What Have You Done Today To Your Kitfox?

[rtc183]

  I experienced substantial vibration on my brake lines where they enter the fuselage and pass over a piece of the frame and needed to keep this from happening again. The lines needed to be attached to the frame but the under side of the fabric would wear through against anything wrapped around the frame like a zip tie. I decided to use waxed lacing cord, but needed to have a a cushion on the top of the stringer that would stay put.
      This was accomplished by cutting a piece of hose in half and drilling two holes for the lacing cord to pass through and hold it exactly in place while providing cushion and some give. The brake lines exit the bottom of the fuselage through a seaplane grommet and right into the Grove gear.


Bob Cunningham
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[Dave S]

Hi Bob,

Glad you caught the chafing before it cut through the nylaflo.

One of the functions of the grove gear is the springing action on landing or takeoff which results in a large vertical motion near the center of the fuselage - right where we can't see it happening when it is happening. The gear bar/structure moves up and down quite a lot at the midpoint of the center section, and anything attached at the middle will likewise move a lot. It appears that your fabric penetration is quite close to the center of the fuselage which would explain a whole lot of motion.

I have no idea what the current build manual says about locating the penertration of the skin; and, I certainly don't recall from long ago what my build manual said.

A good strategy is to locate the fabric penetration as close to the fore/aft centerline of each gear hinge by the port and starboard side of the fuselage bottom. That way the up and down motion on will be almost nothing.

I did a fabric penetration in front of each gear hinge at the centerline ( on a trigear), then pointed the nylaflo towards the fitting a bit inboard on the gear spring. Used red RTV to seal and hold the nylaflo at the penetration; and, the original installation is still unmolested since the build completion in 2008.

[stuartbw]

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Setup and torqued the tailwheel
Attached jury struts
Cutout and shaped wing root fairings (more to do there)
Installed seat belts, added "Experimental" placard
Put on the new tires
Mounted the prop

To do: install butt rib closeouts (cut and painted), strakes on turtledeck, rig controls, mount doors, add N number, engine checklist and first start....
Getting closer!

[Benbell4140]

Beautiful kitfox! Congrats


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[DesertFox4]

Big congrats Brett on first flight 👍👍 and subsequent test flights. Lots of rewarding times during a build. First flights are monumental. Your Kitfox looks and sounds great. Enjoy every flight

[Pushboy]

Congrats!!!
Looks awesome!
I hope to do the same one day!

Dave.


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[bbs428]

Another success story! Your plane looks and sounds great!

Now the real fun starts!