Baggage Area Safety

[Skippydiesel]

My Sonex is fitted with a very nice baggage compartment, with zipped lid - all very nice & secure. Unfortunately there is a gapping triangular hole above/behind the zipped lid.

My Sonex will fly for the first time very shortly and I am concerned about items (head sets/maps/hats/etc) inadvertently ending up in the tail cone, where they may interfere with rudder/elevator controls.

Item have already found there way to this location and are a right pain the the arse to retrieve - at least they have been retrieved, what if they get there unnoticed?

I would like to see how other owners have "fixed/managed" this problem - please send photos/description -????

[racaldwell]

I have a fully enclosed baggage area for the reasons you state and to lessen air movement from the tail forward. Here is a pic of the top side during construction. The brown piece is a foam sandwich of epoxy/2.5 oz. fiberglass (2 plies). I made it one bay back from the baggage area in case I wanted to carry my guitar case. The neck can rest back there with the body in the baggage area.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 58 hrs

Hat Shelf Sm.jpg (100.2 KiB) Viewed 917 times

[Bryan Cotton]

I plan to stick some velcro on the beam and bulkheads, and stitch mating velcro to a triangular piece of fabric.

[Skippydiesel]

Thanks Guys,

Strangely I have been thinking of a blend of both your ideas - very thin/light weight plywood, cut to shape and held in place by heavy duty Velcro

[daleandee]

I used a lightweight piece of construction Styrofoam that I painted black (be careful to use a proper paint). It fits snuggly but I also have a retainer that fits through one of the tooling holes in the top of the rib. It has a minimum effect of softening the oil can noises from the mega horn tail cone ... 8~)

[Murray Parr]

I use the one Sonex sells, its light and works well. I am sure Bunnings has similar products that you could use if you wanted to copy it.