Prop Problems

[akflyer 1427]

Any updates on this?  I am intersted to see what you think of the new prop!

 

[Mendlerr 4]

No updates yet, the prop IVO sent me was severely damaged.  I had to ship it back, just got the new one.  It will be installed this week.

 

A new set of throttle cables helped out with the idling.  I am now idling smooth at 2,000 RPM WITHOUT the prop turning!  I like it, you can feel the engine appreciates it.

 

I'm going to have to get larger tires to clear the new prop.  The 600x6 tires and Grove gear doesn't allow any clearance with the tail up.  Like 3-4 inches I think.

[Mendlerr 4]

Hey all, after some serious thinking I have decided to greatly downsize and redesign my panel.  Curious on a few things.

 

First off, what is my old stuff worth?  Other then the turn coordinator which had a burnt up bearing it all works.

 

I'm looking to get an inpanel mount for my Ipad 2 and mount my stratus on the top of the dash.  Eliminate all the vacuum/gyro gauges and associated wiring and tubing.  Should help save alot of weight.

 

This should also greatly reduce the load on my poor ole 582, which is struggling to maintain 10 volts in the air.

 

[akflyer 1427]

Here are my thoughts on the Avid or KF panel.... Take a look at an ole J3 or something of that nature.  These are low and slow relaxed fun flying airplanes.  Why do we feel the need to make the panel resemble a brand new caravan that just rolled off the assembly line.  Granted, those of us flying a 2 stroke need a few more gauges than the ole J3, but I am going bare minimum.

 

Water, RPM, EGT.  Air speed, Altimeter, VSI, slip/skid and a whiskey compass with a radio and my 295.  I have nav and a tail strobe along with an HID landing / recognition light on the gear leg just cause we do alot of flying on darker days around these parts in the winter time.

 

In reality, when I am flying, I only really use the RPM water and EGT 99% of the time, with a glance at the GPS when I am flying to a new location or if its kinda murky out.
 

The full panel may look cool and all, but 99% of us are flying planes that are on the nose heavy side (forward CG range).  These planes fly faster, slower and much lighter on the controls when we fly them towards or at the aft end of the CG range.  I use divers weights on the tail spring to get my CG around 18-19" and she is much happier flying there.  Truth is, these planes were originally flying in the sub 400# empty weight range, and over the years, we have added another FULL PASSENGER to the empty weight!  Granted, it is easier and cheaper to put ourselves on a diet versus putting the plane on a diet, but I do like my rum and my food so its gonna have to be my pocket book and airplane that looses the weight.

 

I must say though, you have a very impressive panel in that plane, but its not for the kind of fun bare bones flying the plane was designed for.

 

 

[akflyer 1427]

Also, if your struggling to maintain 10 volts, it is only a matter of time before you let the magic blue smoke out of the instruments in that panel and you smoke the stator... that is 1200 for the stator last time I had to buy one for my brothers plane when it smoked on me a few years ago!

 

[C5Engineer 1170]

Hey all, after some serious thinking I have decided to greatly downsize and redesign my panel.  Curious on a few things.

 

First off, what is my old stuff worth?  Other then the turn coordinator which had a burnt up bearing it all works.

 

I'm looking to get an inpanel mount for my Ipad 2 and mount my stratus on the top of the dash.  Eliminate all the vacuum/gyro gauges and associated wiring and tubing.  Should help save alot of weight.

 

This should also greatly reduce the load on my poor ole 582, which is struggling to maintain 10 volts in the air.

 

Holy crapole you could take that thing to the moon and back! I'm with Leni! Someday I am going to redo my panel and it's going to have a Dynon D100, and EIS, and a Dock for 396, the mag switches, and a starter button and that's it. That panel is pretty badass but just a bunch of mumbo jumbo for 98% of the flying you should be doing with these planes. If the weather is bad I stay home..If it's bad when I'm flying I'll find a road to land on.

[Mendlerr 4]

Not to mention the Rotax 582 can't power all those instruments and lights.  I need to switch to LED lights for sure. 

 

I have big plans for this airplane without spending a ton of money.  I need to pay off the new IVO IFA first. 

 

What kind of cruise speeds should I achieve with this new prop?   It's 72" 3 blade.  I may also need new tires, the prop barely clears the ground with the tail up.

 

I'm also very interested in a nose wheel.  I am a tail wheel "purist".  I love the tail wheel but my girlfriend wants to fly some and the tailwheel is a bit much for her to learn on.

Edited 15 Jul 2013 by RMendler

[EDMO 1078]

I have suggested this to others - When the Cessna 150 was first converted to a "Texas Taildragger",

They left the nosewheel on for students. That is always a cheaper option.

I have some nosewheel info that I am happy to share with anyone interested.

Guess I have gotten lazy in my old age - don't feel like fighting TD if I have a choice - so mine is definitely going to be a nosedragger. All I have to worry about is wearing out tail skids!

EDMO

Edited 15 Jul 2013 by Ed In Missouri

[Mendlerr 4]

 If the weather is bad I stay home..If it's bad when I'm flying I'll find a road to land on.

 

Funny you should say that, an airplane landed just a few minutes up the road from me last night.  He ran out of fuel on his way to KHKY and landed on 321 by following the headlights of a few cars. 

 

They ended up closing the road and towing it to the airport with a wrecker, which I'm sure damaged the plane which is unfortunate, it was a perfect landing.

