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Kitfox Page One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen , Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen, Nineteen, Twenty
21 January 2014: More of the same. Actually most of today's building time is spent gathering the parts and scratching my head for the battery installation.
25 January 2014: Fabricating the band. After thinking it through I realized that just bending it around the box was the easiest way to do it. What wasn't easy was installing the adell clamp on the bottom. That took A LOT of bad language.
1 February 2014: Heavy Duty: Over the last couple of days I've been installing the master and starter relays and the battery wiring. In the second photo you can see the ground bus which is a forest of lugs that accept spade terminals. It is secured by two bolts. One of which takes the ground wires from the battery and the engine. This can be seen in the last photo.
This inexpensive tool from Aircraft Tool Supply worked quite well on #6 wire terminals.
I also made progress with the cowl.
4 February 2014: I'll be forever alternating between fairing the cowl and everything else. Today I cut out the opening for the oil access and started making a pattern for the door. In the third photo you can see an application of Super-Fil behind the spinner. There will be plenty more applications before I can call the cowl 'fair.'
7 February 2014: The door is ready to be mounted.
11 February 2014: Mounting the oil access door. Clecoed in place and waiting for rivets and camlocs.
18 February 2014: Mounting the camlocks.
Riveted in place! For the first time on this project I had to use my rivet gun instead of the squeezer.
Here I've routed the battery lead to the positive bus and the master and starter leads. A sharp eye will see that the battery lead doesn't have a terminal. It's in the mail. I'm temporarily using masking tape to secure the wires. this allows me to determine the length of each wire while allowing me to re-route if necessary.
The terminal is still in the mail. I've added the leads from the ignition modules to the ignition switch.
23 February 2014: Alternator wiring. This may be overdoing it but, I've mounted the ammeter shunt in a u-channel to reduce the possibility of something metallic falling on it and shorting it.
Crowded terminal! Three leads to the regulator and one to the capacitor. 14 AWG is recommended for the leads from the regulator but the installation manual was vague about the wire gauge to the capacitor. The manual did say, in the case of the master switch being shut off during engine operation, the capacitor will "absorb and dissipate" the current from the alternator. This is to avoid damaging the regulator. With that in mind I opted for 14 AWG wire.
25 February 2014: Alternator wiring complete. The shielded yellow leads are from the charging coils in the back of the engine.
Installing the Instrument Panel
4 March 2014: Primer coat.
8 March 2014: The final color coat. After searching far and wide for a good quality flat grey paint I settled for grey propeller paint. The color is just what I wanted.
11 March 2014: Labeling the panel. I used a label maker to make black lettering on 1/4" clear tape. Masking tape helped me align the labels.
14 March 2014: For convenience many call it a "choke." It's really a starting carburetor and, in the kitfox it's operated by a pull ring.
Things are getting cluttered. Look carefully, the cables for the starting carb are in place.
A little clarity. A better look at the cables.
The Panel is permanently in place. Now the task of installing everything begins.
15 March 2014: Throttle! For all those who are building a kitfox and have yet to reach this step. Lead the throttle cables through the rubber grommet in the firewall FIRST. I led the starting carb cables first. It made it almost impossible to lead the throttle cables.
18 March 2014: Auxiliary power. With a USB charger I'll be able to run cameras, tablet computers, etc...
Key switch, starter circuit breaker, and master switch. I'm on a roll.
21 March 2014: The electrical distribution busses are wired. Your keen eye will notice I have a master and an avionics master.
22 March 2014: I almost screwed-up. When I installed the ammeter shunt I forgot the NACA duct for the right cabin vent was to be mounted very close. As it turned out, the shunt and the duct nested quite well. It almost looks like I planned it that way.
23 March 2014: Trial fitting. I was determined not to make any cutouts until I was sure that the ducts were properly located. If I had to relocate, it would be easy to drill new holes and patch the incorrect ones. The right duct has the SCAT tubing in place to confirm I can route it around the ammeter shunt.
2 April 2014: Glued in place! Your keen eye will see that I drilled a 3/4 inch hole where the cutout will be. Of course I did this on both sides. When the glue cures I'll expand each hole to fit the ducts. The ducts are temporarily clamped in place with clecos. When they were all in place I avoided gluing the clecos to my work by removing each one, cleaning the cleco and the hole, and replacing it. This has worked in the past. I'll see if it works now.
4 April 2014: Trip to Sun-n-Fun! Where, once again, I pestered John McBean with a thousand questions. Kitfox was well represented at the Rotax exhibit.
5 April 2014: I roughed in the first NACA duct.
11 April 2014: Slow going! A lot of things are pulling me away from the kit but, today, I was able to find time to rough in the second NACA duct.
12 April 2014: Using the same technique I used here. I sanded the Super-Fil to the marks projected from the spinner.
16 April 2014: Just a little more sanding. The cowl and spinner will be aligned with each other.
I trial fitted the cabin vents. I'm happy with the fit.
More on Page 17
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