John's Build

[ken nougaret]

Congrats John. Hope you enjoy it as much you did your Thorp.

[aviator79]

Congratulations John. Your build has been an inspiration. It's great to see it hit the most significant milestone.

[HighWing]

John,
First congratulations on the successful first flight. Now, the numbers leading to graphs, then the POH begins the really fun part, but you know all about that. About the brake pedals. That was my challenge with the second Model IV as well, but for me the almost exact interior configuration and the muscle memory from the first 900 hours made it virtually impossible for me to adapt to the new ("Old" C pedals - 1992 vs. The original E pedals -1993). I would taxi up to my hangar with my brakes smoking and one time with heat damaged brake lines. It was finally time to modify the pedals giving me more room to position my feet without always having the pads rubbing against the disks. You mention the design, I would agree that some system that allows for an adjustment of the angle of the top of the pedal would be a nice feature.

[jrevens]

Thanks to all for the nice comments and good wishes!

Re-checked the wheel alignment today with my son. I don't know why it measured so much differently when I did it before, but maybe at least part of it was because the airplane was empty at that time. I probably screwed up somehow also. This time my son was in the left seat and a bunch of fuel was in the tanks. After carefully measuring several times, I had almost exactly 1 deg. of toe-in (not good). I had shims already, left over from the early days when I built the Thorp, so I shimmed each axle 1/2 deg. We'll see how it does now. but I expect it to be much less "interesting" next time. Yesterday, as soon as I raised the tail it darted instantly to the right and I had a few exciting seconds before I saved it. When returning to the airport, there was a bit of traffic, and I made a pretty "conservative" landing, being a little apprehensive about my take-off experience, but a steep slip and it all worked out. I'm going to fly it with some thin-soled moccasins next time... that'll give me a little more leg room and feel on those pedals. I do have the brake cylinder forks screwed down all the way on the shafts, but I could cut down and re-thread the shafts if I really need to. The brake system is nice and solid, and there is very little movement to get full braking action. The brakes also hold the airplane easily with a full-power run-up, with the 8.00-6 tires. I'm already lusting for some of those Desser Smoothies though.

My buddy, Mike, took this picture during the landing... I think it's a nice one.

[jrevens]

There was some discussion on the forum about it being a little difficult removing one end of the rubber tube to hook up gauges or a Carbmate for balancing the carbs. Here's what I did - I didn't need the factory connection on the aluminum tube for manifold pressure (or whatever), so I cut off a section of the tube and replaced the rubber hose with a nice longer piece of silicone rubber fuel tubing (11 mm) that I got from Australia. It works nicely, and is extremely easy to work it off of the aluminum when you want to check carb balance. Like the rest of the silicone tubing I used, it will also probably last "forever" and not harden with age. Nice stuff.

[DesertFox4]

Great photo of your approach. Sweet looking Kitfox John. Congrats again.

Everyone has a few squawks they have to work out in the begining. Sounds like you have vey few though.

My friend also likes to fly with very lite shoes when he flys his taildraggers.
He purchased some racing shoes from Jeggs. I think they are fire retardant also.

[efwd]

Yeah John, that is a very nice pic. I have been eyeballing some shoes such as Steve mentions. AS&S sells flying shoes as well. These have nice slick plastic on the heels so your feet slide on the floor. I flew Stick and Rudders plane two years ago with shoes much like wrestling shoes and they felt much better than the running shoes I wore this last time.
Eddie

[fastfred]

We just did the same thing with the longer hose and it worked great. How do you get your engine so nice and new looking?

[jrevens]

Here's a picture that to me shows some of the beauty of the Oratex covering, taken during my first flight.

[jiott]

That's really nice John!
I had thought the translucence of the Oratex was a negative, but that photo has changed my mind.