Rcbif's Kitfox Model 5 Outback Build

[rcbif]

Spend all this week going over previous owners work.

So far, only two mistakes.

First was the steel sleeves were a press fit in the bronze bushings for the horizontal/ elevator hinge.

Second is the inner brake cylinder mount brackets. A hole too big....

Anyone know the material. Will be remaking along with the larger holes for line routing as suggested in the S7 manual.20190908_110418.jpg20190908_110247.jpg

[Dave S]

Second is the inner brake cylinder mount brackets. A hole too big....

Anyone know the material. Will be remaking along with the larger holes for line routing as suggested in the S7 manual.20190908_110418.jpg20190908_110247.jpg

RC,

The cut to the chase is contact Kitfox, they have a pile of the correct stock to make these from.

[jmodguy]

https://www.airpartsinc.com/145_ALUM...GLE_TUBING.htm

[rcbif]

Thanks. Right after you posted that I found a scrap piece with material mark.


Continuing going over everything done today I found a deviation I hope is not an issue...

I noticed the drag link pattern is not symetrical from wing to wing. The manual shows for the 13gal tank version of the wing, the drag link pattern starts at the front spar, but one of my wing, it starts at the rear spar.

Cant think of a reason behind this, or if its a genuine goof up. Will this affect anything? Their main reason is just to add triangulation to keep the wings square, right?

[rcbif]

Well appears someone else has had this situation, and Brandon at Kitfox says it wont affect anything - other than my symmetry OCD, lol

Only other thing I noticed was the rudder deflection was greater than 30° - enough to hit the horizontal, but I guess that is a common issue. Got plenty of time to decide to to address that though. Either a nut and bolt or doubled over plate riveted over the top plate.

Time to start designing a wing rigging jig...

[rcbif]

Finally done going over all the stuff that has been done, and spent the weekend making wing holders for wing rigging, making leveling blocks for the front, a tail support for the rear, remarking where the lift struts attach, and taking off the landing gear. Also made the temporary supports to attach the lift struts to the wings.

I have the stock model V lifts struts, and the aftermarket aero ones. I was going to use the stock ones for rigging since they are lighter, but noticed the aero ones are 1/4" shorter. Because of this difference, I decided I should probably rig with what will be on there, so I wrapped up the aero struts on foam to protect them during the rigging process.

Just some quick phone pics. My actual builds pics are on my camera at the hangar, and are mostly of me making sawdust for the past 2 days.

Sure makes the RV look small and hangar shrunk with the wings outstretched.

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[rcbif]

Got the wings rigged Sunday after some messing with the aero lift struts. Not sure if they were an early run or what, but for the price, a customer should not have to be grinding weld beads and powdercoat out of the inside of the fish mouth fuselage mounting point. The fit was not even close. Weld beads extended .050" or more into the mouth both top and bottom. Now I gotta touch-up the powdercoat for something that should have been re-machined post weld process.

Spend about 4 hours fitting the fish-mouth portion. One lift strut, if attached to the fuselage and having the wing end supported by hand, has a slight twist that originates at the fishmouth and it's hole, resulting in one rod end naturally resting 1" higher than the other. It takes about 4 pounds of pressure to make the rod ends even height-wise. Hope this does not come back and bite me in the rigging process.

Zero sweep and perpendicular to centerline went well.

Will be setting the dihedral and twist tonight, and examining the one lift strut to be sure it wont cause any issues.

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