SwiftFox - S7 Super Sport Build (Vancouver, Canada)

[nathan_s]

Hi all! My name is Nathan, I'm first time builder in Vancouver, Canada and I'm building a S7 Super Sport.

The current plan in summary form is to go with the following:

• Engine: Rotax 912iS
• Prop: 70inch 3-blade Airmaster (with whirlwind blades)
• Gear: Grove Spring Gear with Beringer 8inch wheels and brakes and a T3 Tailwheel
• Covering: Stewart Systems
• Avionics: Full Garmin suite with a Garmin G3X Touch (10 inch) as the main PFD

The kit arrived on March 25th. I met Brandon and Heather in Bellingham WA and transferred the kit into a rental truck to bring it across the border into Canada.

Kit Delivery.png

I immediately started building a couple of wing rotisseries and a stand for the fuselage to stand on. There was another aircraft in the hangar for the first couple of weeks as it waited to depart for its new home, so I was delayed getting the rotisseries and stand finished due to that. Once that other aircraft was gone, I completed inventory which took just 2 days, and then started on the horizontal stabilizer.

Wing Rotisseries and Fuselage Stand.png

It's been a few weeks since then, and a lot has been done and learned. The ribs and rib stiffeners are glued into the horizontal stabilizer and elevator, and I'm going to be mounting them into the fuselage next.

Glued Ribs.png

It has been an interesting start to say the least. There's been days when I've been able to get a lot done, and other days where I've spent most of my time just figuring out what I needed to do a particular piece of work; with a lot of trips to hardware stores. It's all part of the experience so I'm not at all demotivated by it. In fact its the opposite, I'm feeling like I'm learning a lot and getting more into a rhythm with each day.

I'm working full time on the build until at least the end of August, and we'll see where we can go from there.

The forums have been a hugely helpful resource thus far. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. I've been following a lot of other build threads and have notes from many of you of ways to do things better, easier, faster, etc. I'm going to be incorporating much of your ideas into my build.

[Kitfox Pilot]

Welcome Nathan!
You are starting an adventure for sure.
There will be times that you wonder why I started this! haha. But in the end it is all worth it.
Teamkitfox is a great place to get lots of the info you will need during the built.
I look forward to watching your build as it progresses. Harlan

[Kitfox Pilot]

Looks like you got it done right and that's the main thing. Everybody has some redos for sure. Keep posting we enjoys watching people build! Harlan

[nathan_s]

Thanks Harlan!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DesertFox4]

Congrats Nathan on your kit delivery and such a good start to the build process. Will be following progress.

[nathan_s]

Thanks, Harlan and DesertFox4. Appreciate the words of support.

Building has been progressing solidly. All of the ribs are bonded and varnished in the horizontal and vertical stabilizers, the elevator, and the rudder. I'm preparing now to bond in the fibreglass fairing onto the vertical stabilizer.

I learned a lot about trimming and bonding the ribs working on the horizontal stabilizer and elevator, and am much happier with the quality of my work in the vertical stabilizer and rudder as a result. The gluing, in particular, looks a lot better! I've been using the applicator gun and cartridges instead of the syringe/ziploc bag methods as I figured it would allow me to go a bit slower and correct more mistakes. It's definitely a nice way to go about gluing.

I've had the horizontal stabilizer mounted into the fuselage, and hooked up to the trim motor. My slider blocks are fitting very snug. So snug I'm a little concerned they might be too tight, and that the trim motor might be taxed in operation. Using a 9V battery, I timed how long it took the motor to move the horizontal from the bottom position (nose up) to top position (nose down), and it was about 21 seconds. Seems like a long time, but it is also only a 9V battery. I'm wondering if others have timed theirs with a 9V battery (or other known voltage) and know what their timing was for a comparison?

Slider Blocks.jpg

[alexM]

My trim motor is easily accessible so I'll time it with a 9v tomorrow morning. I've tested it with a 12v motorcycle battery and it didn't take anything like 21 seconds but with a simple 9v battery it might.

[nathan_s]

My trim motor is easily accessible so I'll time it with a 9v tomorrow morning. I've tested it with a 12v motorcycle battery and it didn't take anything like 21 seconds but with a simple 9v battery it might.

Thanks, alexM. Appreciate it!

[olsonCCR]

Nathan,
Nice work on your build. I'm building an S7 as well. (Working on my window and door frames now, and am almost ready to start work on my wings). I just watched your video and had the same idea as you, and used flush rivets for the center console in place of the pop rivets in the kit. I really enjoyed the experience having not worked with flush rivets before but keeping the bucking bar in place when using the rivet gun was way more difficult than I thought working in such a tight space. Every time the bucking bar came off I dented the underside of the console which is visible from the top.

Just sharing my experience in case you haven't started with your flush rivets. I should have protected the top surface better and practiced using the rivet gun with the bucking bar more before starting.

I used both a manual squeezer with a 3" yoke, and a rivet gun. The squeezer wouldn't fit in between the bracket and the side of the console as it tapers, which required the rivet gun resulting in the surface denting. Great learning experience but I will definitely need to use some super fill to clean up the surface to prep it for covering. Originally, I thought it would look cool to have the console top and rivets exposed.

In the sun, my finished console looks pretty rough! Inside the plane, not very noticeable but I do still plan to cover it. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the final result.

One other unexpected challenge I had (which I still need to address) was after finishing riveting, the console surface bent ever so slightly near the adjustable rudder handles from the use of the rivet gun, resulting in the handle notch tolerances being slightly too tight when moved from each ratchet position, making the handles difficult to lock. Once I remove the console again, I need to "press up" the console top from the underside a bit, which should solve this issue. Everything works fine and locks in place but it's not perfect.

Anyways, look forward to watching your progress!
Good luck with your build.

Kevin Olson
Building an S7 STi

[nathan_s]

Thanks for that info, Kevin. I'll definitely be keeping it in mind.

My only previous experience with a rivet gun was at AirVenture in 2019 when I attended a Sheet Metal workshop where we riveted a small piece of aluminum sheet to a couple of angle brackets. I might try and find some way to do some more practice before doing it for real on the centre console.

Also I've been following along with your update videos on YouTube. Looks like you're making great progress with your build!