Hoenshell's Build

[Hoenshell]

This past weekend my wife and I purchased and picked up a Kitfox IV Classic from a gentlemen not too far away from my location here outside of the Kansas City area. I’m not a mechanic; although, I purchased a Cessna 172E a couple of years ago and my A&P has helped me performed a lot of my own maintenance an upgrades over the past couple of years. I’m a network engineer by trade and although I enjoy the technical aspects, I also have gotten my hands dirty in numerous past projects working with metal, wood, plastic and fiber glass. This will be great first kitplane project since it is over half completed with fabric covered and painted. It came with a never ran Rotax 912ULS 100hp engine (purchased 1999) which I’m very excited about. This Kitfox was purchased in 1994 and so I have some updating to do. I really like the looks of the Kitfox with the smooth cowling, but I’m not as much of a fan of the round cowling and of course this project has a completed round cowling along with the firewall forward kit. The first order of business will be to contact Kitfox and order the necessary parts to change from the round to smooth cowling. My understanding it’s requires replacing the engine mount along with the upper firewall since the firewall was already shaped to the round cowling. I know it’s going to be quite a task to redo much of the work already done with the round cowling, but I’m looking forward to the challenge and I’ll be happier with the end results. I also want to change the standard landing gear out for the bush landing gear. While I’m waiting on the cowling parts to arrive I believe that I may try to change the color of the interior by painting the front of the frame tubing to a dark matte gray. There is just too much red and I’m going to accent with matte gray. I’ve already gotten some great advice on this forum and look forward to hearing other advice, opinions and ideas. For instance I’m planning on changing the plastic header tank to aluminum to fix any leaking problems before they start. In order to remove the heavy power supply I will replace the older Whelen stobe/nav lights with some LED lights. The rudder pedals will be beefed up so no potential cracking there. Trying to figure out what to do about elevator trim. Look forward to joining the Kitfox community and hope I can give something back.

[aviator79]

It looks like you've got a great head start there. I'd wager it's well over half completed. Welcome to the fun.

[efwd]

Welcome to the forum Hoenshell. You'll enjoy all that's left for you to do.
Eddie

[jiott]

I like your guts and can-do attitude. You will do fine.

[avidflyer]

I just made an elevator trim for my Kitfox 4 elevator. I have it uncovered, so I figured now was the time to do it. The plane did have a moveable trim tab but as long as it was accessable, I cut out the section, and made a new one. I still have the old one, it's meant to be installed on a covered elevator. I thought Merhl Williams supplied it, but I didn't find one on his website. You can see it on the elevator in the picture. JImChuk

[Hoenshell]

My elevator is already covered and I'm debating on pulling it off and putting in the trim tab. Since I didn't cover the airplane it's not like I'm redoing my own work. Is it worth it? I've heard of alternatives, but I'm thinking that this is the best way to go.

[Hoenshell]

What's the best way to open the holes in the horizontal stabilizer for the bolts to connect the struts. It's been covered with fabric and painted; there is a round patch tacked into place over the holes. Is a soldering iron used to open those up or a drill bit or something else?

[jiott]

Use a small soldering iron or a woodburning tool with a small tip. Using heat to melt thru the fabric seals the edges so there is no unraveling.

[Hoenshell]

Thanks, worked perfectly! Now, if I can just find the right bolts.

[Hoenshell]

The Manual says, "The Horizontal Stabilizer can be as much as 3 degrees to 3.5 negative compared to the datum (the front is lower than the rear.) Our Speedster demonstrator flies best with the leading edge of the Horizontal Stabilizer as high as possible in the slot."

My top hole measures 2.2 and 5 on the bottom hole with this electronic level. Is this normal? Should I set it to the top slot?