8178

My Feedback: (17)

There were a few hair line cracks on the nose of the fuselage caused by the UPS shipping damage. The cracks were mostly on the surface and did not extend into the cloth so I just sanded them and coated the area with resin. I waited until the resin set up and sanded the area smooth. See the before and after images below and the image of the complete aircraft showing how it looks at this point. Next I’ll be finishing the wheel wells.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

I like to line the wheel wells with 1/64 plywood because it is strong, easy to work with and to finish. After cutting the wheel wells and retract mount area I use a paint can top covered with sand paper to smooth and square the foam floor of the wheel well with the sides. Strips of plywood covered with sand paper are used to square up the foam in the retract gear area. I usually run the air line path in front of the wheel well and around to the retract gear area but on this build the path is over the top of the wheel well. I use Tietbond to glue in the wheel well ply parts but epoxy on the ply around the retract unit. Micro-balloons mixed with epoxy are used to make small fillets in the wheel well and retract gear area. 1/8 square hardwoog strips are glued under the gear mount to tie the 1/64 ply to the gear mount.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

View of the plywood in place and the Micro-balloon fillets.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

View of gear.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

More gear images.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

It’s been too cold in Atlanta (18 degrees) to start with the primer work on the fuselage and wing center section so I’ve moved on to the planning and installation of the throttle linkage and servos. I like to use a cable for the throttle with a nylon clevis for the carb connection. See the images below for the throttle linkage.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

I had to add a ½’ plywood spacer to the servo mounts so the Futaba S148 BB servos would fit in the space that I had planned for the Kraft KPS11 servos 30 years ago. I decided that the spacers would be a better solution that ripping out the neat original balsa and plywood servo mounts.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Looking at the installation the servo on the top left is the rudder, center left is the elevator, bottom left is the throttle and the servo in the back is for the retract gear air valve. The Rom-Air retract control valve can be seen in front of the servo. The air tank is next to the servo. On the original Kwik Fli I mounted the air fill valve and radio off/On switch in the nose gear wheel well and I’m thinking that it would be cool to do that again. What do you thank about that idea? I might put the radio antenna inside the fuselage too. The Rom-Air nose gear uses a pull – pull cable and I’m planning to use the red plastic tube to guide the cables that can be seen on the top of the image.

To be continued..

Ryan Smith

My Feedback: (25)

Sounds like a neat idea, I'm assuming that fuel or anything like that will affect the switches? Looking good, although I think I'll still stick to my tapered wing Stingers

8178

My Feedback: (17)

But no retracts to play with! That could be considered good or bad feature depending on the builder. I guess you could easily say that all the 70s vintage aircraft looked like tapered wing Kwik Flis and 80s vintage aircraft looked like Tipos!

I didn’t have any problems with fuel leaks or getting fuel or oil in the switch or air filler on the original.

TOYMAKER

My Feedback: (6)

Wow.... Deja'-Vuuuuuuuuuuuu

Had one in '73 Had Kraft radio system and you could only get 2 servo's side by side. Super Tigre .60 and what a sweet plane.

Wayne G.

8178

My Feedback: (17)

It’s not too late to experience again the fun of flying one of these awesome classics and thanks to the SPA more of these kits are becoming available. The SPA approved aircraft page at http://www.seniorpattern.com/planes.asp has the kit manufacturers listed at the bottom of the page. I think it is really neat that these kit manufacturers are making these great kits available again. In some cases, like Howard Engineering, they are being produced from the original molds and the plans and instruction are updated to include the current hardware, provisions for four strokes, etc.

A big thank you to all of the manufacturers that are producing these kits!

8178

My Feedback: (17)

The weather warmed a little so I started the primmer work on the wing center section. I plan to paint the center section of the wing and then overlap the outer edges of painted area when I MonoKote the remaining parts of wing like I did on the original Kwik Fli. I’ve also decided to use the same orange paint scheme with 2.5” white and orange checkers on the bottom of the wing. I’m using LusterKote rattle can paint to match the orange MonoKote. LusterKote is not my favorite paint and the primmer does not sand very well but it is a usable solution. The fuselage and the vertical stabilizer will be primed and painted and the horizontal stab, elevators and rudder will be covered with MonoKote.

I taped off the center section and sprayed a light primer coat, sanded, another heaver coat, sanded and then the last light coat primmer. The tape was removed and the primer was sanded for the last time and feathered (tapered) down to the balsa sheeting to remove any ridge from the tape line. Note that the front wing dowels are removed form the wing before the painting started. They will be coated with epoxy and glued in after the color coat.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

The wing was taped off again being careful to keep a small gap between the edge of the primer and the balsa sheeting. I didn’t want any of the white primer exposed because it could show through the MonoKote. A light mist coat of orange was sprayed on, and then heaver coats to fully cover the primmer were flowed on to provide a high gloss. I let the paint set for 24 hours and then covered the paper area with clear plastic wrap so I could wet sand the paint. The wet sanding cuts the paint down pretty fast but you just want to get a smooth finish and not go through to the primmer. After the wet sanding was completed I sprayed on a tack coat of orange and then a heavy coat that was flowed out smooth. The first image below shows the first painting and the other images show the paint after the wet sanding and the second coat. The florescent lights in the shop make the orange color in the first two images have a yellow cast.

