Kitfox Page One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten,
Eleven,
Twelve,
Thirteen,
Fourteen,
Fifteen ,
Sixteen,
Seventeen,
Eighteen,
Nineteen,
Twenty
 16
March 2011: Reinforcing the trailing edge. As I did with the right
wing I reinforced the trailing edge by bonding aluminum tubing into the
channels.
 18
March 2011: I begin mounting the left flaperon. Since I assembled
both flaperons at the time I was working on the right wing much of the
work has been done. Today I drilled and clecoed the reinforcement brackets
and came to a halt due to the fact that I'm out of Hysol epoxy. I waited
too late to order more Hysol from Kitfox. My fault!
25 March 2011: The Hysol has arrived! I completed bonding and
riveting the flaperon brackets.
   27
March 2011: Mounting the left flaperon. From the beginning of this
project I've obsessed about getting the rib spacing right. Now that both
flaperons have been successfully fitted to their wings I can say that it
paid off. (The pink ribbon marks a place that needs extra varnish.)
 3
April 2011: Back to Work! I
spend a few days away from the Kitfox in order to perform maintenance on
the Cessna. Today I returned to the Kitfox and began fairing the left
wing. I started by filling the gap between the tank and leading edge with
Super-Fil.
 8
April 2011: First coat of sprayed Poly-Brush. Painting with a HVLP gun
is a new skill so I started by painting one coat on the top of the right
wing. This was after painting a couple of cardboard boxes for practice.
I'm pleased that there were no disasters.
15 April 2011: End of Term commitments at both of my teaching jobs keep
me away from the kitfox. In two weeks it will be over and I'll have an
abundance of time. Now and again I can snatch a moment or two. Today I
worked a little more fairing the left wing for covering.
  17
April 2011: I started the day in the hangar. I painted the bottom of
the right wing and then returned home and continued fairing the left wing.
23 April 2011: Completed fairing the left wing. Applied the final
bit of varnish. the next step will be applying epoxy primer to all the
aluminum and steel.
 24
April 2011: Tedious! As I've said before, the white Poly-Fiber epoxy
primer doesn't brush well. This is the first coat applied to the ends of
the spars. The second coat will give it a more uniform 'stippled'
appearance. To me this is acceptable for the wing spars and other metal parts of the wings.
27 April 2011: Continued painting. This is going to take about a
week and a half of work.
29 April 2011: More paint. Another pink ribbon marking a loose glue
joint.
1 - 4 May 2011: Painting, painting...
7 May 2011: Bugs!! I was able to apply a second coat of sprayed
Poly-Brush to the top of the right wing. It's
Love Bug
season in Florida and when a 'couple' alighted on my freshly painted wing
I decided against painting the bottom. Fortunately the paint was dry
enough not to cause a problem.
 9
May 2011: Priming Complete!!
 11
May 2011: Mating the pitot tube to the pitot mast. My plan is to
install and plumb the pitot tube in a manner that would allow me to remove
it and reinstall it during the final assembly. This will require an
inspection plate aft of the pitot mast. I will permanently install the
pitot and angle of attack tubing so that it can be accessed through the
inspection hole and at the wingtip after the wing is covered. Today I
marked the positions of the mounting screws on the pitot mast.
   12
May 2011: After drilling and tapping the screws! I installed the pitot
tube assembly. The screws are hardware store stuff. I will use better
stuff at the final assembly. If it's necessary I can make small
adjustments to the angle of the pitot tube with shims.
 14
May 2011: Trial and Error: My plan is to lead the pitot and angle of
attack tubing from the pitot tube, to the wing tip, and through the aft
spar to the wing root. For now I intend to coil the tubing next to the
outermost rib where I can reach it after the wing is covered and mounted
to the fuselage. At that time I'll feed the tubing through the spar. Today
I spent most my time thinking about exactly how I am to do this. More head
scratching than actually doing something.
    15
May 2011: I may regret it but I've changed my plan. I've decided to
route the tubing toward the wing root, snugly passing under the rear spar
next to rib 3. I put a lot of effort into minimizing chafe. Zip ties
helped me position the tubing to keep it from touching the fabric.
  17
May 2011: Yesterday I spent my time cleaning the shop, retrieving all my
covering supplies, and waiting for delivery of a flaring tool from
Aircraft Spruce. Today I was able to use the new tool to complete the
work on the pitot tube. You'll notice that I left the tubing over length.
I'll trim it when I do the final assembly.
    18
- 20 May 2011: Covering has started!
 22
May 2011: Both sides are covered. After I wrap the top fabric around
the capstrips I'll be ready for the first heat shrinking.
   23
May 2011: Once Again, Magic: I set the iron for 250 degrees and smooth
away all the horrible bubbles and girts. This is going quite a bit faster
than the other wing.
 25-28
May 2011: Preparing to Rib Lace! Linda and I first snapped chalk lines
at the rib lace positions. I then started to apply the rib lace tape. Two
rows of 1/2" tape side by side on each 1 inch capstrip.
 29-30
May 2011: Rib Lacing!
 31
May 2011: Rib Lacing Complete! I finished by heat shrinking to 350°
  1
June 2011: Permanent attachment of the wingtip mounting strips. Flush
rivets.
 2
June 2011: Poly Brush.
   3
June 2011: Doilies: An astute observer will notice some bubbles formed
on the Poly Brush coating. Experience tells me that when this happens
after the Poly Brush starts to set, leave it alone. Messing with it will
only make it worse.
