after the 2020 deadline?

So what do you guys know about the ADS-B requirements showing up (required by 2020)? My wife's bird with need this upgrade on her 150 between now and then.  Our local A&P indicated it will cost between 3-5K for this changeout! Ugh!

Does that also mean your old Mode C transponder becomes a planter at that time (if you haven't converted... just leave it off)?

0.016" it is then.  Gonna drop in a new set of plugs before I fly again and see how she goes.   Thanks for all the feedback. 

On recommendation from some fellow EAA guys, I bought one of these for my wife's Cessna 150.  I am impressed, it works great.

Simple and easy to use. We are using the twin hornet for the 150.  Might get one as well for the Kitfox.

http://www.aircraftheaters.com/

Thanks Larry.

yep, I have independent toggle switches, vice using the key.  I did disconnect them early on in troubleshooting  however, to take those out of play just in case.  I have seen these hand propped  before so still surprised at the speed I need here.  Follow on starts now will a warm engine and charged battery went fine.  

We will see what the next cold start brings.  Maybe (hopefully) just a weak battery and thick gearbox oil.

Had an odd one yesterday.  Snow finally melted down enough to get the bird out (on wheels).  Havent flown it in about a month.  About 15F outside.  Freeflight went well and battery showed its usual 12+ voltage (static).

Engine spun over fine, though a little slower than normal.  No light off and eventually flooded the engine.  Put the battery on a charger and off to breakfast.  Came back around noon, temps now up around 25F.  Engine spun over a bit faster but still no joy.  No spark indication as well on the Tiny Tach.  Put a spare set up plugs in (originals were wet.)

Make a long story short, with plugs in the engine and a spare set of good plugs hooked to the plug wires (resting on the heads), I was getting no spark.  Pull one plug from each cylinder to relieve compression (leaving all 4 leads still with plugs installed) results in good spark owing to the faster RPM.  I actually saw this as at spun up at a certain RPM they both came to life.  I had also previously pull off both ignition shut off leads just to be sure of no intermittent groundings.

Put the plugs back in, charged the battery and still nothin.  Added jumper cables from the car and it fired right up and ran great.

My understanding is that the ignition system is independent of the aircraft power system, so low voltage during starting should not have an effect is this correct (as would happen during a recoil start)?

Is there a minimum RPM to generate enough voltage to set the CDI system in motion?  Or.. is what I am seeing some sort of precurser to failure?  

Are the stators independent on these systems or do both CDI's share the same stator windings?