First Flight - N630PK

[PapuaPilot]

I am happy to report that there is another Kitfox flying! I did the first flight on Saturday and another one today.

My plan for the first flight was to fly for one hour to break in the engine unless there was an obvious issue. The plane took off beautifully and there weren't any problems. I climbed to 5000' (due to a 6000' ceiling) and spent one hour at 75% power. The first landing was a little long because the idle speed was over 1000 RPM and I couldn't slow it down under 70 mph on final.

After that I had a few things to take care of:
-I lowered the idle speed and was able to do a slower approach today.
-There were a few drops of oil coming from the oil filter housing where a plug was in an unused hole. The plug has been tighten.
-The B&C alternator popped the over voltage circuit breaker more than once during the first flight. I will call B&C tomorrow for advice. It may be the regulator because it was indicating 14.5 volts. That seems to be on the high side. I did today's flight entirely on the battery, but this problem needs to get fixed.

Today I did another one hour flight to complete the engine break in. I went up to 6000' since the weather was severe clear. After that I couldn't resist adding two more times around the circuit. I got home just in time to watch the Super Bowl.

My daughter took pictures and video. I'm working on making a video. Here are a few pictures.

[rosslr]

Great news Phil!!! Pleased to hear it all went well and sounds like you are having some wonderful weather to trial it all - Gayle sends her best wishes and congrats too!

cheers

ross

[jrevens]

That is really good, Phil. It's been so nice to follow your journey on this forum. May you have many, many wonderful flights in your new bird!

[airlina]

Way to go Phil, sounds like a successful weekend , a few bugs are to be expected and i am sure you'll have them ironed out soon. Keep those pictures coming. Good luck on your testing. Bruce N199CL

[N981MS]

Congratulations!

[tjfelles]

What a great weekend for you! I want to see that great looking red and white plane flying over my house soon!!! Congrats!!!

[jiott]

Congratulations Phil!
What a great feeling I am sure.

[jmodguy]

woo hoo!!!

[LSaupe]

Congrats! Sharp looking bird!

[n85ae]

Congratulations, that's a good feeling!

Jeff

[Mcgaero]

Looks beautiful Phil, Congratulation!

[mscotter]

Congratulations!
That little bit of the nose we can see looks awfully pretty. How about posting a full profile or 3/4 view so we can see how pretty the rest of that airplane is?

[foxbait]

Congratulations, like the colors, provides some more inspiration.
Mike

[PapuaPilot]

Thanks everyone! The first takeoff was a surreal moment. The right wing went down just a little bit at liftoff. After that I added a blip of nose up trim and that was it. I was amazed how well the plane flew. At one point I had my hands off the stick and the plane remained straight and level, but it does need some right rudder to center the ball.

I checked the data on the Garmin SD card for the first takeoff and it showed the rate of climb was over 1200 FPM and I was definitely going faster than Vy. I can't wait to see what it can do when the engine is broken in.

I made a video and did my first upload to YouTube. Here is the link: https://youtu.be/3f7LNq1h9co

I talked to B&C yesterday about the alternator issue. We still aren't sure what is causing the over voltage circuit breaker to pop. One thing that helped was to know that they set the voltage regulator at 14.4 +/- 0.2 volts, which is what I am getting. I thought that might be the problem. It appears the problem may be caused by a spike, a bad switch or a bad over voltage sensor . I just might have to fly the plane to troubleshoot it. :roll eyes:

Mscotter, here is a picture showing the whole plane. There are a few more pictures in my albums too.

[DesertFox4]

Woo Hoo is right!

Nice Kitfox Phil. Beautiful and sounds great too.

Wishes for many exciting aviation adventures.

Looking forward to seeing it up close at the next Kitfox factory fly in.

Enjoy every flight.:)

[rosslr]

Nice one Phil! 1200fpm is impressive. How was the balance, given the heavier engine? And I liked the little celebratory 360 at the end!

cheers

r

[n85ae]

I see 1200 fpm all the time in N85AE, and probably climb at 80+ most days.
There's not much difference in climb speed between 65-85, the wing makes
a lot of lift in that entire band.

