What Have You Done Today To Your Kitfox?

[Spook712]

I made new cushions for the plane today. My original were 1" thick and not very supportive. There are 2" thick and I made 1" booster for my height challenged daughter. I have never attempted anything like this before and as work progressed the quality definitely improved. I ordered the foam and the Ultra Suede from https://www.fabricempire.com Shipping was fast and the quality was good. The thread I bought off of Amazon and sewed it all up with our 35 year old cheapy sewing machine.
Learning to do the pleats and the diamonds was kind of fun. I'm restoring a 61 VW Beetle and after this project I feel comfortable enough to do a custom interior myself.

Attachment 26902
Attachment 26904

What kind of foam did you use?


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[desertdave]

What kind of foam did you use?


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The vendors description:

Medium Density Square foam has a compression rate of 33lbs. It features the perfect amount of cushioning and stiffness. Its soft but still holds its firmness and support for an individual to sit on it without compressing the foam too much. Medium Firm Quality Foam is designed for heavy works and high use applications.

https://www.fabricempire.com/24-x-24...am-sheets.aspx

The backs and the bottoms are 2" thick and I added another 1" of thickness in the thigh area of the bottoms.

[tim.green]

Following advice in this thread: https://teamkitfox.com/Forums/thread...with-flaperons

Used gel stripper and plastic razor blades to strip the protective coating from my Vixen flaperons. The QA sticker on this flaperon says "5 - 94" so this stuff has been hardening for 27 years. Left the stripper on for 12 hours and gently scraped it off with the blades. No damage to the skins but plenty of residue to remove - which comes off with denatured alcohol and gentle rubbing. Relieved that this is actually doable. The stripped section depicted took about 4 hours of actual work.

Thanks forum!

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[tim.green]

It's probably boring but . . . I've completed the removal of the protective coating and all glue residue from one side of one flaperon. It's in good shape with a couple of small hangar rashes that I'll need to fix. 10 hours total work time - I think the rest will go more quickly. Pix attached!

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[109JB]

Yesterday I got up and decided to put my pants on

pant on.jpg

[PapuaPilot]

TMI, and you only have one leg in you pants.

[109JB]

Yep. Can only exert so much effort each day...

Actually I just forgot to take a picture with both on. With the new gear there was some fiberglassing, welding on a couple mount tabs, etc. Getting really close to slapping some fabric on it.

[n85ae]

Here's my "what did I do today post", rather a long post about my Maule tailwheel, and my
latest tailspring on N85AE (number 4)

First about the Maule Tailwheel

A few todays ago, I spend a weekend replacing my tailspring with a custom made spring,
and serviced my Maule tailwheel First I cannot say enough good things about the Maule tailwheel,
it works great, it's rugged, its simple, and I have never had a problem with it. I so often hear
people bashing Maule tailwheels on the Forum which I have never understood.

It does have an unlock, but it's a brutally simply sliding pin, very simple to understand and really
idiot proof in function.

The way to keep the Maule lock working nicely, is to clean the slide pin, and lubricate it with a nice
"oil" like Mobile 1 synthetic. Not to use grease, as this can thicken, dry out, and get sticky. This I
read actually in a Maule service note. Works nicely, and the pin snaps into place when it aligns with
the slot - Pretty foolproof.

Basic service - I take it all apart periodically, clean it with mineral spirits, regrease it, and put it back
together. So - Oil for the slide lock, and grease for the rest.

On my Maule, I don't like it to run stiff, so I removed the friction pad springs. Maybe one day when I put
it on a DC-3, or C-46 I will put the springs back in ... If you take it apart you find a fiber disk, and they
are under this plate and create a turning resistance (intentional). Since the tailwheel can probably support
a fully loaded C-46, it might need the springs, but my plane is a lot lighter ...

I use the anti-shimmy Maule springs, and run with my tail chain springs under about 1/2" of tension. So
With full rudder pedal, and max rudder deflection the unlock cam hits, and the slide pin disengages. It has
NEVER unlocked accidentally, and while I did groundloop the plane once, that was pilot error (those that
have, and those that will), and not a Maule problem.

