Pont463
Member
A little background on me.
I live in North West Indiana, and have a small machine shop/fabrication shop at my home. I am a certified welder in nearly all processes, and a fabricator of nearly anything. I am absolutely not saying I am the best, or even very good at some things, but if it is made out of metal, it can be made in my shop. I do have a full time job, so unfortunately the shop work can't always be first, but I do so enjoy just going out and messing around. I have build many cars, trucks, and boats, through the years, but I have never actually built an airplane. I have been flying with a good friend of mine who owns his own pacer, but I cant get into the certified world, as I just don't like people telling me what to do. After some thinking, I have decided to at least have some fun with it.
I picked up an Avid/kitfox/Mohawk. I'm not sure what it is, but its in need of some love. It is for sure a Mohawk, as I do have the build book that it was constructed from. Its in pretty rough shape. The original builder installed a Subaru EA81 in this poor little bird, and it proved to be to much weight. The pilot came down pretty hard, and ended up bending the lower sections of the fuselage up pretty good. This isn't much of a challenge to rebuild at all, however I know the motor will still be to heavy for this size bird. It did get me thinking though about the possibility of stretching the fuselage and building the plane to fit the engine. I started looking at what others have done, and even Kitfox themselves have lengthened this similar design to accommodate some of these issues. This is sort of the direction I think I will go.
The problem I keep running into, is that nobody wants to sell just plans anymore. Apparently they expect me to buy a entire "kit".. Did I mention I don't like being told what to do? I have looked at a few videos of others putting "kits" together, however I am unable to actually get a scaled drawing of like a series 7 kitfox. Or a RANS s20. I don't actually need a full print, I just need a few key measurements from a naked fuselage. Tubing sizes, wall thicknesses etc. Hopefully I come across something, or I am going to go rouge and design something completely from nothing so others can tell me what to do with it.
I am happy to be here.. Looking forward to the process..
I live in North West Indiana, and have a small machine shop/fabrication shop at my home. I am a certified welder in nearly all processes, and a fabricator of nearly anything. I am absolutely not saying I am the best, or even very good at some things, but if it is made out of metal, it can be made in my shop. I do have a full time job, so unfortunately the shop work can't always be first, but I do so enjoy just going out and messing around. I have build many cars, trucks, and boats, through the years, but I have never actually built an airplane. I have been flying with a good friend of mine who owns his own pacer, but I cant get into the certified world, as I just don't like people telling me what to do. After some thinking, I have decided to at least have some fun with it.
I picked up an Avid/kitfox/Mohawk. I'm not sure what it is, but its in need of some love. It is for sure a Mohawk, as I do have the build book that it was constructed from. Its in pretty rough shape. The original builder installed a Subaru EA81 in this poor little bird, and it proved to be to much weight. The pilot came down pretty hard, and ended up bending the lower sections of the fuselage up pretty good. This isn't much of a challenge to rebuild at all, however I know the motor will still be to heavy for this size bird. It did get me thinking though about the possibility of stretching the fuselage and building the plane to fit the engine. I started looking at what others have done, and even Kitfox themselves have lengthened this similar design to accommodate some of these issues. This is sort of the direction I think I will go.
The problem I keep running into, is that nobody wants to sell just plans anymore. Apparently they expect me to buy a entire "kit".. Did I mention I don't like being told what to do? I have looked at a few videos of others putting "kits" together, however I am unable to actually get a scaled drawing of like a series 7 kitfox. Or a RANS s20. I don't actually need a full print, I just need a few key measurements from a naked fuselage. Tubing sizes, wall thicknesses etc. Hopefully I come across something, or I am going to go rouge and design something completely from nothing so others can tell me what to do with it.
I am happy to be here.. Looking forward to the process..