60 will get some very impressive climb angles, good when a lot of Cessna's
are in the pattern :)

N85AE ate it's mechanical fuel pump shaft seal on test flight #4, and
cavitated, needless to say that flight ended as a glider from several miles
out ... Don't get comfortable for about 100 hours.

Jeff

N85AE, IO-240B, Series 5

[N981MS]

I am curious to hear more performance details about that Whirlwind prop on that IO-240.

I have been flying a fixed pitch Sensenich since first flight. I see similar initial climb rates and 100kts IAS at 2000-3000 ft. (I do have the Kitfox strut fairings.

[airlina]

Phil Looks like the IO-240 squadron are all anxious to hear your perf figures, ones you get into your flight testing. Like Jeff and Maxwell, my IO-240 powered Series 5 climbs at 1200 fpm and cruises at 100 knots with strut fairings. That may be all we will ever see, but if your catto prop has you climbing at 1500 fpm and cruising at 110 knots, I think we will see a run on catto props. Keep us posted thanks, Bruce N199CL.

[N981MS]

Oops, I thought it was a Whirlwind. I still want to hear though.

[PapuaPilot]

For those of you flying the IO-240 let me know what cruise power settings you are using so we can get a good comparison.

At this point I haven't put the strut fairings on. I have them and hope to get them installed before the end of my Phase 1 flight testing.

[N981MS]

2500 to 2550 rpm in cruise for 100kts at 2-3000 feet MSL. Knob full in for climb. Not certain about the revs on climb.

[airlina]

Phil if I am trying to get somewhere, I typically cruise at 2500 RPM . Of course depending on the altitude , this yields on average a TAS of 100kts, and 5.5 GPH fuel burn and is about 65 % power. This for me seems to be the sweet spot for noise level, fuel burn, speed and Continental's recommended cruise limit of 2550 RPM (94 hp). When i am flying just for fun around my local area, I am at 2200 RPM and a 4 to 4.5 gph fuel burn and not trying to get anywhere.
Once again we know how variable perf can be depending on density alt, but on average a solo climb rate (full fuel) is typically 1200 fpm at 75-80 mph. Like Jeff says in a previous post , this doesn't seem to change too much with a slower climb speed like Vy , which is 70 mph in my plane. Not much over the nose visibilty @ Vy , so 80 mph makes a good cruise climb.
I suspect better perf figures with you plane based on your empty weight alone as it is much lower than my 950 lbs. Still don't know how you did that, very impressive! The lift strut fairings typically make a huge difference once installed , so numbers you are seeing now will get lots better with them in place. Have fun , Bruce N199CL

[n85ae]

I normally drive around at 2200-2300 rpm, going some place I might
use 2400-2500 and it will sit at 120 mph, firewalled it exceeds vne
and sounds like a runaway freight train.

2200 is my normal local flying rpm setting. I really don't like higher power
settings as it get's noisy, and the airplane is (in my opinion) no happy
going fast.

When I used to fly rentals, I was big believer in "max rental power" for the
throttle. Now even when I go out and fly the FBO's Archer, I have to remind
myself to push the lever forward.

I hot wired cut, and glassed over foam cores to airfoil my lift struts. I used
some airfoil specs from the uiuc airfoil database. I'm not sure if my airplane
is faster than many because of it, but with all the props I have had on the
plane I have never had a problem exceeding VNE in level flight. So I'm with
Bruce on - You want to get rid of those round tubes.

Jeff

[n85ae]

I just climbed mine to 14K the other day, and climbed at around 85 the entire
way up, and I was over 1000 fpm all the way past 12K easily. I think is was
closer to 2000 fpm after takeoff (cold weather and light load), and 1200-1500
a good part of the way up.

I only ever climb below 70 on takeoff, mine gets super climb speeds at 80+
and good visibility as well.

