Quote Originally Posted by n85ae View Post
Paul Leidl in Minnesota has an IO-240B Series 5 on floats, haven't heard from
him in years on the forum, but if he's out there he would know. I like my
airplane with IO-240B and at light weight it is a rocket, BUT my impression is
the wing doesn't work well at heavy weight, and that sucks all the performance
out of the plane.

Here's my thoughts after 10+ years flying my Series 5 with an IO-240B, and
I do not have performance problems with mine. I can get close to 2000 fpm
on a good day solo, and I can hit VNE in level flight at full power.

Light weight with IO-240B I get very good performance, heavy, it's not as bad
as a C-150, but I would not call it good either. The original SkyStar sales video
where they say if "you ever wanted to fly the bush in a SuperCub, have we
got a plane for you ..." is a bit BS. Put a load in the plane and get near max
weight, it flies terrible. It is a truck with a heavy load.

I think the 912 weight engine probably works better in the air frame ... I
personally think it's the airfoil, and it works poorly at higher loadings. I'm
sure somebody will dispute this, but that's what I believe.

The other thing is the fuselage length is too short relative to the wingspan,
and it causes a lot of the constant annoying rudder pedaling you have to
do on a choppy day. I used to build and fly RC Sailplanes, and the Kitfox does
exactly the same thing, which in an RC Sailplane I would have fixed by
making it longer.

Next I would not put floats on my airplane with IO-240B since I know the
weight would kill it.

Jeff

Great stuff, Jeff. Thanks for that insight. I’m new to the experimental community and opinions like yours are extremely valuable to me. Yes, your plane sounds like a great performer overall. I live on a lake in Texas and I just see runways in every direction in my back yard. I do like my Kitfox and with just me in it on a cool day I have no complaints. But if I don’t find a way to put it on floats I plan to enjoy it for a while but start looking for something I can keep docked in my back yard. I will try to get in touch with Paul L. Thanks again!