Series 7 flying question.

[ridgerunner]

Since i'm new to flying a kitfox aircraft, has anyone experienced when your flying the left wing feels heavy? I don't know if this is normal when you fly alone due to pilot weight or if something is out of alignment. Any insight would be helpful and appreciated.

[Dave S]

Hi Les,

Real common to have a heavy wing on a newly assembled Kitfox. It's a matter of adjusting the washout.

You should find all the the info you might want by searching the forum with the term "heavy wing".

FWIW - the old aviation book titled "Stick & Rudder" explains this phenomena somewhere in the middle of the book.

Easy fix....

[jiott]

Good post John, however we need to clarify some nomenclature. If you adjust the rear rod end OUT, that Increases the washout because it is reducing AOA. Unless I am mistaken, washout is defined as the wingtip having LESS AOA than the root of the wing so it will stall later than the root. If I am wrong about this please advise.

[jrevens]

Thanks, Jim. Yes, I think you're right. I mostly copied that statement from John's post, but what he had actually written was "decreased twist (wash-out)"- sorry I don't know where it is in the archives of this forum, but I had copied and printed it a long time ago for reference. I interpreted his statement as saying that decreased twist was the same as decreased washout, which it isn't in this instance of course. The twist is actually increased by extending the rear strut rod end further out. I guess it would have been more correct to say "decrease the angle of attack of the tip", rather than "decrease the wash-out". Is that confusing enough for everyone?

[efwd]

I spoke with John McBean about my heavy left wing when I started flying. It is very subtle. He thought maybe if it was as subtle as I described then I might leave the washout alone. I didn't touch anything and notice that its gone when I have a passenger.

[jiott]

I noticed a little of the same thing Eddie, but since I fly 95% of the time without a passenger, I went ahead and tweaked the washout to get level wings when solo.

[ridgerunner]

Thanks for the clarification on how to adjust the struts, saved me a lot of time searching for the info. I’ll check the measurements and adjust it this weekend. Thanks for the help.

[DesertFox4]

Jim expressed exactly my thoughts on the matter.
It’s been 15 years since I did the adjustment on my model four’s wings for a slightly right wing heavy condition. I know it’s been covered here before but if someone has recently done this very simple adjustment, feel free to post it again. This is a timely thread for many about to fly their first flights.

[David47]

Does anyone do stall tests after these adjustments are made ?. Just interested to know how much/if they make much of a difference to handling ...

[Dave S]

David,

On first flight, noticed a slight wing heavy but entirely controllable - did one power off stall at significant altitude over the 'port in order to accurately determine what approach IAS to use for the first landing. That stall was the typical Kitfox gentle power off stall everyone indicates. Refrained from any more stall testing until the wing heavy issue was perfectly resolved so all stall series done in phase I, except for the initial one on first flight, was done after resolution of the wing heavy deal.

My thinking was to get the wing rigging right before continuing testing. The theory I was working off is get any observed anomaly corrected before continuing.

Now, had the wing heavy observation been extreme, I probably would have avoided doing a single stall test on the first flight.

As to your question - I am not sure that it is possible to compare one power off stall before getting the wing adjusted with the entire stall series after adjustment other than to say that all power off stalls with the kitfox have been gentle. Cannot address power on stalls since I had no intention of doing a power on stall on the first flight in any case.

Hope that helps some.