Purchasing the Kit as I build.. anyone doing this?

[Gregpei]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum and excited about the prospects of building a fox.
I have a private flying Lic with no plane to fly!!! Not good!! After reading lots and talking with a person who owns and flys a 5, I am convinced that the Kit fox will be my choice of airplane. The only other decision is to go with a tail draggier... I have only trained the tri gear. Anyway, I digress! Because of cost I plan to buy as I build. Anyone doing this and how is it working out. I plan to start with the wings and go from there. Any suggestions, pit falls I might not have identified? I live in eastern Canada on a small island called Prince Edward Island ... I don't think there are any other builders of the fox in the area. I would welcome any of your comments.

thanks,
Greg

PS if anyone is planning to fly to PEI with their kit fox... I will give you a tour! But that catch... you will need to take me for a flight in the fox!!

[AirFox]

You are limited in how much work you can do on the wings until they are rigged to the fuselage. If it was me I would start with the fuselage. Just my two cents.

[jiott]

I agree with Airfox, that the fuse is a better place to start for the reasons he gave. However, I did start with the wings first (not quick-build) because they are much less expensive than the fuse kit. There is a lot of work in building the wings from scratch so I did keep myself busy for quite a while before I need to rig them on the fuse. You can't finish them up and cover them until you have the fuse. The fuse assembly seems to go quite fast so you pay more money and don't keep yourself busy as long as the wings. All in all I had no problems in starting with the wings first, just be aware that they will be hanging around in their skeleton form until after you get the fuse. You can rig the wings and then finish them up the first thing after the fuse comes in the door.

The painting step comes next (after covering everything) and it is quite a chunk of money, more than you would think, around $3000 if you go Aerothane, for paint and supplies. Spray equipment and paint booth construction are extra.

The FWF kit does you no good without the engine so these two items add up to quite a chunk of money. I guess you could fit the firewall itself, the boot cowl and the engine mount without the engine, but these items go quite fast.

You could also get started on the instrument panel layout and some of the fuselage wiring before aquiring the engine, but you really do need the engine and all its sensors before you go too far in wiring the panel.

So yes, you can pay as you go which is what I did. But if you are like me, the farther I went the more and faster I wanted to go so I could get flying the little jewel, so all these chunks of money kept flying out the door at a pretty good clip.

In my opinion you would never want to buy everything at once, especially the engine and avionics. In the year or so it takes to build up to this point many new things can happen with engines and avionics and you don't want to be stuck with old stuff that has just been sitting around while the world moved on.

Jim

[Gregpei]

Thank you to you both. Very exciting and daunting all at the same time! I do have time in the military as an Air Frame Tech. so know some of the complications... however, I worked on the helo's and larger fixed winged aircraft. Jim, I have been debating if I should get the wings partially build or simply build them from the kit. When you say "scratch" does that mean you did not get the wings as a kit? Just wondering if its worth not spending an extra $1300?

Greg

[Dave S]

Hi Greg,

Welcome aboard! We have spent some time in NS and love it....sometime hope to get to PEI and Labrador in the future.

Anyway, people use many different strategies for getting their planes done. If cost is a factor (was a big factor for me too) it is sort of a catch 22.......If a person buys it all at once it will likely be cheaper in the long run because everything seems to get more expensive with time; if a person needs to spread it out over time to mitigate the annual expense it will likely be costlier in the long run.

Since you are in Canada, exchange rate may play a factor and the loonies are relatively strong compared to the US dollar right now...something to consider.

In terms of getting one's project done, it helps to have most of the basic kit because if a person can't do one thing because of the weather, a person can tackle something else.

If at all possible I would consider getting the fuselage, tail and wing parts together and leaving the engine and electronics till later.

Personally my strategy to keep the cost as low as possible was to get the whole works at once to avoid future price increases, got the slow build wings and ditched the powdercoating in favor of a bare frame which I could sandblast/epoxy/aerothane (sweat equity on that relatively dirty job). When it came to instruments I stayed with the basics and got good used instruments wherever possible.

Most of all a person has to think this through to decide what is right for them.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp
St Paul, MN

[Esser]

Hey Greg, the basic kit is 20,000. By the time I put all the options on my plane it was another 7G. That was stuff like laker leading edge, profiled tail, adj. rudder pedals, quick build wing, cargo kit, etc. All these options are really nice but in hind sight you can get a lot of that stuff after.

So I am up to 27,000 by the time I paid to have it shipped it to Canada it was just shy of 30,000 and then I had to pay wonderful HST at 13%.

Then I bought some tools and things so I was roughly at $35,000 before I did anything to the plane. Hope this doesnt scare you off but this is a realistic Canadian cost. You can trim some fat off the options.

Hope this gives you some insight to if you buy the whole kit at once.

[leptronjohn]

having built a couple of the fox, I believe that Dave S is correct in trying to buy the wings and fuselage at the same time. it seems they are related enough to warrant the expense. I bought my first one with everything at one time, it was stupid. It took me much longer to build and I threw many items out such as dope. The engine sat for too long and I would have done something different than the 912UL if I had not bought it already.
It is fun, enjoy it.
John and Debra are going to be around a long time, they will take care of you.

[jiott]

Thank you to you both. Very exciting and daunting all at the same time! I do have time in the military as an Air Frame Tech. so know some of the complications... however, I worked on the helo's and larger fixed winged aircraft. Jim, I have been debating if I should get the wings partially build or simply build them from the kit. When you say "scratch" does that mean you did not get the wings as a kit? Just wondering if its worth not spending an extra $1300?

Greg

When I said "scratch" I really meant from the kit, but not prebuilt (quick-build). My bad at wrong use of the word "scratch".

Jim

[AtlasEast]

I'm sure I'm going to get jumped for saying this, but here it goes:

One of the things you have to consider if you're going to buy sub-kits from a company is the strength of the company you are buying from. You don't want to have half of a kit and then all of a sudden the kit supplier goes bankrupt. It has happened before with Kitfox when it was owned by Skystar. At least if you buy the kit as a whole, you can still finish the aircraft if the company goes under, it's a little harder to do if all you have are the wings and nothing else for example.

I like the Kitfox and it's my favorite choice of kit airplane to get, but I'm going to wait a couple of years to buy the full kit. It also gives me the chance to make a trip to Idaho to see how things are at the Kitfox HQ.

So Greg, were you an AVN on the trackers / argus' there in Summerside? I'm at 12 Wing Shearwater flying the ol' Sea King.

And to the gentleman who said he wanted to make it up to Labrador. If you plan on flying, make sure you have floats - there's nothing but bogs, lakes and rivers up there. Airports are far and few up there. I spent 14 years up there, best time ever. Oh, and don't forget the fly repellent...the black flies up there will eat you alive.

...Elton

[War Eagle]

[quote=AtlasEast;30268]I'm sure I'm going to get jumped for saying this, but here it goes:

One of the things you have to consider if you're going to buy sub-kits from a company is the strength of the company you are buying from. You don't want to have half of a kit and then all of a sudden the kit supplier goes bankrupt. It has happened before with Kitfox when it was owned by Skystar. At least if you buy the kit as a whole, you can still finish the aircraft if the company goes under, it's a little harder to do if all you have are the wings and nothing else for example.

This is good advice and something to think about. When a bankruptcy occurs the customer is not in a protected position for money they sent in and haven't yet recieved their parts nor from getting any parts in the future.

The Kitfox family is blessed in that a new Kitfox company was created and started the operation and manufacturing of new airplanes and parts. But the new company can't make good the losses incurred from the old bankrupt company. It's always smart to consider the risks and rewards and then choose wisely for yourself.

Good luck in your decisions.