4 June 2011: Applied tapes to the top and bottom capstrips.
 6
June 2011: A fix! 4 days ago when I coated the wing with Poly Brush an
approximately 2 inch section of fabric detached over the bottom
capstrip of rib #3. Apparently there wasn't enough glue and when it
was softened by the Poly Brush it let go. Since this was in an
under-cambered part of the rib it created a separation of about 1/32nd of
an inch. (Due to the fact that rib #3 is adjacent to the tank it can't be
rib laced.) Since it's on the bottom of the wing it would probably be
acceptable to leave it as it is but it bothered me. Today I thought of a
solution and took action. Expand the photo to full size and notice the
"wound" in the fabric between the two scuba weights. I used a rib lacing
needle to poke a hole in the fabric, I then loaded a syringe with
Poly Tac and injected it through the hole into the space between the
fabric and the capstrip. Clamping pressure was maintained by the scuba
weights. (3 lbs each)
In this area on the top of the wing the fabric is glued to most of
the tank. This makes separation highly unlikely. On the rest of the wing
some will say, since the Kitfox capstrips are an inch wide, that gluing is
enough to hold the fabric and rib lacing is unnecessary. My recent
experience casts doubt on that assertion.
 8
June 2011: Bottom false rib tapes. The photo shows the tapes after
they have been heat smoothed.
10-12 June 2011: Started the span-wise taping. Some hitches,
progress is slow.
 13
June 2011: Trailing edge tape is in place. All that's left is heat
smoothing.
   15
June 2011: Leading edge tape. As with the right wing I started by
gluing the tape to the bottom of the leading edge. I then folded it over
and attached it with a 1" strip of glue to the top. Because of the hills
and valleys of the ribs and false ribs there are wrinkles that have to be
worked out with heat. I've learned to give Poly-Brush plenty of time to
cure before applying heat. I'll do it in the morning.
 16
June 2011: It's morning! You can see that I was able to smooth out the
wrinkles. After I coated the leading edge tape with Poly-Brush I applied
the drain grommets. A little more heat smoothing and I'm declaring the
left wing COVERED!
A Respite. I regret to say that I won't be able to go forward with
the kit until mid to late August. Linda and I are buying a house in
Titusville. The next six to seven weeks will be occupied with moving to
the new place and preparing our place in Cape Canaveral for the market.
(Anyone want to buy a townhouse close to the beach?) The good news is that
I will now have a two-car garage that will accommodate the entire kit. A
real bonus is that I'll be a couple of miles from another kitfox builder.
  6
August 2011: Moved! The kit is now located at our new house in
Titusville. I still need shelves. All the stuff that's on and under the
tables will be on shelves. The tables will be stored and all that space
will be work space. I'm in heaven.
  14
August 2011: I'm back to work. I had originally planned to
complete painting the wings to the third coat of Poly-Spray. However, it's
August in Florida. The garage is 88 degrees mid-day and the humidity is
like a steam bath. I'll work on the fuselage until the weather cools. Then
I'll take a break and paint the wings.
You may notice that the garage door is new and it's very robust. Hurricane
zone building codes. It was a bit pricy but, it's nice to know the Kitfox
is well protected.
20 August 2011: I know! I have a fetish for building stands and
fixtures. This time I'm making stands to support the fuselage. Two
stands like the one illustrated to be placed at the fore and aft landing
gear mounting points. And the tail stand that I already have. The plan is
to be able to move one of the stands out of the way when the time comes to
mount the landing gear.
  Give
me enough 1 by 4's and I'll span the Hudson. I had to wait until the
rain cleared. But then I rolled the table saw out onto the driveway and
went to work.
  21
August 2011: I finish the stands.
  The
fuselage is on the stands!
Fuselage Assembly
 26
August 2011: Control column. I begin by enlarging one of the holes on
the right bearing housing to allow the stick pivot to find its place. I
then begin to ream. Tedious, but has to be done.
 27
August 2011: Slicker than Snot! The control stick pivots are
permanently mounted. The bearings allow for very low friction with no
play.
 28
August 2011: The control column is complete and ready to mount in the
fuselage. I'm developing an uncontrollable compulsion to make airplane
noises. The assembly manual states that installing the connect tube on the
co-pilot's stick pivot "can be difficult to install." That's an
understatement.
  2
September 2011: The control column is installed! I have to confess
that when I back-drilled the last bolt on the plastic bearing the bit
emerged out the top a little off-center. I knew that getting it perfect
would be difficult. The first bolt hole was drilled with a drill press.
The second hole had to be drilled on site. The asymmetry is annoying but,
since the control column is well aligned and functions well I'm leaving it
alone.
 4
September 2011: A poor man's arbor press. Since it only took a light
force to press in the bearings on the forward elevator idler bellcrank, a
c-clamp served admirably.
Elevator connect tube: Some of the nuts are only hand tightened so
that they may be easily removed to allow adjustment during the final
rigging of the airplane. These places are garishly decorated with pink
surveyor's tape to remind me that there is more work to be done.
  Proceeding
to the next step: Assembling the flaperon mixer. As always, the first
step is gathering all the parts. Invariably the next step is reaming.
Yeah, I know... it's hot.
 10
September 2011: The flaperon mixer is assembled. For a few days I've
been occupied with the Cessna. There were some issues with the left
muffler that needed attention. But today, the problem is fixed. This
morning Linda and I took turns flying the Cessna and I spend the afternoon
working on the kitfox.
   11
September 2011: I assembled and installed the flap handle and
installed the flaperon mixer. After that I installed the flap and aileron
connect tubes. Again the hand tightened nuts are marked with pink tape.
 13
September 2011: Look closely. I've installed the elevator push-rods.
More on Page Seven
|
