New member from Canada Kitfox 1 rebuild project

[DStroud 8]

My name is Dave Stroud in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I just picked up a fairly complete Kitfox 1 unfinished kit locally and need some info on common sense mods I should do to it before getting too far into the rebuild. I've scratch built planes before and prefer to do as much work as I can myself. I will use a Verner 5V radial engine that I currently fly on my rebuild Stewart Headwind. If you searched Youtube     Stroud Headwind Kars     you'd see my flying the Headwind locally. I'm getting up in years and finding it hard to get in and out of small airplanes so I'm doing a couple of mods some might find a bit far out. I've got no intention to fly with a passenger so I'll be flying from a solo seat mounted in the center of the plane. No left hand stick and the right hand stick will be pushed over even further to the right side acting like a " side stick ". Right hand on the stick then and left hand on the throttle. One set of rudder and brake pedals in the center. Two wing tanks will be used feeding a smaller, maybe five gallon header tank built from aluminum. The Verner radial is very light and weighs only 91 lbs plus the weight of a 4 quart external oil tank. Just about the weight of a Rotax 582 all up I think. 60 hp and bags of torque at 2,000 rpm. It's a direct drive engine which should operate at about 3.2 US gph. I realize that the gross is only about 850 lbs and I'm not looking to increase that, but I'd like to do some common sense mods while I'm working on it. I hear about internal spar stiffeners. My spars are the heavy ones...about .085" wall I think. I hear about reinforcing the cabin tubing in the area of the bungee attachment, cabin sides below the door area, I'd like to remove the cabin roof single diagonal brace and replace it with the split type heading aft left and right. I sometimes see steel plate reinforcement in the cabin frame area of the front spar attach points. I'm aware of extra reinforcement needed in the flaperon wing hangers. I'll likely use Carlson aluminum lift struts and make new landing gear likely with spring shocks and larger tires with single puck brakes. I hear about making the vertical fin, rudder and elevators larger. I won't be folding the wings but will make them foldable....any benefit of installing upper horizontal stab bracing that could be removeable ? I'm thinking of an electric elevator trim tab and a fixed tab on the rudder. I hear about making the front of the vertical fin larger / longer for additional stability. I've been thru Buckchops articles and I'm trying to learn as fast as possible. Has anyone actually made a list of "common sense " mods that might be useful in my case ? Thanks for any thoughts or leads to info you lads can provide. You seem like a pretty knowledgeable group. Dave...

[1avidflyer 1983]

Hi Dave,  Welcome to the group.  The Kitfox 1 is a fun airplane.  I had one a few years ago.  Here is a link to information Kitfox has put out on service bulletins and such.  Lots of good info there.  TJay on this group has done lots of things with his Kitfox 1, maybe go through the posts he made discribing his build.  He will probably make a reply to you as well.  The search feature in the upper right corner of the page is quite helpful.  I would also look through the Kitfox 1 section on this forum for more posts relating to the Kitfox 1.  A friend of mine flew his Avid A model (the plane that the Kitfox 1 is a copy of) as a single seater.   He put a joystick in with a big S curve in it on the passenger's side, and used the outside rudder pedals.  It worked.  I flew it once as well like that.   JImChuk

Maintenance – Kitfox (kitfoxaircraft.com)

[Yamma-Fox 403]

Sounds like a great project there!   Kind of a "Heavy" Kitfox Lite

 

As far as mods its clear you know your stuff and have already done a lot of research so I won't be of any help except to say that the one thing I wished for on my KF2 was a wider and taller gear stance.

 

Looking forward to seeing your plane come together! 

[Buckchop 479]

I tell u i really like my gear from Randy Moore, did some pretty bad and hard landings in my first solo flyin the other day and not a scratch. And only used about half of my gear strut movement. 

Edited 27 Nov 2021 by Buckchop

[DStroud 8]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Buckchop....your landing gear is about what I'd like to have. Could you please share the dimensions? Width of landing gear brake backing plate to the other side or end of axle to end on the other side and also the length of the leading edge of the gear V top bolt location to bottom at brake backing plate. Thanks..Dave

[Buckchop 479]

Im down in Louisianna now till spring, so cant give u the measurements, think she is about 67”  backin plate to backin plate, and lifted at the firewall 4”.  This first set Randy built that was an extended set, give him a ring he still buildin others this same gear now, only with different strut springs, as i changed the ones he set with gear. To stiff. Look up my posts in model 1’s under kit fox questions i may have wrote all the details there

Edited 30 Jan 2022 by Buckchop