March '09 KOTM - Joe Meyeres

[Joe Meyeres]

Joe,
that's one hansom looking and classic sounding Kitfox. As much as I love my 912S Rotax for reliability and performance I gotta say the Rotec takes the beauty contest hands down. Looks like future Kitfox builders will have another viable engine choice to ponder over. Thanks to you Joe and a couple other builders for plowing new ground with this installation. We'll all be rooting for you guys to have hundreds of fun trouble free hours of flying. Please keep us posted. Nice job!

Hey Steve,
Thanks for the nice words, but I keep thinking how this would look as a bi-plane with the round motor! Now that would be really cool and unique! The guys at Rotec have been absolutely great to work with. Any issues I had, they were right on it. Can't say enough good things about their service.
Joe

[SaintAero]

Hey Joe,
Nice work on your project. I am building a SuperSport with a Rotec 2800 and am working on the cowling. Is yours a metal cowling? I am building a fiberglass cowling and wonder if you have some advice and recommendations.
See my progress photo attached.
Don

[Joe Meyeres]

Hi Don,
I've been seeing some of your photo's! Nice job on the SS. On my cowling, I was able to use my fiberglass boot cowl only. The Model 4 boot cowl has 4 flat areas that provide the attachment for the ring cowl. Obviously the ring cowl is too small to use with this installation, so what I did was cut the flats out of the boot cowl and fiberglassed plugs in thier place. Then I filled and sanded, matching the contour of the existing cowl which is now my rolled leading edge. For a finishing touch I used a NAPA door edge gaurd (made of nothing but plastic) and glued it on the leading edge of the cowl to take up the gap between the collector ring and cowling. 1/4" gap is plenty to keep the plastic guard from melting.
It took some patience, and I should have done a nicer job making the gap more even and consistant. But be patient and take a little off at a time, check for fit, take a little more off if needed then check for fit. If you can use your boot cowl it should save hours of time versus laying one up from scratch.
Also, there are some folks around here after me to put on a speed ring. It would add to that old time look and not that it is out of the question, but it is a very low priority for me. The speed ring will get you a few more Kts and make the engine run cooler, but... the way it is, this engine runs pretty cool now. I didn't build this for speed, nor do I want to cover up all that beautiful machine work! So a speed ring is pretty much a mute point for me, however if you are interested I can put you in touch with a guy here that can turn one out for you rather quickly. He and his son do a real nice job on the English Wheel.
Joe

[Bryan]

Great job Joe, I knew it was only a matter of time before your beauty graced the pages of KOTM. You have done such a great job on the plane and your write ups are another plus to your talents. They are very informative and are a nice read. I to love my 912 but there is no doubt about it the radial is impressive, not only for the looks but you got to love the sound. How soon before I get a ride?????

[Joe Meyeres]

Thanks Bryan,

I was hoping to end up with an airplane that, when parked next to yours, I would not be too embarassed! You set the bar pretty high, my friend. Thanks for your comments. Can't wait for you to go fly this machine.

Got some ideas for the fly in if we can get it together. I have some friends here that have a commercial Bar-B-Que trailor and they do catering for all kinds of events and different sized crowds, some others who would do a little Blue Grass festival for us. So don't give up on the "Fly In" idea just yet. If we advertise a little and that bar-b-que aroma wafts thru the state, the crowds will come!

Joe

[Av8r3400]

Did you need to do anything special to keep the weight and balance in check?

I've heard that the "installed" weight of the Rotec is upwards of 250#. Is that accurate?

Definitely one of the nicest looking KF's around. I'd love to see it in person. Are you coming to Oshkosh this year with it?

(I'll have you now that your plane is my desktop picture on mt computer at work.)

[Joe Meyeres]

Ahh, the weight and balance! To be honest, I did not weigh the engine prior to installation. I pretty much took Rotec's word on the dry weight of the engine with all accessories to be 232 lbs. After the installation was complete, I put it on scales and did a rough W&B. It was obvious from the start that there would have to be some adjustments made for the Model IV. Not until after completion and paint did I do any serious work. What I wanted was the worse case scenario of a 100 pound pilot who runs out of fuel, and no baggage, to still be in the CG envelope. To do this I had to add a 5 pound lead weight into the tail. So I made a shelf large enough to accomadate two five pound lead ingots that dove tailed together and placed the shelf over the tailwheel attachment. With one installed it was on the forward end of the CG limit at worse case... with the second one installed, it really improved reduction of the stick pressure on round out. Now I can go full fuel, two 170 pound individuals, and 40 pounds of baggage... all still in CG but that takes me a little over 100 pounds over gross. No way to go out of CG forward or aft if loaded below gross weight limits. In retrospect, I would place the battery and any other weighty object of use as far back as possible, keeping in mind accessability for maintenance. Not much room in the Model IV for that, but the later models might be better. I did not want to cut fabric and install an access door on the side after all was done.

[Joe Meyeres]

By the way, I hope to attend Osh this year. And I have to thank John King for the paint scheme and colors. He is the one that put this on his Model IV that looked so good when I first saw it. I had no idea he was going to paint his new airplane the same way. I certainly hope I did not offend John in any way by utilizing his good taste in choice of color or scheme.

[Joe Meyeres]

Thanks Mike.
One thing about this engine is that you do get alot of lookers, especially the older generation that learned to fly behind one of the round motors. If I ever want company at the airport all I have to do is open the hangar door. Rotec does a very nice job at all the machine work. No such thing as a quick turn at the fuel pumps!