Derwood's STi Build

Hello everyone...I'm kicking off my first post with the start of my STi build. I ordered my kit in early September 2018 and picked it up in Homedale last week. What an experience! I was immediately greeted by Brandon, had a good chat with John, and Debra gave me the full tour of the Kitfox facility. I have never felt more welcome. I can't say enough good things about these people, I'm glad I picked up in person and had a chance to start this journey by making some new friends.

I rented a Penske 16 foot truck as has been mentioned before on here and had plenty of room for everything. Loading took at most 30-45 minutes, Brandon and his son really have this operation down to a science at this point. Room to spare...

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Then the real journey began. 1,000 miles from Homedale to the suburbs of Phoenix, AZ. The drive went smoothly but it was long! 7 hours of driving the first day and nearly 10 the second day (over an hour more than expected--mostly due to hitting traffic in Las Vegas)..

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Less than 15 miles from home and a crash happened on the freeway...All lanes were shutdown but thankfully it wasn't serious and I was only stopped for about 5 minutes.

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With the help of some friends, we unloaded the same day I arrived.

Inventory took a few days to complete, some parts really wanted to stay hidden--especially in the Powder Coat box. Advice for future inventoryists (I'll be submitting a new word suggestion list to Webster's in the fall), if it's wrapped in packing foam, unwrap completely and check ALL parts within. Sometimes there is only one part, sometimes there are several. Once checked I rewrapped and wrote the parts number/s and description on the outside of the foam to ease future searches. It felt incredibly good checking off all items from each list!

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Yesterday marked the official first day of building! I began by reaming the elevator and horizontal stab. This sounded so easy but turning the reamers was anything but. I ended up grinding the non cutting ends flat on my bench grinder as has been recommended here in the past and that made a huge difference.

With that complete, I moved onto fitting the ribs for the horizontal stab.

This is where I'm a little unsure of things. In the second photo you can see where the bottom rib (L -- 11070.304) doesn't touch the metal rib but in the manual it shows it touching and also gives a measurement off of center at 34 1/2 inches. I have it placed at 34 1/2 inches and it isn't even close--but the manual says the dimensions have a +- tolerance of 1/8". Other ribs line up perfectly, some within the +- 1/8" so what am I missing? Should I leave it at 34 1/2" or keep sanding so it rests against the metal rib?

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Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to sharing and interacting with all of you as this build goes on.

Darren

FWIW - mine were placed at the specified dimension, not touching the metal rib in this location.

The +/- 1/8" of design dimension is what is important - some touch, some don't - it's the spacing:)

Darren, welcome aboard and congrats on the kit purchase. Gilbert and Chandler have been a hotbed of Kitfox building and flying for some time now. Looks like they’ll soon be another.

The horizontal stabilizer and elevator ribs are a little flexible in their placement. The key is to make sure you line up up both the elevator and stabilizer rib placements so they are perfectly lined up with each other when installed in the fuselage. When laying them out, put both the stabilizer and elevator on a big table and temporarily bolt them together so you get that perfect alignment of ribs from one to the other. This will assure a great looking tail when covered. Have fun with the build.

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The only advantage of laying it against a metal rib is the stiffening the metal rib supplies. If you end up not touching the metal rib, I would suggest gluing a few wood blocks to bridge the gap. I put mine against the metal ribs and adjusted some of the other spacings to keep the spacings reasonably equal. There's nothing here to get very anal about; the wood ribs just hold the fabric in the proper airfoil shape.

Wow, thanks for the quick advise gentlemen! Much appreciated.

DesertFox4 I have noticed a lot of locals on here. Hopefully we will meet in the air soon..Or on the ground even sooner.

I really like your idea about using wood blocks to bridge the gap Jim, thanks for the idea.

Yeh, what is in the water over there? If we aren't building in Gilbert/Chandler we are from there and built elsewhere. Brian and I (Chandler and Gilbert) are almost done with phase 1 so we will be visiting soon I bet. I don't see too many people on here from my current location but I run across Kitfoxes while flying here in Southern CA. Thinking back, I saw my first Kitfox ever at the old Williams Air Force Base now Williams Gateway Airport. That was back in 85 or 86. So Kitfoxes have been hanging around that territory since the beginning.

Welcome to the fun part Derwood! The build looks great so far.

We need to organize, at some point, a Kitfox gathering at Chandler. Most of the entries in my logbook start and end at CHD. I love coming back to visit. First I need to complete Phase I. Between travel, work, kids, a bad COM radio, and trying to teach a student to fly, it's been slower going than I'd hoped. The next few weekends look promising though.

Hey Darren how is this build going? I'm up in Vegas and thought if you are still working on it if you wouldn't mind me taking a day trip and seeing what this Kitfox thing is all about!

Hesitant to start something that takes over a year to build however it will be great learning experience with my son and I. I hope all is well. Thanks