I honestly think they all have the same specs, and prop doesn't do that
much with the IO-240. The only reason I would consider a change from
the Sensenich is to fly in the rain more.

Jeff

[skbenson]

What a treat to watch that video. Loved the sound of that O240 cranking up and takeoff. The plane is beautiful! Congratulations!

[PapuaPilot]

Thanks Stan, I like the sound of the engine too. How is your build coming?

To the rest of the IO-240 guys, thanks for the info. I should be able to start getting some data soon and yes, I will be putting the strut fairings on.

I was able to get the fuel injection system adjusted today. It took longer than I expected. At one point the engine would hardly start and run. Then I ran down the battery and had to charge it to continue. While it was charging I went through all of my notes from the runs. I ended up setting the metered and unmetered fuel adjustments back to their initial settings. The second time through worked and I got the fuel pressures and idle mixture all in spec.

I talked with B&C again today because my alternator is still popping the over voltage CB. I did 3 landings today to warm up the engine and the CB popped on the first circuit. They gave me a couple more things to check, but we are running out of ideas. This is what is holding me up from doing more flying because I have been flying on the battery only. I don't want to go for more than an hour at this point. Hopefully I can do the other checks tomorrow.

[n85ae]

IO-240B Fuel Injection -

There's a really simple check for your fuel pressure settings, that I do pretty
much every flight that tells you they're close enough. If at idle, leaning the
mixture shows an rpm increase, and while at cruise, leaning the mixture
shows an rpm increase. You can be reasonably sure that your pressures
are basically good (maybe not perfect, but likely safe).

If either of these checks fails, then your pressure settings are off.

When I was in the Navy I changed a LOT of bad circuit breakers in the
planes I worked on (Grumman E-2C's), don't discount the possibility of a bad
breaker.

Jeff

[PapuaPilot]

Jeff,

That is a good rule of thumb about the fuel pressures. I was following Continental SID97-3G, which is the bulletin for setting up any Continental FI engine. There are specific fuel pressures and RPM rise at idle cutoff that you are adjusting it to and I was able to dial it right in. This was much easier to do than the TU206s I normally work on because the Garmin G3X has accurate metered fuel pressure and RPM info. The only thing I had to hook up was a gauge to the unmetered fuel pressure port.

Thanks for the suggestion about the circuit breaker. B&C had me check the circuit breaker and alternator switch. They said to check for a voltage drop across them greater than .25 volts (mine was only .03V). After talking to B&C I ended up relocating the ground wire for the over voltage sensor. I flew the plane for over an hour today and the CB didn't pop until my first landing. I reset it and it stayed there for another 4 landings. I am encouraged by this, it looks like I am on the right track. Prior this the CB popped every time the voltage came up to maximum.

I was also able to explore the slow flight, stall characteristics and stall speeds today. Stalls in a Kitfox are pretty benign.

[jrevens]

Phil,

Regarding the OV breaker tripping, it may be possible that your crowbar OV module is the culprit. They are normally very accurate and reliable, but I have heard of them being out of specs before. I think that Bob Nuckolls may be addressing that possibility with a re-designed unit... if I'm not mistaken, I think it may have the ability to adjust the trigger voltage. I could be wrong. At any rate, I wouldn't discount the possibility of that being your problem.

[PapuaPilot]

John,

I talked this over with B&C yesterday and checked the crowbar O/V device with a variable DC power supply and my Fluke meter. It consistently tripped at 15.8 to 16.0 volts. My system voltage was at 14.6-14.7 volts today while flying, so it has at least a 1 volt margin. I confirmed the system voltage reading (Garmin) with the Fluke meter and it is spot on.

I asked the guy at B&C if it would help to put a small capacitor across the O/V device. He didn't really have an answer. I am wondering if it could help to absorb and stabilizer any small voltage spikes.

If it is still having problems B&C wants me to change or swap the CB. If that doesn't work then they would send me a new O/V sensor.

Thanks for the input. This forum is really great with all of the experience out there.