Tangerine

[DesertFox4]

Some photos
83D3805F-D53B-4904-B725-66FE38D7D90D.jpg 80BC5D9A-1728-4C2F-A240-383433E07CEC.jpg A4CCD066-BA34-4064-B49F-3C8F6AB1B2E9.jpg D1CE1EF8-D964-4D8B-B9F4-5A8A01CDACFF.jpg D579D82F-1EE6-4D9C-BA5D-35C5BE8ADF91.jpg CBEADD71-73F6-4975-BA08-440FD08E0161.jpg EF71FC95-DD93-4AE4-9A35-03F49C4C9B67.jpg F61A5A9A-9D68-4CCE-8EDB-ACBACFF56172.jpgA07C6FCB-8253-41B2-B9E9-59FDFB3133B5.jpg

[Hawkertech]

I may steal tha color eventually. Lol
What fabric did you use?

[PaulSS]

Brilliant minds and all that with the panel

(Eurofox, not Kitfox, so a smaller bit of real estate to work with).

Now I just need to get the radio to talk to the EFIS so it can be test flown

[desertdave]

The pictures don't do this justice. This plane is beyond amazing.

[DesertFox4]

Thanks Jeff and Brett. Jeff, the color was kind of a happy accident. I saw a very similar color on one of Bill Prokes molds for a carbon piece he was working on one day in his shop. He provided Air-Tech with samples and they got it so close it was scary. Bill painted all the fuselage, wing struts, jury struts, landing gear, flapperon weights, rudder, horizontal struts and cowlings for me. Also, he did all the layout of the paint scheme that Phil Laker and myself had envisioned a year or two earlier. Nice to have artists not only with vision but the skills to execute the design. I couldn’t be happier as I’m no painter. I couldn’t imagine doing this project without these two gentlemen. It was so life enriching to spend so much quality time working with Phil and Bill.
When all of Bill’s attention and time unexpectedly was pulled in another direction for a good while, my Kitfox family members came to my rescue to finish painting wings, flapperons, spinner, wing tips, elevator, horizontal stabilizer, fairings, gas caps, and assorted bits and pieces. They’ve been so supportive of this build as were Phil Laker and Bill Prokes, from the very beginning to the finish line. Of course I’m talking about John and Debra McBean of Kitfox Aircraft. John offered to make his paint booth available when there wasn’t a customers project occupying it to finish my paintwork.
John was down to Arizona last March on a very fast paced trip delivering some lucky builders kit, picking up some parts at Phil Laker’s shop, visiting all too briefly with friends and had room in his trailer for my wings and things. John hauled them north and stored them for me until June when the paint booth would become available for an amount of time to knock out my remaining parts. It may have been timing or fate that everything worked out but really it was the McBeans that saw to it that it worked out. Now just having the booth available would have been incredible on it’s own but to have Judd Parker’s time and talents in the booth was a real score. Brandon, Rod, Michael, Brently, Stan and of course John all pitched in to assist with the completion of Tangerine’s beautiful paint scheme. Thanks to all the Kitfox Aircraft team for all your kindnesses. It was a real pleasure spending nearly a month this summer watching this amazing bunch of dedicated people work. They even helped load my parts into the Budget rental truck and properly secure all components for safe transport back to Arizona when time came to leave for home.
A big thanks to Debra for putting up with me that long. She is one amazing person. I got to really watch what her days are like. Incredible energy, focus and dedication and not a minute from sun up until way after sundown that was not efficiently utilized. Oh, and her phone, it never stops ringing! I so enjoyed spending this time with my Idaho friends and so appreciate their support. I was also able to meet several Kitfox Aircraft customers and help test fly a brand new Kitfox and fly with Paul Leadabrand.

There are more people to thank in the journey from kit to flying Kitfox like Murle Williams letting me cover my fuselage in his shop wayback when I started this journey. All the great folks that stopped by the shop during construction and some who pitched in and helped even for a few minutes or just encouraged me with words of support. Thanks all.

[Av8r3400]

Looking good, Steve! Will we see her at OSH this year??

[DesertFox4]

Keith, Tangerine sports an MGL Explorer Lite 8.5” glass iEFIS, MGL 2.25” comm radio, Appereo ADS-B out transponder just below a Garmin Aera 500 GPS with weather and traffic via a GDL-39 mounted on the glare shield. McFarlane vernier throttle, double USB charger for iPAD Air2 with Stratus S2 for redundant weather and traffic and synthetic vision.
4866A52C-E0C2-47FC-8D31-191C25DA78FF.jpg

I went with MGL because a 10” screen would not quite fit in my custom panel surround. No one else had a intermediate sized glass panel. The 7” panels looked a little small but in retrospect a 7” would be perfectly useable for me. MGL’s customer service is top notch by the way.

Don’t look past Dynon’s offerings either. I’ve flown hundreds of hours behind their products with no issues.

Very hard to beat Garmin’s quality Keith. I’ve flown the factory Speedster just a very short time with their complete suite of avionics installed and another brand new Kitfox with the same set up and really like it. Having flown Garmin's portable GPS offerings for a couple decades now, I find their newest avionics completely familiar and very easy to navigate.

[DesertFox4]

What fabric did you use?

PolyFiber all the way.

[109JB]

PolyFiber all the way.

Aerothane or Polytone?

[DesertFox4]

Thanks Desert Dave.😀

I had a nice write up to go with the pictures. Lost it in the process some how. Wanted to get a few photos posted anyway. I have some incredibly talented people to thank for helping from start to finish on Tangerine. I will do a rewrite and try to do justice to their contributions. Love the Kitfox community.❤️
Her full name is Tangerine Dream.