N36KJ Flies First Time

[Maverick]

I made the first flight of my KF5 this morning. In general, it was an uneventful flight. After two high speed taxi tests I took off and flew to 3000' and circled the airport pattern. I lifted off the runway at 40mph indicated. Climb was amazing. I climbed at 70mph and was getting just under 1000' fpm. I ran the engine at 5500 rpm and was indicating 100mph, 5650 rpm = 105mph and 5800 rpm = 110. I did not make any inflight adjustments to the prop. My static RPM was set to 5200 rpm prior to takeoff.

The plane wanted to roll to the left. I'll make adjustments to the rigging this next week to deal with that.

On approach for landing the first attempt I was high and fast. Attempted at 70 mph on final and just saw myself floating a long way so did a go-around. On the second approach I came down sooner and backed off to 60 mph. The landing wasn't stellar but, I didn't brake the plane. I did a full stop then went around the pattern again for another attempt and the tower controller indicated that my transmissions were garbled to near inaudible so I made a full stop landing. My approach again was at 60 and I tried to get it down to 55 but, I didn't use flaps so I couldn't seem to get it to slow down. Touchdown was a little bouncy. I have the tall landing gear so, I need to get in more practice with it to determine if I want to trade it out.

My CFI was with another student in the pattern at the time of my radio call and he said it was loud and clear but lots of background noise so, he's loaning me a set of LightSpeed noise canceling that is supposed to noise cancel the microphone too.

All in all, I'm happy with the flying experience but, I'm still a Rotax neophyte. I've only flown Continentals from A65, C85, 0200, 0300 & 0470 so getting used to the high rpms of the Rotax is a little disconcerting. I like the Continental better as a motor but, the difference between the climb and empty weight of this KF5 and my first one w/ the 0200 is so amazing, I'm sure I'll learn to cope with the Rotax.

I have the Grand Rapids EIS which, after finally getting to work with it some, I like. I set my MaxEGT at 1450 degrees F and was exceeding that occasionally. Looking at the FlyRotax documentation it looks like that should be about right but, because I kept getting alerts, I think I'll raise the MaxEGT to 1500. I also set the MaxSplit to 85 degrees and I got alarms for it often also so, am thinking I'll go up to 100 degrees on it.

Thanks to all the help from you guys and the past discussions you have had that I was able to garner from your experiences.258932589225894

[DesertFox4]

Congrats Fred. 😀👍

[bbs428]

Nice write up. Congratz on your 1st flight! :D

[jmodguy]

Awesome! Another Series 5 takes to the sky! Nice looking bird :cool:

[PapuaPilot]

Congrats Fred, that is great news. What is your empty weight?

[Delta Whisky]

Congrats and thanks for the details that support a vicarious enjoyment.

[alexM]

Woohoo! Nicely done. Let us know how the continued shake down adjustments (both you and the plane) go.

[Maverick]

Phil,
my empty weight is 777lbs.
Fred

[Cherrybark]

Congratulations Fred and a very nice report. Would enjoy reading more as you continue your test flights.

[aviator79]

Well done sir! Congrats.

[Maverick]

Thought I'd add an update. Lots has been learned.

After trying to keep the plane from rolling up into a ball with me in it, I decided to change the landing gear. I had a 27" gear. Currently the factory supplies a 22" gear so, I bought one and swapped them out. The 22" was what I had on N49FK back in 03'. This made a difference. I can now see over the cowling and get less bounce. The sad part is that I didn't notice the elevator angle deflection until after the gear change. The most significant change was the adjustment to the elevator deflection. I had found it hard to get the nose up on landings and subsequently to slow down. I checked the elevator deflection and discovered that I had flipped the numbers on my rigging. I was only getting 25 degrees up and 39 down. Admitting this is embarrassing but, hopefully my admitted mistake will keep someone else from disaster.:p I made the adjustments and now am able to really slow down on landings touching down between 40-45mph rather than 50-55.;)