The molding of the wing into the fuselage is an optional item but I like the way it looks. If the wing fairings are not used the fiberglass center section could just be MonoKoted and no painting would be needed.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

I started working on the orange MonoKote for the wing. Everyone on this forum certainly must have spent a zillion hours with a MonoKote iron so I won’t spend any time describing that process. I might just add that I sanded the outside edge of the painted center section to remove the paint ridge caused buy the masking tape. I wanted the MonoKote to flow over the edge smoothly.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Happy Holidays Kwik Fli fans!

8178

My Feedback: (17)

The MonoKote on the wing is done! What a time machine, it’s looking just like the original! I think my MonoKote work is better than it was back then.

To be continued..

slim56

My Feedback: (4)

8178:

Your work with the covering iron is nothing short of fantastic. I'm considered to be pretty good with the covering iron but your real expertise shows on the wingtips. Very nice. I have been following this thread from the beginning because I have a couple of Kaos kits that I am looking to build, however I like the look of this Kwik Fli kit because the fuse flows smoother. I noticed that you said that Howard Engineering was kitting these from the original molds, do you have a contact number or address for them. I'm looking forward to additional progress with your build.

Anaconda

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Anaconda,

I’m glad you are finding the build interesting and thanks for the kind words! I figured there had to be a few others out there in RCU land that could appreciate one of the classics. The contact information for Howard Engineering is listed on the bottom of the Senior Pattern Association (SPA) approved SPA aircraft page at http://www.seniorpattern.com/planes.asp They also make a Kwik-OS kit that is a Kwik Fli fuselage with a Kaos wing and tail. I have flown the Kwik-OS and it flies very much like the original Kaos but has the wonderful lines of the Kwik Fli. Both the Kwik Fli and Kwik-OS are approved SPA aircraft.

8178

My Feedback: (17)

I decided to go with the single pushrod for the elevator like I used on the original Kwik Fli rather that the dual system like I used on the Tipo. I used coat hanger wire to connect the elevators like I did on the original Kwik Fli. I found some pretty sturdy wire to use that is stiff but can be bent if needed to make alignments adjustments.

After the elevators wire drilled and cut for the wire I used orange MonoKote to cover them along with the rudder.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Back in the “olden days” there was a company that made epoxy glue called Hobby Poxy. They promoted a process for finishing balsa surfaces with their glue product and it worked pretty well. It doesn’t take too long and makes a light and hard paintable surface. Unfortunately, like many of the good old products, Hobby Poxy is no longer available. I used the Hobby Poxy process to finish the balsa parts on the center of the wing and the vertical stabilizer using 30 minute epoxy glue that I got from our local HobbyTown USA store. In small print it says that it is made by Bob Smith Industries.

The first step is to shape and sand the balsa to the shape you want. Next mix your epoxy and spread it on the balsa using a squeegee. I use a small piece of ABS plastic. Squeegee the balsa surface so that there is very little glue left on the balsa. I then take a paper towel and wipe the balsa cross grain so the glue left in the low spots of the balsa grain. The glue soaks into the balsa and that’s what you want to happen on the first coat. Let the epoxy setup so it is very hard, usually takes over night.

Next, sand the surface so it is smooth being careful not to sand all the way through to the bare balsa and then recoat. Depending on how deep the grain is keep redoing the process until it has a glass like surface. Three coats should provide a nice base finish for the first primmer paint coat. The images below show the progress of three coating steps in the process.

To be continued..

8178

My Feedback: (17)

I’ve started the primer work on the fuselage and it is looking super. While I’m putting those images together I thought you might like to see the NOS Rom-Air retract system that I installed in the kit thirty years ago. In the image below the air tank is in on the left in the foreground and has the air filler valve attached. The air selector is above the tank and the nose wheel retract unit is above that. The Robart hand air pump is at the top with new air lines below it. The main gear retracts are on the right with new Robart quick disconnects to the left. Thirty years ago we used R12 refrigerant to charge the systems but that is not allowed anymore. I didn’t realize how large the Robart units were until they arrived today and I may switch to the smaller metal ones like are used for my Spring Air retracts. There are some metal “T” air fittings used in wing that are not shown. One of the things I like about the Rom-Air retracts compared to the Spring Air units that I have is that the Rom-Air retracts can stay retracted when transporting the aircraft. The down side is if the system loses pressure while flying the gear does not spring to the down position like the Spring Air units.

To be continued..

Warren

My Feedback: (72)

Beautiful workmanship!

Brings back a lot of memories; me and my Phoenix 8 days...

I really need to make some time to build again, I grow tired of the ARF's...

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Thanks for the positive input! You know it’s never too late to build a kit or two, especially one of the timeless classics. The thing I like about kits and you can build them to your standards not to someone else’s idea of quality. I’ve assembled a few ARFs over the years and tried my best to like them but I never feel much attachment to them.

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Happy New Year Kwik Fli fans!