I have heavy duty sash chains from McMaster Carr, that are probably triple the strength of the stock sash
chains. Have never broken one, and don't want to. The heavier chain is cheap, and brings peace of mind.

I ground looped because it was a very windy day, with a direct crosswind, and I made the stupid mistake
of not simply diverting to a nearby airport with a more favorable runway. I elected to "give it a try and
if it didn't feel good, then divert". It felt good up until I was rolling backwards through the weeds off
the runway, and between runway lights ... Lesson learned, and luckily no damage done.


My New Tailspring

The tailspring, and bolt are worthy of a few comments, since a simple loan of a tailspring from Bruce
(Airlina) led to a discovery process, and a lot of reading, and thinking. The first part of which was "why
is this upper spring having a bigger hole, than the lower spring? Bruce was there a bushing
or something for this you're cheating me out of?".

Also the Spring Bruce sent was the Kitfox Aircraft Spring, which is bent 10 degrees steeper than the Grove
Aluminum spring that came from Skystar with the Series 5. This spring I tested, but then replaced with
my 4th tailspring, which is a custom bent three leaf. Basically it was soft, and too severe a bend angle.

The NEW tailspring is three leafs and is bent to 5 degree less bend than the Kitfox spring, and 5 degrees
greater bend than the Grove Aluminum spring I originally had. The length is adjusted such that my
tail height is the same as with the Grove spring. Also the upper leaf is longer, and stops about 1" from
the tailwheel assembly, and the spring is 1.5" wide, as opposed to 1.25" as the Grove/Kitfox springs.

The purpose of the bend angle I have is to put the pivot axis at the proper angle to eliminate shimmy and keep
the turning light (the Kifox spring is too severe an angle with the Maule, and makes turning feel stiff)
the longer upper spring, give me a firm tail spring, but not harsh. Maybe because I have the heavier
engine (IO-240B) I thought the Kitfox spring was too soft. I had previously used a 5 degree wedge on
the Grove spring to adjust the pivot angle.

I scrapped the Grove spring, because ... It was very harsh, and Grove told me on the phone that
some of them had broken and they advised me to NOT use it ... Ok.

My second spring was a three leaf, bent to the same angle as the Grove Aluminum, much softer, BUT
just didn't like the feeling, and the angle was still bad without the 5 degree wedge.

My tailwheel bolt is an AN8 with a castle nut, and a cotter pin, torqued to 20 ft/lbs. Since the
leafs do move, the upper spring has a slotted hole to prevent shearing (i.e. think bolt cutter) of
the bolt. If confused ... think about two equal length parallels, and move them up and
down ... They will act like a bolt cutter on the tailwheel bolt. If the upper hole does not
allow for this movement by being bigger than the bolt (or slotted)

So no matter how tight you tighten the bolt, at some point when you land the leafs are going
to try to slip, when this happens it you do not have a slot or oversize hole in the upper leaf you
have begun the process of cutting the tailwheel bolt. My thinking is that I will accept that it's
going to move, and not try to stop it. But rather I slotted the spring accordingly, and run with
a drilled bolt, and a castle nut. Then I periodically inspect for wear, and retorque the nut.

I have an AN8 bolt, which I actually think is better, but mostly because I drilled the spring to
1/2" instead of 7/16" in one of those "oh sh**" moments.

Since I know that the springs are going to slip, I put antiseize on them before I clamped it all
together.

The tailspring bolts are upgraded to 1/4" NAS bolts, and the hold down strap is now 1/8" 4130. The
original bolts were AN3's which I never felt happy about. Especially after hearing of several
plane shearing the AN3's ... (this and the Grove spring should be in a service bulletin actually).

Jeff


Attachment 27150

[Jcard]

I have the same Maule tailwheel and a leaf spring in my exta parts pile that anyone on here can have for shipping cost.

[Eric Page]

I'll take it. PM sent.