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First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

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mikelaundy(at)yahoo.co.uk
Guest

Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 11:51 am Post subject: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Just got my Kitfox III, Unfortunately the vendor was unable to fly with me so I flew with a flying instructor who had a couple of hours in a Kitfox a couple of years back. Not ideal especially as we were using a farm strip with a 15 kt wind at 70deg off!

   

  My first inpressions were that it was no harder to fly than other taildraggers I have flown. Yaw damping below average and very little roll induced by rudder.  Pitch control a little below average on the flare, but holding a bit of power seems to give better pitch control, I found 55 mph over the hedge (2 up) a little easier than 50 mph.

   

  I found it very easy to catch my size 11s on the brake pedals, I guess that's something I will have to get used to.

   

  I now have about 5 hours mainly ferrying the aircraft from London to Cornwall, just a couple of questions:

   

  What sort of RPM / IAS and fuel flow do you guys get in the cruise. I was flying at around 3000 ft temp 0c with 5500 RPM, That felt about right and gave me around 75 mph indicated.

   

  I had full tanks on departure from London but noticed the fuel rapidly decreasing on the left tank with no apparant decrease on the right.  I think I had not secured the right filler cap properly and fuel was feeding from the left tank and venting through the right tank.  

   

  Had major problems with the radio (brand new ICOM IC A24E). Very loud interference almost impossible to hear ground stations, and they told me after landing my transmissions were unreadable just a very loud buzz every time I transmitted. I am not sure if it is  aircraft interference or a fault on the radio. has anyone else had this problem?

   

  The aircraft has never been stored with its wings folded and there are no supporting brackets for the wings in the folded configuration  Does anyone have a drawing of the supporting brackets  as I will have to have a pair made up.

   

   I loved the aircraft, It is responsive especially in roll, has an acceptable rate of climb, and I really enjoyed flying it. I also have a brand new Garmin GPS map 296 which performed faultlessly, I am used to a GPS pilot III, I found the 296 very similar to programme but with a far superior display, overall very easy to use, and a great comfort when I had to make the unplanned diversion after loosing fuel.

   

  Mike 

   

   

   

   



		

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smokey_bear_40220(at)yaho
Guest

Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:46 am Post subject: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Hi Michael,



Congrats on your plane!  There is no bad kitfox, just

weather too bad to fly it and your are gonna' want to

do that often.  



On your radio, first check the headset, power and

antenna connections.  A bad ground can make an awful

noise.  Next try it without the engine running.  If it

is fine then, but noisy with the engine on, we can

narrow that down on the list pretty fast.  If it is

noisy even with the engine off, you know it is the

radio or its connections.



That is a start for you,



Kurt S.  S-5/NSI turbo

--- Michael Laundy <mikelaundy(at)yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

..............

 	  Quote: 	
		     Had major problems with the radio (brand new ICOM

 IC A24E). Very loud interference almost impossible

 to hear ground stations, and they told me after

 landing my transmissions were unreadable just a very

 loud buzz every time I transmitted. I am not sure if

 it is  aircraft interference or a fault on the

 radio. has anyone else had this problem?

............

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mike
Guest

Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 8:00 am Post subject: Re: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Is that the portable radio? if so, what are you using for an entenna?  If it's the portable radio I use the same one for a secondary, but I have yet to use it in the airplane, I have it set up to just use the units own entenna.  If you are using an external entenna, you might have the entenna hooked up wrong.  If your using the units entenna, you may need to hook up an external.

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mikelaundy(at)yahoo.co.uk
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 12:11 am Post subject: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Yes I am using a portable radio.  I tried linking to the antenna mounted on the aircraft and that line was dead.  I tried using an extension lead with the antenna that fixes to the radio, and as soon as I moved the antenna 2 ft from the radio it started making a loud feedback sound (without transmitting).

   

  I plan to meet up with a buddy with a similar radio to do a comparison and try to find where the fault is.

   

  Mike



kitfoxmike <kitfoxmike(at)yahoo.com> wrote:

  



Is that the portable radio? if so, what are you using for an entenna? If it's the portable radio I use the same one for a secondary, but I have yet to use it in the airplane, I have it set up to just use the units own entenna. If you are using an external entenna, you might have the entenna hooked up wrong. If your using the units entenna, you may need to hook up an external.



--------

kitfoxmike

kitfox4 1200 912ul speedster

http://www.frappr.com/kitfoxmike





Read this topic online here:



http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=24144#24144

		

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HLJacoby1(at)aol.com
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:13 am Post subject: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Hi Michael,



I too have an IC-A24 radio in my plane. I had the same problem

and found it was the 12 Volt power adapter causing a low

frequency "growl" when I transmitted. I pulled the power adapter,

and the "growl" went away. I have not contacted Eastern Avionics

about this problem yet. I have been running on the internal

battery with no problems.

 

 I have a Rotax 582 in my KF-II, and I also have a significant

amount of ignition noise on receive with the engine running.

I am hoping a set of resistor plugs will ameliorate the problem.

I am using an external antenna on the radio. 

 

Best of luck to you.

 

Jake Jacoby

Kitfox Model - II  N7183H

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mike
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 6:52 am Post subject: Re: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

I had a bunch of problems with my 912.  If I had the strobes on and at an idle, my transmissions were bad.  I also had problems with a noise in the headsets.  I installed the recommended 24000mf capacitor into the system and it helped a little, then I went and put a ground buss on and put all grounds to this.   That helped even more.  Then I found my stereo was putting out noise and put a gound loop interface on the speaker outputs to the intercom and that took care of the rest.  Now i can have everything on at idle and tower isn't complaining because they can't here me.

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mikelaundy(at)yahoo.co.uk
Guest

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 1:42 pm Post subject: First impressions of a Kitfox III, and a few questions.

Thanks for the info Jake, I will try a remote antenna and see if that improves things.

   

  Mike



HLJacoby1(at)aol.com wrote:

  



Hi Michael,



I too have an IC-A24 radio in my plane. I had the same problem

and found it was the 12 Volt power adapter causing a low

frequency "growl" when I transmitted. I pulled the power adapter,

and the "growl" went away. I have not contacted Eastern Avionics

about this problem yet. I have been running on the internal

battery with no problems.



I have a Rotax 582 in my KF-II, and I also have a significant

amount of ignition noise on receive with the engine running.

I am hoping a set of resistor plugs will ameliorate the problem.

I am using an external antenna on the radio. 



Best of luck to you.



Jake Jacoby

Kitfox Model - II N7183H





		

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