Starfox Update

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We're always interested.

[DesertFox4]

Yes we are interested and we are happy to hear your ❤️mom❤️ is with you still.

[SomeDay7]

Hey DesertFox4. Wife visited the grandkids overseas and dropped off a flight jacket for the grandkid. Here is the pic back. With his dad’s jet. Hope Your granddaughter is well too.

[DesertFox4]

That is a cool photo.👍👍 He looks ready to light the burner and take it for a spin.
Granddaughter is great. Just turned two today.😀 Thanks for asking.

[SomeDay7]

Spent the last year and a half trying to work on my plane while taking care of my mom too. Mom left us last week. Been hard but time well spent. Tried to take time to my self this summer and did. Didn’t work on the plane though but now it’s time. Got about a month of work on it in October til Mom started to fail. Back at it now and at the rudder pedal install. A few things were slightly perplexing, but with the help of the forum, I got them to work. I had left off on the rudder tail assembly last May and came back to it first. Just couldn’t get that smoothness I wanted. Found with some bending of the tabs and grinding the side of a couple of bushings the attach points lined up better.
Another area that took some finesse is the control column mount. Found out that it binds on both sides due to the welds being slightly raised and the tabs not being aligned, probably due to heat from welding. After filing and using a straight edge to make sure it was perfectly flat I got the smoothness I wanted in the mount. Floor boards were the same but I hollowed out the wood on these to have it lie flat. Floor boars that go around the sticks.we’re vague in the instructions as to which way to mount. I mounted them with extra room on the adjustment side. Still not sue if this was right? Another sticky issue was the mixer mounting bolts with safety wire. When first mounted, I could not get rotation to happen in the flanged bearings. Then noticed the mounting bolts seemed slightly oval and I could get about 30 degrees of looseness on one side of a turn of them. This along with getting the safety wire tight, solved the problem of the bolts turning in the tabs.

[SomeDay7]

Time spent this summer instead of building. Fished a bunch. Salmon in the freezer for all winter. Saw these sun fish out about 14 miles off the coast in a kelp line I was fishing for salmon. About 10 of them all just on top. Have to be careful you don’t hit them. One trip the boat builder at Westport launched a ship. Just made it through before they shut everything down for this. Lots of horse training. Trained two colts all summer and did a few trail trials. Went to Vegas to meet my fighter pilot son for his birthday. Got to drive a Lamborghini Aventador and my son a Ferrari. Amazing they let you go all out on the track. Built out a new Jeep. New hybrid Jeep. Not much range. Just enough to go back and forth to work on full electric. Sign of the times. NexT an electric kitfox? Not. Back to work and it’s fun again. Also I put off my advanced panel as long as I could. They didn’t complain as they said the chip shortage and Covid was slowing them down. Going this week to pick it up. Said they would have it up and running as they test their work before it goes out the door.

[SomeDay7]

Drove down to Canby, Oregon today and picked up my quick panel. The techs and owner Rob Hickman had it fired up on the bench. Explained some of the components and screens. Very happy with the amount of time I will save with their help. I left it semi put together just so I could go over it a bit more. I got home and added the guardian mount for my IPad and the small panel that hooks up to the MT prop controller.

[Kitfox Pilot]

Glad to see you are back on the build, looking good!

[Pushboy]

Just curious -- and this may not be the smartest question, but how are the lengths of all the cables determined when doing a quick type panel like that? I'm guessing that the locations of all components is know during design so cable length can be pre-measured -- is that some thing you had to do, or does the company figure that out somehow? Do you ever end up short or with way too much? Just wondering.

Great looking panel by the way.

[SomeDay7]

Thanks Harlan, Wish I was about where you are right now. Pushboy. They have done quite a few foxes so they know the appropriate length. Only thing I have to wire are the engine wiring and the remote wires coming in to the panel.