 

At first when 5 blackhawks flew low over my house I thought they were going to just pick it up and move it.  That woulda been a sight to see

[Mendlerr 4]

Well folks, the kitfox is going on a diet.  While I save to buy some larger tires and get a W&B done I figured I might as well work on the panel some.  I removed the Attitude Indicator, Directional Gyro and the Turn Coordinator along with the Suction Gauge and all associated wiring and tubing.  I also removed the GPS, dock and antenna.

Edited 23 Jul 2013 by RMendler

[C5Engineer 1170]

Any chance you can get that stuff on a digital scale just to satisfy my curiosity? I'm sure you could sell that stuff for a decent chunk of change to another experimental guy.

[Mendlerr 4]

it weighs about 10lbs, including all wiring and hoses.

 

I have it all listed for $350.  There is a used 2000c on ebay listed for $350 and it doesn't come with the Gizmo dock or anything.  I'm giving you the gauges too even though the turn coordinator has a burnt up bearing I think its a good price but I'm also open to offers. 

 

The GPS itself doesn't weigh much at all, nor does the antenna and it works great

[C5Engineer 1170]

Ditch the tachometer too when you go to a new panel and find a spot in your line of sight to mount a tiny tach. My needle tach was 600rpm off. I've had tiny tachs on my last two flying machines for lots of hours and never had one fail. It doubles as an hour meter too for engine mx items.

[Mendlerr 4]

I do have a tiny tach to compliment the analog tach and surprisingly the Rotax tach is only 50 RPM's off or so, it's hardly noticeable. 

[Mendlerr 4]

Oh and just an update for everyone.  If you have the grove gear and 600x6 tires you cannot clear the 72" IVO prop!  ask me how I know!  It's new tire time.  I'm going to pick up some 21x800x6 tires this week hopefully.

[Mendlerr 4]

I ordered a few of the new parts for the dash.  I got something cooking up.  No its not meth.  It's a sweet AHRS PFD!

[C5Engineer 1170]

Awww you lucky dog! Another one of my To-Do wish lists for my bird is a PFD and an EIS and have no gauges on the panel except a ball and an airspeed indicator.

[Mendlerr 4]

Its just an iPad 2 with Xavion and ForeFlight Pro.  Nothing too special.  The parts will be here Thursday, they were only $50 through aircraft spruce.  I just spent 7 hours stripping the kitfox of everything non-essential on the panel, probably removed 14lbs so far plus all the stuff under the cowling I've taken out..  I also got a lightly used set of 800x6 Condor tires that I'm going to put on the Fox this weekend. 

 

Once it's all done next week I'm going to redo the weight and balance and then watch it sit in the hangar some more, got no time to fly anymore.

[Mendlerr 4]

Why just an airspeed indicator?  I'm planning on keeping a ball, airspeed, altitude and vsi just as a redundancy for ipad failure.  I considered just leaving everything off except for the airspeed but I rethought that decision.

Awww you lucky dog! Another one of my To-Do wish lists for my bird is a PFD and an EIS and have no gauges on the panel except a ball and an airspeed indicator.

[C5Engineer 1170]

Because I would go the cheapest route possible and get the Dynon D-1 which only does GPS groundspeed.

[Mendlerr 4]

I've flown with the dynon and sky view. I'm using an iPad if that tells you anything. If I wanted to spen $1,400 I would personally buy the Sagetech Clarity SV. Then you will have full synthetic vision, weather, ads-b, wifi, Ahrs and its dead accurate with a redundancy system. You can even add Efis with a wireless sensor kit

The subscription for the dynon sucks. $500 a year for using their sky view system. The Sagetech and xavion are one time purchases and they update their software frequently. I realize the D1 doesn't have this but it's still pricey

The manager at my home base just finished building his 5th RV and decided to use the sky view. It worked great for 3 months. Last week it stopped working and when you try to use it a screen pops up asking you to pay for a subscription for the sky view service. $500!

I read somewhere that the Sagetech is proven to be just as accurate as the dynon systems.

[Mendlerr 4]

Hey all of you who are using the ivo ifa ultralight, did you go with the standard pitch or the high pitch blades?

After a discussion with ivo they told me to purchase the standard pitch blades for my Kitfox.

I am definitely rethinking that. I have to pitch the blades up about 75% of their travel just for takeoff or else I overspeed.. I cannot flatten the pitch out at all so I really do not have that much adjustability. I am taking off at what should be cruise pitch just to keep my tiny tach under 6,500

Edited 13 Aug 2013 by RMendler

[C5Engineer 1170]

I couldn't tell you what mine is. I bought it used. It is supposed to be a 72" three blade and with the cams centered I was making 5800 rpm static with it tied down.

[akflyer 1427]

I would NOT go with the high pitch blades.  At the suggestion of my brother, I bought high pitch blades for mine.  After burning up 3 of the electric motors, I figured out why.  By using the ground adjustable hub, it took A LOT of tq to flatten those blades out to give me take off RPM.  The normal blades work just fine.  In reality, your only talking a couple half second bumps of the switch to go from take off to cruise.  I have not had any more issues burning up the motors since I went  to the standard pitch blades.  I can lug the engine down to where I can only turn 4800 on take off or flatten it out till I over rev at half throttle. 

 

[Av8r_Sed 82]

So if I've got a 3:1 gearbox, the prop of choice would be the three blade, 72" standard pitch ultralight IFA? IVO still maintains that the three blade and 3:1 gearbox is a bad combo, knurled hubs or not. It gets a little pricey if I have to pop $500 for a 2,62:1 gear set too. Is anyone currently running with the three blade and 3:1 gear ratio?