Rudder Pedal and toe brakes.

[cap01]

scott , looks nice , the carpet made a big difference . did you ever install the nonskid on the peddles ?

[kszaronos]

Scott, I was having the same problem. I have size 12 feet and am a new sport pilot. I had some inital taxi's that I was riding the brakes and locked them up.

I just learned to taxi,take-off and land have only my toes on the lower pedals. I will adjust for more comfortable flying once up with my entire foot.

Good Luck!

[dholly]

Hi Scott-

Thanks for the pics and the offer. If they are the passenger side toe pieces I might take you up on in it. I was able to find the post tonight on Matronics (pasted below), and I believe that's what I need. I think Mark posts here, if he's done this pedal swap and sees the thread maybe he'll chime in.

As a temp fix, I did make up a pair of tapered pedal pads this a.m. They have a bit more surface area than your pedals (which look great!) and ended up adding about 3/4" additional height above the rudder pedal cross piece. The brake toe piece is now more or less on the same plane as the pedal face rather than canted forward, and just having more surface area seems to have made a big difference in comfort.

Jury is still out on braking efficacy however, due to the ankle angle necessary to actuate the brakes at full rudder. I might try moving from the first hole on the cable adjustment strap at the rudder to the second. But the problem with that is I really don't need the pedals any closer, and it just seems you would need to screw down the cylinder rod end to keep off the toe pieces because the whole pedal cants towards you. Seems like that only compounds rather than fixes the problem?? Not sure if I have any adjustment left on the rod end anyways.

Either way, I don't think this kind of temp fix can't replicate the ergonomics of the E-pedals, so I'll probably head that direction if I can locate a set. Below is the post I found about the pedal swap in case it is of use for others.

The brakes on my 3 bothered me too. A fix that helps a lot is using the KF 4 style E pedals.

On the 3 the brakes are connected to the rudder bars, not on the floor. To make them fit you need the 4 style E pedals from the passenger (right) side. They will fit pilot (left) side on the 3.

I had to make two mods. One is that the tube that went through the pedal (hinge tube?) was too short so I welded on an extension. The other was that the lower corner of the tab that connects to the brake tended to hit the clevis so I had to grind on it some.

You could probably get Kitfox Aircraft to make you a pair: just ask them to make the center tube a couple of inches longer than normal. You can cut it to length with a hacksaw.

With that done you can keep your feet on the pedals without actuating the brakes by mistake.

I did still have the issue others have mentioned. With the pedal near the firewall you have to push hard with your toes to actuate the brakes. The right foot is worse because I have big feet and the top of my shoe would catch on the throttle bell-crank and cables if I didn't think to keep that foot low.

I also adjusted the cable length to compensate for my long legs and big butt. In the end the cockpit is large enough to keep me comfortable even on long cross countries.

Have fun,

Mark

[sdemeyer]

Dholly, The E pedals are pilot side and the tabs would need to be cut off and relocated for them to work, at least on my KF. I rotated the pedals forward (farther away) to give me more leg room.

[dholly]

Hey thanks for checking Scott. Since I like the feel of the big, flat surfaces, I think I will attempt to bend up a new set of pedals like yours. Besides, it's easier to make the 90*degree side bends in a vise than re-weld the tabs with my big stick welder.

At the risk of really pressing my luck, does anyone happen to have L/R templates for fabricating this style pedal? I'm 45mins from the hanger unfortunately, so the trial and error approach is pretty time consuming.

[sdemeyer]

Here are the dimentions from mine.

[sdemeyer]

Some more..

[sdemeyer]

One more picture

[cap01]

one of scotts new peddles was found in a abandoned hangar in unused condition probably for a later model kitfox , the other is a very good homemade copy . if both are made from scratch , attention should be paid to line up the top brake cylinder attach point with the brake cylinder . both of scotts peddles had to be moved about 1/2 in to the right to get them to line up .

[dholly]

Woohoo and --in my best Howard Dean impersonation-- yeehaw!!!

Thanks alot for the pics Scott, that is just fabulous support and very much appreciated. Pretty neat story about finding the pedal in an abandoned hanger too. I guess the old adage 'one man's trash is another man's treasure' comes to mind.

Re: cap01's comment... I do see the need for a spacer collar to keep the one side in line with the brake cylinder clevis end (Measure 'C' in my pic).

If Scott's pics and dimensions are of the 'corrected' pedals, it appears there is ~3-1/4" width between the pedal ears which should correlate with Measure 'B' in my pic (from the C/L of the brake cylinder clevis to the end of the horizontal toe piece bushing tube, not end of toe piece tube).

I'm going to take the chance that Measure 'A' for both of our planes is the standard OEM length and make up a set based on the pics. Can just cut the missing spacer collar length on site. Thanks again for the help all, hope this does the trick.