If I had been able to slow down better, the taller gear might have been fine. Since I wasn't able to get the nose up and slow down enough it made it so the plane wanted to fly more than I did when touching down. I made a few landings that scared the bejesus out of some of the other tail-dragger pilots on the field. I can't adequately describe how I felt on my last landing with the taller gear. On that one, I got a wind gust at just the wrong time and scraped the tips of both of my wings on the runway but was able to get stopped before any serious damage was done. When I cleared the runway, the ATC guy cleared me to the ramp and asked, N36KJ do you need any toilet paper?:rolleyes:

Both wing tips had about a 1" scrape on the outside trailing edge that one might not even notice if you didn't know to look for them in the first place. I think had I had the elevator rigging right in the first place, the taller gear would have been fine. I just dodged a bullet on the elevator rigging.

I've done enough landings with the 22" gear and more elevator authority that I'm comfortable so, I'm ready to leave the traffic pattern and get out into my test area and start the other testing.:cool:

[bbs428]

Wow! Glad you and the plane are in one piece! Holy bat S#%* !! I can see myself making that miscalculation. Appreciate the feedback.

[DesertFox4]

Happy you caught the issue Fred. That will help tame it down considerably. Enjoy the rest of your hopefully uneventful phase one.

[Cherrybark]

Oh man, those sound like some very high pucker factor landings. I'm sure you are enjoying takeoffs and landings much more with the corrected angles!

[efwd]

Damn, glad your able to tell us. Another thing, it speaks volumes about you and those who are willing to share such stories. I firmly believe that sharing saves lives and Im glad as hell to be associated with the likes. Thanks

[Sahota]

Sounds like you did well hanging on to it!

[Maverick]

Thank you to all.

I flew today and left the airfield for the first time. I flew to a practice area and tested for stalls. With no flaps I was getting 43-45 indicated and with 20 degrees I was getting 41-43. Does this sound about right compared to other 912s?

Slow flight at 55mph was very comfortable. S-turns and turns about a point were uneventful.

With the pitch that I have the prop set at I was seeing 100mph at 5200rpm, 105 at 5400 . I'll open the pitch on the prop next flight to check for performance with more bite. What are you seeing at these rpm settings?

Today was a standard day and I was climbing at 1100fpm on take off at 75mph no flaps.

Best glide with engine at idle was 65mph.

Best maneuvering speed seemed to be about 75mph.

Total test time 1.4hrs. I would have stayed longer but my old guys bladder was screaming about my morning coffee. Note to self, next time just one cup.

With about half the oil cooler covered with aluminum tape my oil temp was running 168 degrees.

I'm new to the Rotax. I've always flown Continentals and much prefer them to the Rotax but, the performance difference is astounding. It seemed like there were differences in the smoothness of the Rotax engine at various rpm settings. I have the IvoProp medium three blade and wondered if there is any balancing that has to be done. There was no earth-shattering vibrations when it was noticeable. A slight up or down change in rpm setting would smooth things out.

My landing was successful but, I wouldn't say it was pretty. I think I'm stalling too high above the runway letting it sink too fast. I'll try tickling the throttle a little next time so maybe I can get that tailwheel down first. What about flaps? I don't use flaps on landings and I know I need to practice it but, as a general question, do you use flaps when landing and if so how much?

Cheated death once again.
Fred

[Sahota]

I use some, but very little flapperon on landing, maybe 15 degrees(ish) full flapperon in slow flight, like on approach, tends to produce a little left roll in my airplane. Pretty common to give a little throttle to get some elevator back. I have to be careful because my 582 will also give me some yaw if I "tickle" too much.

[Maverick]

I flew to Casa Grand to buy fuel. When I pulled up to the fuel pumps I attempted to shut the engine off and I couldn't. I turned off the first mag and the rpm dropped but when I turned off the second mag the engine kept running. I shut the fuel valve off and let it run out of gas. My first advice was to check to see if the ground wire had come loose on the switch because the grounds for both switches are daisy chained to the same ground and the first one turned off. In order to do that, I had to pull the cowling and panel shield. Ugh.

