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View Full Version : First Dual Flight of 85DD



SkySteve
09-14-2008, 03:36 PM
85DD has undergone major surgery over the past 2 1/2 years. She came into this world in 1986 as a Model 1 taildragger built my Dan Denney. Dan did minor surgery to her when he changed out her wings with Model 3 wings. I purchased her 2 1/2 years ago and made lots of mods. The major changes were to add 10" of height to the vertical stabilizer, change the rudder to a model 4 rudder, change her to a convertible nosewheel/tailwheel plane with new grove gear. Many many other mods were made, but that's not the subject of this post. I have had her flying for a couple of weeks since her last surgery (modification).

Yesterday, John Oakley and his wife, and my wife and I flew as a Kitfox flight of two (John has a Model 4 Speedster) from Ogden, UT to Logan, UT for a fly-in breakfast. It was my wife's first time sitting in our Kitfox.

Here are the links for our Logan landing and departure as seen from my wife's eyes (camera). Thought you might like to ride along...

Logan, UT landing:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A1NvueJWCGQ

Logan, UT departure:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xAv4U6TvbS8

DesertFox4
09-14-2008, 05:15 PM
Steve ,
Congrats on the rebuild. 85DD carries a lot of history with it. Sounds like you made some good mods. to it. Enjoy every flight.

SkySteve
09-14-2008, 05:26 PM
Hey, Desert Fox, that plane looks mighty familiar!! Thanks for the photo.

RandyL
09-15-2008, 10:52 AM
First flights are always important news so I moved this to the General discussion section rather than Trip Report. Hope you're ok with that. And CONGRATS on getting back in the air!

kitfoxowner
10-06-2008, 11:10 PM
I have recently wondered where this plane was. Its neat to see it in the air again. You mention when you got it, it has wings from model 3 on it.
They would be wings from 89DD that was the 3 factory demo plane.
We tried to put the wings back on 89DD but Charles caught that something didn't look quit right and after he did some measuring we found they wouldn't fit with out some fair changes that we didn't want to do. So we left them on 85DD. Just before this happened that plane was hanging from the ceiling in the factory hanger. Thought you might be interested in some history.

SkySteve
10-07-2008, 03:51 PM
Thanks for the history! It's kind of neat finding out about this info. Here is a link that will give you more photos of the rebuild and what 85DD looks like today. http://www.teamkitfox.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=114&highlight=85DD I am currently adding a digital tach.