Kitfox Work

Thursday I went over to help Paul remove the wings from his Kitfox. He needs to varnish all the wood ribs which will take a few days.

Friday morning, I returned to help Terry mount his Edge Performance Engine. It went on without a hitch. We got it mounted, torqued and disconnected the hoist. Nice looking! Now the real work begins on hooking everything up.

Panel

Received my panel from SteinAir today. All cut out with rails and screw sockets installed. Only had a couple of issues with it, undersized holes, my fault on the dimensions. Nothing a little filing won't fix. Actually, only one hole (Keyed Master) was a tad too small as well as the middle bank of switches. The switches went in but with a fight, I can ease a little off the sides and they'll slide in as the others did. I'm happy with the layout and the next step is to order the missing avionics. The panel was sprayed with gray primer, I've not decided how I want it finished yet.

So, the two large holes are for Garmin G3X 10" screens.
The center top is for the Garmin GMA 245 Audio Panel
Then the Garmin GTR 200 COMM Radio
Then the Garmin GNX 375 Navigator
The bottom hole is for the Garmin GMC 507 Auto Pilot
I have a second COMM radio GTR 20 remote mounted in the back behind the baggage compartment.

Covering - Right Side

Finished up with the right side covering this morning. Got all the edges trimmed and glued down. Now to make doilies for all the protrusions and add trim tapes.

Covering - Right Side of Fuselage

Terry and Paul came over this morning to help cover the right side of the fuselage. I had everything ready to go so we jumped right in. No surprises, it actually seemed a little easier to do this time around. Maybe because I knew what to expect. We got it to a point where I called it good and let the guys go. I prefer to tackle the hard parts in my own time because it takes a lot of time and patience. No point in having the guys hang out, there's nothing else they can do. Here's the time lapse video...

Here is a short time lapse of me shrinking out some wrinkles, the battery died as I got to work on the big wrinkles. It came out nice.

I didn't finish all the edges today since they are all finished edges and require some precise cutting. I'll get to them tomorrow morning with a final shrink on Wednesday morning.

Kitfox Engine

Today I went to Terry's hangar to help him mount his new Edge Performance 154hp Rotax engine on his Kitfox.

 

 Well, best laid plans, there was an interference with the engine mount which prevented us from mounting it. Once he gets it rectified we'll take another run at it. While there I took a couple of shots of his panel "boxes" that he recently mounted in preparation for installing his panel. Lots of work ahead...

Covering - Left Side of the Fuselage

Today it was time to tackle the left side. This is the hardest part of the covering process on these airplanes for two reasons: first, the handle to move the aircraft on the rear of the fuselage and second, the compound curve at the base of the vertical stab. Terry came back to help me out.

The fabric went on as well as could be expected given the problem areas. I did end up with a significant amount of wrinkles in the tail area after we tacked up the fabric. Unfortunately the GoPro ran out of battery so I didn't capture the process of shrinking out the wrinkles but do have several pics to prove it worked. It took me about three hours of working the fabric to get it smoothed out.

Here is the video of the process.

And a couple of pics showing the progress...

Covering - Bottom of Fuselage

Here is a shot of the fuselage on the rotisserie before starting to cover the bottom.

I had my friend Terry Johnstone (Kitfox builder) come over to help me with the covering. I had helped Terry cover his Kitfox back in October/November so he was returning the favor. Another new friend Paul Hinshaw and his wife (also building a Kitfox) came over to watch the process and learn about Oratex fabric. They are trying to decide if Oratex is for them.

Unfortunately, I forgot to turn the GoPro on to film the covering process. :( I realized my mistake after we got the bottom tacked on. I turned it on and filmed the trimming and finishing of the edges. So, here is a time lapse video of that process. I'll remember to turn it on when we do the sides.

I let the glue set up over night and did a final shrink on the fabric this morning. Here are a few photos of the finished product.

On to the sides...

Pre-Cover Video

Here is a short video of the fuselage before covering. Thought I'd try a video and see how it works in the blog. Enjoy! This was shot with my cell phone. I'll try another with my GoPro...

Small Things

Spent this morning tidying up many small things that needed to be done before covering. Installed cotter pins in the control column. A couple on each stick. Very tight quarters.

Right Side

Left Side

Installed washers and a lock nut on the elevator push rod. This completes the elevator push rod assembly and installation.

Installed cotter pins in a couple of places on the flap handle completing the flap handle assembly and installation.

I had to fabricate a couple of aluminum extensions for the adel clamps used to secure the left side fuel line run. The fuel line was offset from the main wire bundle on the left side so I needed the extensions to tie the adel clamps together. This completed the fuel lines from the header tank to the Andair fuel valve.

I also re-installed the latch in the rear maintenance access door and then re-installed the door.

I pulled the flaps out of the paint booth. They came out nice like the ailerons. Ready to cover with  a quick scuff and wipe down. I rattle canned the brackets in all of the pieces satin black. This will look nice after covering with the black brackets against the silver covering.

Flaps

Ailerons

A few days ago I added a static port air line to the bundle and have a tee, aft of the rear baggage wall, splitting to two fittings that will plug into static ports (on each side of the fuselage) that will be installed after the fabric is on.

Looking a the right side Static Port Fitting

Green Static Port Air Line