LSA Fuselage using AviPro fish mouthed tubing kit

[BTAZ]

I purchased one of the first tubing kits from Avipro and just finished tacking it together. I likely won't finish weld until Summer is over.

Everything fit together very well and was well documented. I made a couple small recommendations to Mark( careful labeling the tubes so the labels aren't in the way when prepping for welding and to please include a few photos of the factory fuselage to minimize time/errors from interpreting the prints) which I believe he will implement but they are definitely not "critical improvements", just conveniences . Balancing Avipro's price against the the cost of the required tubing and the waste that would go with it I think the price was very fair. Everything was well labeled and while there was one minor hiccup(quickly addressed by Mark) I would definitely take this path again. While it took me about three weekends after delivery to have a fully tack welded fuselage I think I could easily do it in a couple long weekends now(as always "If I knew then what I know now")

(Note this PDF is gone. The info can be found in the "First Flight" post made in FEB2017)

[LukeS]

Great advertising for the tubing kits. I'm hoping to be ready for mine by the end of summer. I did a lot of back and forth debate regarding the cost difference between the tubing kits and and the raw tubing. What finally pushed me toward the tubing kit was seeing the quality of fit up in Kitplanes. Having built a fuselage from scratch before, I know that I would be lucky to get 10% of my tubes to fit as nicely as the kit. The end result is that I will make a better fuselage from Bearhawk Aircraft's tubing kit and do it in less time. I'm so cheap it's embarrassing, but the tubing kit seems like a too good to pass up deal to me. Thanks for posting your progress.

[Robert440]

Nice picture presentation. Sounds like the way to go when it comes to the tubing!

[Mark Goldberg]

Just an FYI - we are not stocking a ton of tubing at the factory. So if you have an idea when you would like a tubing package - it is a good idea to let us know ASAP. So the wait is not too long. If we find that the orders for these tubing packages are coming in frequently - we will stock more tubing. Mark

[LukeS]

Mark,
I won't be ready until after the end of August, and I won't be in any hurry because I plan to spend my fall sailing as much as possible. I'll call when I'm closer to being ready.

[bestbearhawk1231]

Mark, does the tubing kit for the 4 place fuselage include the heavier tubing for the float mods that are mentioned in the bearhawk book that comes with the print set?

[Mark Goldberg]

I think so but am not 100% sure. I will check. MG

[Robert440]

Good question Joe, I was going to ask about that. The VR3 kit (4 place) has the heavier tubing according to their info. I've been a bit confused on what tubing upgrades are actually needed for floats. It seems there maybe different thoughts on the matter.

[dedgemon]

nice write-up BTAZ, thanks