Required Garage Dimensions

[Skyflyr]

Due to extremely limited availability of hangars at my 2 local airports (or at least what I am willing and able to pay for rent), and for some other reasons, I'm considering building most or all of the plane in my garage. Can someone give me a ball park minimum dimensions of free space I'd need to build a Super Sport? Would the Speedster require a bit less space, due to the wings being 18" shorter when folded?

John mentioned that the length of space I need has to be measured with 8' wide in mind, so I have about 21' of available length, if I build catty corner in my garage. Of course, if I roll it out onto the driveway, I'd have more than enough room to do some jobs. Also, does anyone store their plane (covered, of course) in their RV pad when completed? I have that option for building and storing as well. Any thoughts from those who've been there, done that?!

[jiott]

I built mine in a fairly small two car garage. I never could put both wings on at the same time unless I moved it out onto the driveway, which was no problem.

[Maverick]

I have a 12' by 24' shop with a 10' tall wall to the rafters. I did the majority of the work in it. I did move it to a shop about the size of a two car garage where I could open one wing at a time to do stuff and easily roll it outside when I needed both of them extended. I have an 8' wide garage door and I had equipment on both insides of the shop, work benches on both sides, compressor, table saw, drill press, storage cabinets, sink, etc... It was tight but doable. I do have two RV pads, one on each side of my house, one of those in the front of the shop. I was able to roll the fuselage outside and turn it sideways to put the wings on when rigging it. Because I did the fuselage first, I wound up parking it outside on the RV pad wrapped up with numerous tarps and rope while I was building wings. I don't recommend that. That is why I should have done the wings first and stored them up above and then the fuselage.

As for after you get it finished, parking at home on your RV pad is not a good idea either. As for one thing, you have to drain the fuel in order to transport it to and from which would lead to the second thing, you wouldn't fly it as much as a Kitfox deserves to be flown if it's not on the airport waiting for you, calling your name on windless days.

As for your garage size being large enough, it's doable but allot depends on what your wife will let you have. There is no way mine would have let me park her car outside when it was 115 degrees in the sun so using the garage was out from the beginning. :o)

Maverick

[jiott]

As for after you get it finished, parking at home on your RV pad is not a good idea either. As for one thing, you have to drain the fuel in order to transport it to and from which would lead to the second thing, you wouldn't fly it as much as a Kitfox deserves to be flown if it's not on the airport waiting for you, calling your name on windless days.
Maverick

Agree 100%. Its a last resort, certainly better than nothing.

[alexM]

I'm building my plane in a 1 car garage. It's not quite 11' wide (about 10.5'), the main part is 18' long and at some point someone added about 9.5' to the length.

I got all the way through the fuselage build without having to resort to any crazy antics or amputate any body parts so I could squeeze past. I'm now building wings but I should say I moved the fuselage to the airport where I do have a hangar.

I have plenty of room to build one wing and hang the other on the wall while it's not being worked. I will rig the wings/struts at the airport and then repeat the moving cycle for the covering process.

With my method you would still need at least a storage unit to house the fuselage for a while, and rig the wings outside on a nice day. When you find out how much storage units go for you'll understand why people rent hangars to keep their cars and boats in.

[Skyflyr]

Jim, Mav and Alex,

Thanks for the replies guys. It will be 20 months before I even see the kit, even if I order it this week. That's a lot of time to read through the manual, get organized and prep my garage for the build. If you can imagine a square of useable space, I have about 19'x 21' of working space (garage door closed), the cabinets and work bench taking up the rest of the garage. Given your responses, I certainly could build the wings, then the fuselage. Those would be completed about 3 years from now. In that amount of time, I'm fairly sure one of my airport buddies might let me store parts and or rent a space I need to fit the Kitfox in. Also a lot can happen between now and then regarding hangar availability. Even if I have to rent a hangar before I need it, I can always use it to store personal stuff.

My wife has, amazingly, been on board with me building a plane in the garage, which speaks volumes of her kindness and wanting me to have a retirement project to do.
She was used to me being gone flying 4 days a week so being home all the time, at least inside, gets a little much for her. Any retired guys say amen to that?!

[n85ae]

Built mine in a one car Garage 26' deep. Not a problem, but rigging the wings in the driveway got some
attention in the neighborhood.

Just need to work efficiently, and not be a horrible mess maker.

Jeff