Strut speed fairings.

[Geowitz]

Friendly reminder!!! The way you fair the end can affect whether or how far you can fold your wings!!

[jiott]

My method of filling the trailing edge where a lot of the fairing is cut back to allow wing folding, was to use some of that lightweight foam that comes with the kit to 90% fill that gap, then finish the filling and smoothing with the SuperFill. Many ways to skin the cat, but I think most of these alternate methods come out looking much better than the aluminum cuff supplied in the kit.

[Av8r3400]

Just to set the record straight, the strut in my previous post is not mine. It is a photo of a Kitfox SLSA parked in their booth at Airventure.

Below is a top and bottom view of my struts.

This is from the top:
Mangy Strut.jpg


This is from below. (Please ignore the mud...)
Mangy Strut 2.jpg


I filled in the trailing edge gap again with a fitted piece of wood, hysol'ed into place then covered the whole thing with fabric. I went with the fabric because I have never had any luck getting paint to stick to plastic like this. So now they are fabric covered and match the rest of the plane.

[SkySteve]

(Please ignore the mud...)

AV8r3400,
No, we will not ignore the mud. Mud is definitely a badge of accomplishment!! Mud on, dude.

[jabkwab]

Today I made a test flight with my new strut fairings fashioned from insulation foam and Oratex (the rc plane stuff). Picking up about 9 miles of cruise, impressive!

One thing i noticed is the orientation of the fairings. I made them so that they can rotate, the theory being that they will align in the most aerodynamic way possible during flight.
What surprised me is how far down they seem to go during flight!



On the ground the fairings align perfectly with the small connecting tubes between the struts.

Would this make my Kitfox weird? Or is this the way everybody is aligning their fairings, just nobody told me


Greetings from the Low Countries, Jan

[kitfox2009]

Try doing the jury and elevator struts as well. Probably gain some more.
I think that's why the Vixens fly faster.
Have fun
Don

[jiott]

That's really interesting! I wonder if the rest of us who have our fairings in a fixed position could gain some more speed by angling them down. From the photo it looks so extreme, I wouldn't have believed it. Does both sides of the airplane do the same? Wonder if it is a spiraling propwash effect?