Extended Baggage

[Esser]

Thanks, and what thickness is your honeycomb? I havent been able to find any honeycomb online like that with the aluminum on the top and bottom. Your cargo area sure looks sharp.

[War Eagle]

I believe it is about 1/4 inch but it might slightly thicker.

When I go to the hanger again I'll try to remember to measure it.

Would you like a source? I bought it locally but maybe I can get some info about the manufacturer etc.

[ken nougaret]

I'd like to know the source and/or manufacturer.
Thank, ken

[Steves142]

Hi everyone. This is my fist attempt at posting but I wanted to share what I did for an extended cargo area on a classic 4. Aluminum tray for the bottom and front, canvas for the sides and back. A standard awning track attaches the canvas to the aluminum tray and to the tubing at the top.
It ended up weighing about 12 oz more than the factory bay with the plywood floor.

[DesertFox4]

Hi Steve. Glad to see you building and posting. Nice looking baggage compartment. You will love it on those long cross country excursions.
In your photos the very first thing I looked for was cross bracing under your floor. I can't see any in the photos other than the back end. When I built mine, and I think Dan B's is similar, we put aluminum angle side to side under the floors front and back of the control mixer per our Technical Advisers advice. With heavy baggage and some turbulence or a hard landing, he was concerned about collapse of the flooring onto the mixer and push/pull tube for the elevator that could cause loss of control of the aircraft. When building our aircraft we always want to consider induced loads on items attached to the aircraft not only static loads. OK - off my safety soap box.
Looking forward to more posts. Keep at it and soon you'll be enjoying the stellar performance of the Classic Model 4. Hope to learn soon what engine you chose, cowlings, did you opt for the wide body mod, ect.

[Steves142]

Hi Fox. Thank you for the comments. I was pretty confident that the floor was strong enough but after reading your reply I took another look and I will be adding another angle Just aft of the mixer. It's an airplane, pretty confident should never be good enough.
I made my own wide body out of aluminum, I hope Murle W doesn't mind.
I have a 912 uls with the smooth cowl and I chickened out and bought a nose wheel. That's what I was trained in and I didn't want to go through more training before I flew my own KF.
The wings and tail feathers are done and painted and I hope to paint the fuselage next week end.

[Av8r3400]

I might as well add my custom baggage area to the list. I'm not a big fan of the fabric bag in my flying plane, so this is all made from .032 aluminum. My design goal was to be able to fit two folding lawn chars in it...

[DesertFox4]

Steve142- With the 912S you will have a real performer. Keep it as light as possible. Great looking baggage compartments in this thread.

Larry, that is cavernous. Looks good.


With our large baggage areas we need to always remember the C.G. when loading. Heavy items in the front just behind the pilot/passenger and light bulky in the rear.
I pondered many times putting a cargo net over the top of my baggage area to retain stowed items in case of turbulence or evasive maneuvers.