Viking Fox takes to the sky

[Flyingsnowdog]

First flight with my Kitfox 7 with Viking 110 was made on Nov 5, a great feeling to be in the air after all the work.
The Fox took to the air and flew perfect just like it had been there before,
what a great kit! Thanks to the Kitfox community and every one that helped along the way.
My first flight wasn't without a little nervous excitement - a few minutes after takeoff my oil psi started dropping, I was pretty sure it was the gauge but did not know, as it dropped down to 20 psi (should be 60+) I knew I was going to have to land sooner than I was planning and back at my farm strip which is less than 1000 feet which I was also not planning on doing my first landings on.
So I did a couple of power off stalls to get a feel for it as the oil psi was now down to 10, I decided to land. The landing wasn't great but for the first one under pressure it was ok.
It turned out to be the gauge or sender (electric) I replaced with mechanical gauge and have flown about 10 hours since with no more issues.

[efwd]

Very nice FlyingSnowDog!. Congrats!

[kmach]

Congrats! Very nice

[DesertFox4]

Congrats on your first flight. Hoping phase one goes smoothly.

[wannafly]

Fantastic. Congratulations. That engine has always intrigued me. When you have time would be curious on weight and balance numbers and other performance specs. Thanks and many hours of foot loose and fancy flying.

[jdmcbean]

Congrats! Nice job.

[av8rps]

Congrats! Nice looking Kitfox. I look forward to learning more about your airframe and powerplant combination.

Paul

[Wheels]

The builder has an intimacy with his ship that mere flyers like me ... envy.
Very well done.

[Flyingsnowdog]

Thanks everyone for the compliments!!!

My empty weight is #870 and CG 10.95 I did forward sweep the wing 2/3 of degree. If I had to do over again I would not forward sweep it.

I do not have fairings on it yet and with 8.50 tires I'm seeing max of about 115 mph at 5200 rpm, I will have to reduce blade angle to get more rpm and see what that does. At 40 F half full of fuel me @ 220 at 60mph I was getting 900 fpm climb. All the other numbers are pretty much by the book.

I'm happy with the 110 and now Viking has the new 130 which I think would be a wonderful combo.

[efwd]

Speaking of CG. If I was trying to consider where I place my 4#s worth of AP servos, push them back or keep them nearest the seats? Does the SS7 have an aft CG inclination? That would encourage me to place them as far forward as possible. Any advice?
Eddie

[jiott]

My SS7 definitely has an aft CG tendency. I have the speedster tail with all those ribs and fairings as well as the Alaskan Bushwheel heavy duty tailwheel, which all adds a lot of weight aft. If I were installing AP servos they would go as far forward as possible.

[efwd]

Thanks Jim. If I didn't have the under seat storage I would put one right at the tubes below your thighs but it looks like I will place them imediately below the forward end of the baggage floor. Have the first mounted right behind the pilot seat.
Eddie

[Flyingsnowdog]

I agree to keep your A/P as far forward as you can, the whole time I was doing firewall forward I was worried about being to heavy and having to move my batteries to the back, as it turns out that was not a problem.

As far as build time goes I had too many other things going on in the shop at the same time so found it impossible to keep track.

[jiott]

If it would help mount the servos under the seat, I personally wouldn't hesitate to eliminate one of the under-seat storages. The way they taper to nothing in the rear makes them pretty much useless to store anything but a few small or flat items. One would be enough to store the frequently used small items such as fuel tester, tire gauge, flashlight, a few small tools, etc.

[efwd]

Thanks Jim. I may do just that. It would be so nice to place it right aft of the pilots control. Just need to make sure the cable connection will clear the bottom fabric.
Eddie