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Kitfox II on fiberglass Northaire copy

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Posted

Well I spent most of the day yesterday rigging my brothers kitfox to a set of floats he had picked up that are a fiberglass copy of the Northaire floats.  I am not sure what they were rigged on before, but I had to cut and lengthen the rear struts, as well as make some sleeves for the front axles (they were set up for 1.25" axles and he has .75" axles.

  I set the wing root incidence at 3.5 deg and it turned out to be a great number!  After the launch I did a few high speed taxi runs and some step turns then it was seat belt on and firewall it.  She popped right up on step and at about 40 mph indicated I popped the flaps and was in the air.  I felt it out for a few seconds, dialed in some more pitch to the prop and pointed her to the sky.  A few laps around the patch revealed I need to add some slight up trim to the tab (not inflight adjustable).  I lined up at 65 mph, dropped over the trees and set her down for a picture perfect landing (my best landing in his fox).  I taxied in and set the trim tab and went around again, and this time it flew hands off.  I loaded up my brother and took him for a ride.  He was so damn excited to finaly see it on floats he could not hardly fly lol.. the ole jitters got him so I took it back and brought it in for another greaser.  A few more TO and Landings and it was time to bring it over to another lake closer to the house (that and it was 11:00 at night and I did not think the neighbors wanted me buzzing them anymore).  All in all it flys great, but the northaire floats are a tad undersized for my liking.  With two fat asses in the plane (me and a buddy) I had to step turn it to get off the lake I was on... not a big deal but I think with a bit more float it would handle better with full fuel and two guys onboard.

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Posted

WAhooo yeah Bro Thanks  alot for gettting her done . She flys perfect al we need is yours done and then we can play .  :sharedoobie: ;D :beerchug:

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Posted

For anyone interested, I am posting the word document that shows the calcs for the square footage of the floats hence giving me the displacement.  They are not modeled perfectly, but really really close.  I will put up the 3D cad file also for anyone interested.

Northaire float 3D model.dwg

Northaire float model.doc

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Posted

just a quick update... after we tried full fuel and two up, it was determined that these floats are too small for the KF.  I have since installed, my full lotus 1260's and love'em... they are a match made in heaven for this bird!

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