My Kitfox ride
After I sold my 6A, I thought maybe a Kitfox would be the answer to the high cost of flying, since it gets 5gph and I could keep it at home. The performance specs on the factory website don't look that bad -- 1200 fpm climb, 120 mph cruise. No RV, but still usable for the occasional cross-country.
I found a Kitfox-V in Austin with an O-200 for under $30K, and drove over to have a look. It was a beautifully built plane. I spent two hours crawling all over it and was ready to write the check, as soon as we got the formality of test-flying it out of the way.
So we're climbing out and the VSI is barely hitting 300 fpm and I'm getting worried. I asked the guy what's wrong with it, and he says, "what do you mean, everything looks fine". I said I thought it was supposed to get 1200 fpm. He says, "Well, maybe on a cool day at sea level with no passenger, but it's close to 90 today and the field elevation is 830'". But he tweeked the mixture a little and nursed it up to a little to ALMOST 500 fpm.
So we droned on (and on) and finally (miles from the airport and still barely above pattern alt), I get tired of climbing and decide to level off at 2000' to see what the cruise speed might be. The result -- in level flight, even with WOT, it never did touch the 100 knot mark. So I give up and pull the power back to 2375 RPM, and the speed drops to about 80 knots, (a heck of a long way from 120 mph). I ask if that's a typical cruise and he says, yeah that about right, if you want to burn that much gas.
Well, he could tell I wasn't impressed, so he says "slow her down and check out the slow flight". I said I didn't want to screw around with stalls when we were so low, but he said, "just slow her down, you'll be amazed". So I pulled it back to 50 knots and tried a few turns. Man was this was a rudder plane! I couldn't keep the ball centered to save my life. It needed lots of rudder, but the rudder was so twitchy that I kept over doing in it. The guy says, "Come on, it'll go lots slower that this!" And he takes the plane and pulls it off until the speed drops BELOW the airspeed indicator! I have no idea how slow we were going, but the bottom number was 40 and the green arc was at 45 (knots). He does a bunch of turns and I can feel a burble now and then and sorry, but I was too scared to amazed. I will admit, though, it will definately fly slow, if that's your thing.
So I crossed Kitfox of my list, but ever since that ride, I've wondered if they're all that slow or if there was just something wrong with that plane.
I notice that Tony Partain is building a Kitfox. Tony, did you get a ride in one? Please tell me they're not all that bad! I sure would like to build one.