I'd heard from other folks that live near me about a Kitfox that lived on a farm about 5 miles from my house. It had not flown for about 5 years from what I heard. Well, about 3 weeks ago we had some bad storms roll through the area. My weather station recorded a peak gust of 68 mph and while the storm was going on I consistently saw it reporting 50+. We lost a huge oak tree in our front yard, and it turns out the shed the Kitfox was in partially collapsed on it. A friend of mine was in the group of guys that helped the farmer pick the roof of the shed up and get his stuff out. That friend told me about the kitfox and I decided to go talk to the guy. Well, one thing led to another and I bought the airplane.
20211004_110529.jpg
Here is the list of what I saw needing repair.
- One prop blade chipped (Will replace all 3
- A bit of upper forward cowl damage
- Bent aft fuselage
- Bent rudder and vertical tail
- Left forward wing strut tube bent
- Tip rib on left wing cracked
- Left fiberglass wingtip needs repair
- Windshield and cabin root ribs cracked
I already started on the aft fuselage repair by cutting out a section of the top fabric and peeling the side fabric off the longerons. Then I used my straightening tool to pull the upper longerons back closer to shape. Unlike the other 2 fuselages I have straightened, this one will require cutting out a section of one longeron and welding in a splice. That one is the S-shaped one in the pictures below. I still have some tweaking to do of the other tubes in that area but they should be okay.
20211004_175238.jpg
20211004_175245.jpg
The shed roof landed on the rudder and pretty much mangled it and that bent the fin slightly to one side. I could straighten the fin, but am going to take the opportunity to enlarge it and make a larger rudder too because this is an early Kitfox 4 with the smaller tail. It is a 1050 gross weight model.
20211004_103201.jpg
The airplane had a custom trailer as shown in the picture above, but I didn't buy that. I told him I would put it on the forums to see if anyone was interested in buying it. It was too high priced for me at $3000 but maybe someone else doesn't think so. It is well built and works well. The way it is built, without modification, it would only work for standard gear like the Kitfox 4 came with. It is in Morris, IL, if anyone is interested.