folding wings every flight

[awilson]

Hi guys. Is it REALLY practical to fold the wings for each flight. In other words take the plane home with me after every day that I fly and keep it in the garage. Reason I ask is i have seen a couple Kitfoxes tied down at my local airport and I wonder what the circumstances are. Guess I could ask. I live less than 2 miles from the airport.

Plus my other concern is I also want it on amphibs so how high is the tail going to be? I'm thinking 10 or 11 feet tall. If so, can I tip the nose up somehow so the tail goes under my 9 foot garage door?

Any experience or commets are appreciated.

I'm beggining to think that even if it is determined to be technically feasible,,,,,, is it practical?

[jiott]

I originally was going to fold my wings and trailer it to/from the airport to save hanger cost. I quickly determined that to not be very practical. You will have much more fun and log many more hours if you can just drive to the airport and quickly jump in your plane for maybe just a short sunset flight, etc. To me the main value of the folding wings is to be able to occasionally trailer it for repair if it is not flyable.

[airlina]

I agree with Jim , If I had to trailer my Kitfox back and forth , load and fold and unfold , my flying time would be reduced by a bunch. Once a year is enough to get it home to do my inspection. Its a nice evening, think I'll go for a sunset cruise. Bruce N199CL

[rocketman2tm]

For me, the folding wings have come in handy during the building stage. I can have one wing folded out and the other folded back and have the plane fit in the garage.

[beeryboats]

I have my own airport, but no hangar. I've kept her in the barn during her refit, but the doors are too narrow to go in or out with the wings unfolded. After owning a sailboat for years, I've learned if it's already in the water you will use it more. The same will translate to the airplane. If I kept her in some sort of shelter during the summer, it will get flown more. So I'm looking into some sort of shelter where I can store with the wings out.
Jay

[awilson]

A lot of useful insight. I definitely appreciate it. I think this is the reality of it. I very much value the easy wing folding because it's not a big decision then to bring it home to work on ,,,where all my tools are!. But every flight would become a hassle. When you want to steal an hour for yourself you don't want most of it tied up in preparation.
thanks much

[awilson]

For me, the folding wings have come in handy during the building stage. I can have one wing folded out and the other folded back and have the plane fit in the garage.

Rocketman, I never thought of that. Excellent point.

[t j]

I trailered my plane to the airport for every flight for the first five years. It seemed like a lot of monkey motion. Then I went in partners on renting a hangar with a Sonex owner.

It was a small T hangar. Half the rent was $135 which was affordable for me. The most I had ever flown in a year was the first year...40 hours...and I figured now I would fly a lot more.

The only way to fit the planes without folding the kitfox wings was Kitfox in first then the Sonex with its tail under the kitfox wing.

I had to open the stubborn hangar doors, push the Sonex out the doors and out of the way, push the Kitfox out and out of the way, push the Sonex back inside, and close the stubborn hangar doors. Then do it all in reverse when I returned from my flight.

I took me about the same amount of time to get ready to fuel up and preflight as it did to trailer the Kitfox....more in the winter with chipping ice and shoveling snow in front of the hangar and busting my butt when I slipped on the ice.

The hangar was drafty and dirty. Birds got in...even and owl. I couldn't tinker on my Kitfox like I did when I kept it at home and had to trailer it home to do any significant maintenance on it.

My hangar mate was a college student and after two years he graduated and flew away to Texas for work. I wasn't flying any more often than I was before renting the hangar. It wasn't worth $270 per month to me to keep the hangar so I went back to trailering for every flight.

[neville]

I have been trailering my SS7 tri-gear the 3 miles to the airport for two years now and find it "no issue". It takes about 1hr for each evolution. The biggest problem is all the interested people who want more information about the plane. That can add up to 2 hours extra at the airport. See the sticky about trailering a SS7 on the forum home page. True, the longest operation is fueling and defueling the aircraft. The load/unload/wing unfold/fold takes about 20 min each way. Big plus is keeping the plane at home makes wife happy as I am home instead of at airport every day.