Gary (Geek) Phenning
Leavenworth (Not the Prison), WA
Kitfox STi N68SG
Got a few pictures while out flying today.
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John Brannen
Morris, IL
Sonerai IIL (Single Seat)
Kitfox 3/4 1050 - Rotax 582 (Back Flying and sold)
Kitfox IV 1050 - Rotax 582 (sold)
Kitfox IV 1200 Speedster - Rotax 912 UL (rebuilt and now flying)
Piper Twin Comanche (Sold)
Glasair 1 FT (Waiting to start)
Great work! Mind if I ask what kinda climb / cruise speeds you get with the 582 ?
Hi Mike,
I happened to be out flying this afternoon if I remember right the AWOS was reporting about 1800 ft density altitude. With full fuel in the header (10 gallons) and me on board (225 lb), I was getting about 1000 ft/min at 60-65 mph indicated up to 500 ft AGL.
As for cruise I can push it up to about 85 or 90 mph based on GPS around 6000 rpm. Airspeed indicator is showing 100+ at that speed but it isn't right especially at higher speeds due to static port open to the cabin. At lower speeds the airspeed indicator seems pretty close like approach speed down to stall it isn't too far off. At stall, the airspeed matches the GPS real close. , When just bombing around I throttle back to about 5500 rpm and suppose I lose about 10 mph but haven't really been paying attention too close. On this airplane I've put about 20 hours on since the repairs and on my list of to dos is to put a proper static port on and to do some performance testing where I actually record things.
John Brannen
Morris, IL
Sonerai IIL (Single Seat)
Kitfox 3/4 1050 - Rotax 582 (Back Flying and sold)
Kitfox IV 1050 - Rotax 582 (sold)
Kitfox IV 1200 Speedster - Rotax 912 UL (rebuilt and now flying)
Piper Twin Comanche (Sold)
Glasair 1 FT (Waiting to start)
Wow! That's great performance - I might put my GSC prop back on and see if I can get numbers like that again! I've been like 600 ish ft/min at similar weights and speeds on hot days, but I have an IVO prop. My air speed indicator gets pretty optimistic over 85 mph too, but is dead nuts on under 75 mph.
Went flying again today, 2100 ft density altitude today. Didn't do much but did a 2-way east-west run with reported winds straight out of the east.
I have to mention I have 2 tachometers, a knock-off tiny-tach digital with the sense wire wrapped around a spark plug wire, and a Rotax analog gauge reading off of the tach wire from the stator. They do not read the same and I have not had the time to use my optical tach on it to determine which is right. The tiny tach reads about 400 rpm higher at any meaningful cruise/takeoff RPM.
At 5500 on the Rotax tach (5900 tiny-tach), I got 94 mph GPS heading due west and 73 mph heading east so my airspeed was right at 84 mph. The airspeed indicator read about 95 mph, so is about 10 mph optimistic at that speed.
I went back to the airport to practice hard surface x-wind TOLs (runway 36), and did about a half dozen. Today I didn't feel like the real steep 60 mph indicated climb attitude so I opted for 70 mph climb out. The sustained climb rate to pattern altitude was consistently right around 800 fpm according to the VSI. I haven't done timed climbs but it seems about right. It was just me (225 lbs) and about 1/2 fuel in the 10gallon header tank.
John Brannen
Morris, IL
Sonerai IIL (Single Seat)
Kitfox 3/4 1050 - Rotax 582 (Back Flying and sold)
Kitfox IV 1050 - Rotax 582 (sold)
Kitfox IV 1200 Speedster - Rotax 912 UL (rebuilt and now flying)
Piper Twin Comanche (Sold)
Glasair 1 FT (Waiting to start)
FAA finally came through with the registration so I am going to sell this Kitfox. It is a kitfox 3 fuselage with kitfox 4 wings and mixer assembly, so essentially a Kitfox 4 1050 gross weight. Has 500 lb useful load,, one 10 gallon header and one 6 gallon wing tank. When I did the rebuild I enlarged the vertical tail and rudder to the same size as the kitfox 4 1200. The airplane flies great and is put about 30 hours on it since the rebuild which this thread details. Has a Rotax 582 that was disassembled, crank checked , outer crank seals replaced, decarboned, and tuned really well. I will put up a pdf of details later, but wanted to get this out now. Asking $29,000
John Brannen
Morris, IL
Sonerai IIL (Single Seat)
Kitfox 3/4 1050 - Rotax 582 (Back Flying and sold)
Kitfox IV 1050 - Rotax 582 (sold)
Kitfox IV 1200 Speedster - Rotax 912 UL (rebuilt and now flying)
Piper Twin Comanche (Sold)
Glasair 1 FT (Waiting to start)
Price reduced to $27,000
John Brannen
Morris, IL
Sonerai IIL (Single Seat)
Kitfox 3/4 1050 - Rotax 582 (Back Flying and sold)
Kitfox IV 1050 - Rotax 582 (sold)
Kitfox IV 1200 Speedster - Rotax 912 UL (rebuilt and now flying)
Piper Twin Comanche (Sold)
Glasair 1 FT (Waiting to start)