Mark and Renee Smith July Kitfox of the Month

[lbushrod]

What a great looking plane. Good job! She looks especially nice on floats. Wonder why you needed a dual axle trailer to haul it?

Really, it is a wonderful looking plane, let's see more of it.

Pete

[Mark]

Thanks, guys. I've been very happy with it, too. It just needs more air time. If I wasn't so busy working on everybody else's Kitfoxs, and John wasn't always using it as a test bed for whims and new trial parts, I might get to fly it more.

Ibushrod - about the trailer - when you have to beg, borrow, or steal, you use what you get...

[Dorsal]

Mark,
What a beautiful plane, very inspiring. I really like the idea of the separate plate for the throttle, how did you handle the "choke" ring (I can't tell from the photos)?

[Mark]

Thanks, Dorsal
I found the throttle plate on line somewhere and it was expensive,
but I wanted to have a clean panel. I'd just make one next time.

Originally, I had tried to use a push/pull cable in the throttle panel but it didn't work out. I installed the ring cable behind the throttle panel and it works out because it hides the ring and I use the panel for a bit of leverage when using the choke.

[Dorsal]

Mark,
Thanks, just about to start cutting my panel, having some analysis paralysis.

[Mark]

Here's a couple of updates to our aircraft. I recently replaced my XCOM radio with an ICOM A210 - what an improvement. Also got my wheel pants installed, much faster now. The best news is that we won the EAA 2009 Workmanship Award for Custom Built Kit Airplanes!

[Slyfox]

that's funny. I put in the Xcom, but I kept the Icom A210 also. I found that having one radio made me feel uneasy. Nice to have two. I joined the two into parrellel on the headset (through the pm3000) with a 250ohm resister off each radio. Than I used a double throw switch to switch which radio I wanted to transmit on. Works great. One thing I did find, the Xcom brings in the ATIS much sooner. Oh and each radio has its own intenna and seperate power route. The icom has its own switch off a fuse. I'll flick that on or off as I need it. My primary radio is the Icom. I love it also.

[DanB]

Looks purdy Mark...congrats on the award!