Hi Mark,

Well.....good question.....for those of us who have either built a Kitfox or are at some stage of construction it's apparent, but not necessarily so to a person who is considering or has not see the construction manual...so here goes....

Hysol is one type of structural epoxy adhesive....there are others but this is the one which is currently used on the Kitfox build.

So what do we do with it???? It is used to bond the wing ribs to the wing spars, also to bond the intercostals or ribs to the tail structure as well as many applications in construction where rivets and structural bonding is superior in strength to riveting alone....for instance....when affixing the lift strut brackets to the wing spars (many rivets and hysol). There are other parts of the process where hysol is used; but, you get the idea.

Now...what is this mixing and handling all about? Hysol, like other epoxy products is a two part product which has to be mixed in correct proportions to get its maximum strength.

Then there is the issue the two parts are somewhat the consistency and stickiness of something between "gorilla snot" (contact cement) and "smurf poop" (blue RTV).

That's the short read as to how & why we come up with clever and convenient ways of dealing with this stuff.

I can see your point...I have friends flying ultralights and trikes, etc, and when their machines were built no Hysol was involved...but lots of bolts, rivets and pins.

Cheers,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear (Flying)
912ULS Warp Drive

St Paul, MN