Ooooh, fly4fud, I guess you would have been better (or quicker...) off with a quick build kit of RV-8, wouldn't you.
I have a friend who had been building a Lancair 320 for 6-8 years, and when Lancair launched the quickbuild kit some years ago, he would have been further in his project if he had bought that, than he was with his own at the time. Now he has sold his Lancair project and is corrently (sloooowly...) building a scale P51.
My father and I built a Kitfox IV 9 years ago. It took us two years (1000hrs+) to get it in the air. I got my PPL during my commercial training about four years ago, and I have been flying it quite a bit since then, but not as much as I would have liked to.
Sadly enough, the Kitfox crashed earlier this spring. The pilot (a friend of ours) experienced a sudden drop in power just after takeoff. He thought he had enough power to return to the airfield, but just when he had completed the turn, the engine went totally dead. By then he was behind some trees, and to avoid crashing straight into them, he lifted the nose, passed the trees, and stalled out from about 10-15 feet.
Luckily he left the plane without a scratch, but the plane itself was a total wreck.
So now we're looking for a new project...
If we build a Kitfox again, it will certainly not be with a Rotax two stroke engine. The cause of the engine failure was a stuck piston ring, which became overheated. The heat of the piston ring ignited the fuel both over and under the piston, wich resulted in drastic power loss, and subsequently total engine failure.
There have been several Kitfoxes successfully fitted with modified Subaru four stroke car-engines, and that might be an option for us. Anyone with experience from that?
I'm kind og dreaming of a quick-build RV-8, but the time and finances required to build and operate an RV-8 is on an other level than a Kitfox...
Nick.
------------------
"I have found that alcohol taken in sufficient quantity produces all the effects of drunkenness."
~ Oscar Wilde