Inspection rings and drain grommets

[Frontier Fox]

Hello Team K
I’m placing an order for some supplied at Kitfox and thought I would go ahead and get more inspection rings and covers, only four come with a kit. Also need to get some of the plastic drain grommets. My question is how many should I get of each?
I was unsuccessful doing a search for this but somewhere in the archives is a layout for under the wing inspection/access covers. Some help finding this would be nice.
My build is coming along well:)

[efwd]

I have only two on my plane. one each wing so I can inspect the strut attachments. Some people put one on the bottom to inspect the pitch bell crank in the fuselage. Im small enough to make a crawl back there. Some people put one near the tail wheel attachment. The nice thing about Oratex fabric is that I can add inspection holes any time I like.

[rv9ralph]

Another good place for an inspection ring is near the pitot tube in the wing. Also, if you mount any remote items (magnetometer or antenna) in the wing, you may also need access there later.

Ralph

[rtc183]

It is easy to get a cheap borescope and look at and take pictures of any area of the aircraft without cutting into the fabric. Check out Amazon. The inspection rings should be where you will need access for maintenance, like lubrication.

[Clark in AZ]

That is true until you need to fix/replace something. Then you're cutting fabric. I'd rather have the inspection ring so I can get to the item if need be.

[airlina]

Flew this morning and counted my inspection rings: 6 in the wings -three each side- 1 inboard below fuel tank plumbing, 1 mid by jury strut attach, 1 outboard by pitot tube/ and lift strut attach points. 6 in Fuselage- 1 below cabin , 2 below elevator torque tube bearing (to get hands in for greasing) 1 across from the 2 I just described that I recently cut out and used for my ADSB antenna, 1 on the right aft side that I used for jackscrew inspection,1 further aft to access tailwheel hardware. remember more is better when placing rings during cover, if you never cut them out no big deal, but if you need access and no ring is there, you will be kicking yourself. Bruce N199CL

[David47]

You can never have too many inspection access points. The rings are cheap, easy to install and will save you grief later on if you need to start cutting fabric.

I have two in each wing, in addition to my own design around each wing strut to wing joint and another directly under each fuel tank drain and fuel line plumbing.

On the fuselage I have 5 inspection rings on the underside and then two additional of my own design, one each side of the elevator actuator.

At the base of the rudder, there's another removable plug on the leading edge which serves two purposes. One is inspection and the other is for when you drop those hinge bolts when installing the rudder to the vertical stab. Without doubt, dropping hinge bolts will happen at some stage .....:eek:

Having said all that, buy a cheap boroscope as suggested. A definite plus.

[t j]

Buy a few extra inspection ring plates and paint them when you do the other painting and have some paint in the spray gun. It's nice to have some on hand when you need to add an inspection ring to access some part of the plane later on.

[tracstarr]

For inspection rings I'm only adding one - near my pitot. But i'm using Oratex so it's far easier than with poly.

For drain grommets I could count what a friend did in his 7. I think there was probably 6-10 along the fuselage bottom just behind the seats, about 4-5 on each side of the horizontal tail on the bottom. 2-3 near the tailwheel area and not sure off hand where else I remember seeing them. I've not gotten to the part yet.