Nothing seemed amiss but, because I had everything exposed I went ahead and rewired the ground and then tested the engine. Again, I had to starve the engine of fuel to get the motor to die. I was perplexed and started looking elsewhere. I finally found it. It was not in plain view as in the picture. It wasn't until I stuck my finger down in the bundle of wires exploring for anything that this came to light.

I'm not sure what to call the wire but, you can see from the pictures which one it is. I have no idea what might have caused this to break unless something happened to it during the motor's prior life in the crash of the plane this motor came from. After splicing this wire back together all is well. Man, I miss my Continental.
2651326512.

[jiott]

That's one of the ignition wires; if its broken there is no way to ground that mag thru the ignition switch. That exact same thing happened to me after about 600 hours. Mine was harder to find because the wire was broken but the insulation was intact. I had to pull the pin out of the connector and do a continuity check, which immediately showed the break. I suspect vibration is the culprit; to repair it I spliced in the next heavier gauge wire to a new pin (the break was right at the entrance to the pin). I also put some shrink tubing on both ignition wires for strain relief.

[DesertFox4]

Common problem Fred. Likely needed better strain relief on those wires in it’s previous life. Secure both electronic module wiring after your repair. Pretty windy inside that cowling.

[Maverick]

Good idea Steve. Any one have a ingenious solution to this enigma? Some way of reducing the vibration on these wires?

[Maverick]

I am still having a slight tendancy to role to the left. My inclination is turn the front rod end out one turn. What are your thoughts?

[Maverick]

I was thinking about Stick and Rudder...thanks!

Fwiw, I'm actually wondering if I should just transfer over to a tailwheel aircraft now while I'm still pretty low-time, as I'm pretty sure that's what I'll be flying anyway...thoughts?

I taught myself to fly a tail dragger in my very first homebuilt that was a single place plane. I was grandfathered in to the required tail wheel endorsement. I was in a perfect airplane to do that. In a Kitfox, I would never do that. If you are thinking you will be a TD pilot, get training in a good TD trainer, if not a Kitfox.

EAA published an article way back when EAA was all about homebuilt planes on how to train for TD pilotage. You get a couple of 2X4s and make yourself a T shaped cart. To describe this, think of the cart as though it were a T standing up. Center the vertical board on the horizontal with a single bolt through the two boards. Put large wheels on the ends of the horizontal board. Put a castor on the back end of the vertical board. Then attach a rope to a point on the vertical board about 2ft aft of the horizontal board. Make you a seat behind the rope attach point on the vertical board. Have a seat and use your feet to steer while someone is pulling you around. Keep the tail wheel on an imaginary line that you consider your runway center line.

After I did this the next step was do this in my plane. I did this on the ramp away from other aircraft and progressed as I became more confident to getting on the runway and speeding up a little more for 3 or 4 hundred feet. After I got used to the rudder becoming effective I began raising the tail and practiced keeping the plane centered for longer and faster speeds until I broke ground. I would then loose the throttle and settle down again repeating this until I decided I needed to know stall speed and kept climbing. Because my first landings on my practice crow hops were wheel landings I did not start 3 point landings until I was very comfortable with my stall speed and recognition of what they were like. After I got comfortable with 3-points, I started adding breaking.

Because my I learned in a plane smaller than my first other tail dragger, a Pietenpol GN1, I tended to over control a bit as it was slower to react to my steering inputs but adjusting accordingly was very quick. What I learned from all of this was the feel of becoming one with the airplane. Yet, never forget the adage, there are those that have ground-looped and those that will. After more than 500 hours of TD piloting I joined those that have recently. Fortunately with no damage to the plane of any consequence.
Fred

[efwd]

I think about that adage alot. Particularly if I am in a BFE location like Death Valley.

[Chris Scott]

Hey thanks for the info Fred...seems like a good (and cheap) way to get some tailwheel experience. :cool: