Two Piece Turtle Deck to One Piece

[Maverick]

The kit I have, a KF5, has a two piece turtle deck kit. I am not all that enthralled with it and am wondering if anyone out there with a KF5 turned the two piece into a one piece turtle deck. I'm thinking that this could be done but I want to avoid any headaches if it's been done and you might have some tips of advise.

My thought was to use some aluminum strip to attache the forward turtle deck piece to the aft turtle deck piece creating a single turtle deck. Rather than putting a piece of lexan in the two different openings, I would put one large piece front to rear, which I think would strengthen the frame, along with the various aluminum angle strips. It would seem like it could be done fairly easily. Is there anyone out there that took that approach?

P.S. to those that would advocate just buying the single piece currently on the newest models, I have already evaluated that but do not see enough value in having it over just using the originally supplied materials, so there's that.

Thanks,
Fred

[airlina]

Hey Maverick , (reminds me of top gun when I say that) here is another consideration for you. When I test flew a Series 5 Outback at Skystar (the old factory) in the late 90's , I asked the demo pilot to tell me things he didn't particularly like about the airplane. As you can imagine , being a salesman he didn't have many , but one thing he said was, he didn't like how much the turtle deck oil canned in flight especially in slips. With that in mind when I bought my kit in '99, I found that LP Aeroplastics sold a domed turtledeck for the Series 5 , so I bought one and love it. The only time it rattles is if I am in a full, rudder pedal to the floor , get me down now slip, and that ain't so bad because it keeps me awake to transition out of it a tad early on arrival. Just looked in their catalog and they still have it. Bruce N199CL

[jmodguy]

Mav
I had a 2 piece and made it a 1 piece. Wasn’t hard to do.
The bubble sounds interesting. Wonder what it does to tail blanking in a deep stall? 🤔

[PapuaPilot]

Hi Fred.
The original person who got my kit bought an after market one piece 1/8" darkened plexiglass and I absolutely love it. I think it makes the plane look so much nicer. It has a 11 Dzus fasteners and comes off in a minute. No doubt you will spend a lot of time fabricating and painting the one that came with your kit. I remember it took less than one hour to fit my Plexiglas one to the airframe. I was thrilled to save an estimated 10-25 hours.

I have never had it rattle in slips.

24165

[mike92104]

Hey Maverick , (reminds me of top gun when I say that) here is another consideration for you. When I test flew a Series 5 Outback at Skystar (the old factory) in the late 90's , I asked the demo pilot to tell me things he didn't particularly like about the airplane. As you can imagine , being a salesman he didn't have many , but one thing he said was, he didn't like how much the turtle deck oil canned in flight especially in slips. With that in mind when I bought my kit in '99, I found that LP Aeroplastics sold a domed turtledeck for the Series 5 , so I bought one and love it. The only time it rattles is if I am in a full, rudder pedal to the floor , get me down now slip, and that ain't so bad because it keeps me awake to transition out of it a tad early on arrival. Just looked in their catalog and they still have it. Bruce N199CL


I'm curious to see it if you don't mind posting a picture.

[airlina]

Took a pic of my domed turtledeck but unfortunately the pictures don't show the dome of the acrylic. I would estimate that at its highest point the dome is about 1 " higher than it is at the sides that attach to the frame of the turtledeck.
Jeff the dome doesn't effect stall characteristics at all still docile and easily recovery in all configurations. along those lines however , hear is an interesting Kitfox youtube video that shows the progression of the stall on a Kitfox wing , a very interesting watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRNPM7A54Yk

[Maverick]

Hi Fred.
The original person who got my kit bought an after market one piece 1/8" darkened plexiglass and I absolutely love it. I think it makes the plane look so much nicer. It has a 11 Dzus fasteners and comes off in a minute. No doubt you will spend a lot of time fabricating and painting the one that came with your kit. I remember it took less than one hour to fit my Plexiglas one to the airframe. I was thrilled to save an estimated 10-25 hours.

I have never had it rattle in slips.

Phil, do you know who the vendor is? I really like that.

Bruce, I looked at LP Aero Plastics and found the turtle deck listed in their catalog but not in their price list.

Jmodguy, was there anything you would do differently? Do you have some pics of your result?

Thanks, guys.
Fred

[PapuaPilot]

Sorry, I don't know. It just came with the kit. I'm sure you could get one from the factory.

[Maverick]

In looking at different turtle deck pictures it appears that some, the aluminum framed ones, have the strakes installed but, then one piece plastic decks don't. Is there an advantage to having them?

I can see them adding some strength to the aluminum deck but is the juice worth the squeeze?

[jrevens]

In looking at different turtle deck pictures it appears that some, the aluminum framed ones, have the strakes installed but, then one piece plastic decks don't. Is there an advantage to having them?

I can see them adding some strength to the aluminum deck but is the juice worth the squeeze?

The plastic ones have the strakes also.

[Maverick]

After engineering the means to create a one piece turtle deck out of the two piece, which was pretty straight forward, I went to fit it on the fuselage only to discover that the turtle deck is for a KF4 and not a KF5. The original kit purchaser never got around to working with the TD so, I surmise that he did not know it was the wrong one.

So now I have to decide how to deal with this. Since the current model 7 has tabs welded on the cross piece tube on the fuselage where the turtle deck cam locks are attached, I have to figure out how to contend with the differences. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to deal with how to make a series 7 turtle deck fit/attach to a series 5 fuselage.
Thanks,
Fred