The Kitfox

Last year my friend Moose approached me about flying his Kitfox.  He didn't have the time to fly his airplane as much as he felt it needed to keep the engine fresh. Airplane engines, like most engines, are cheaper to maintain if they are run periodically. I was happy to take him up on his offer, but I wanted to get a proper checkout to learn the specific dynamics of the small tail-wheel airplane. At the end of March I finally landed a long overnight in BOI and used it as an opportunity to visit Kitfox specialist Paul Leadabrand at Stick and Rudder Aviation.

Paul's Light Sport Turbo Kitfox

I met Paul at 9:00 a.m., when the airport was still basking the warm light and calm air of an early spring morning. When Paul's yellow Kitfox emerged from the hanger, sitting on comically large tundra tires, it looked more like a caricature of an airplane than the real thing. A closer examination of the 3-bladed carbon fiber prop, faired engine cowling, gull wing doors, and jet-like fully integrated electronic flight information system (EFIS) and primary flight display (PFD) instrument display meant this machine was all business. Climbing into the plush "Kitfox" embroidered seats I found the airplane was surprisingly roomy. The deck angle on the ground put my knees nearly level with my chest. Seeing over the nose was reserved only for in flight. Taxi, takeoff, and landing were all done in a nose high attitude, in part to the large tundra tires and short fuselage. Luckily, the door was made entirely of a Plexiglas material affording excellent side visibility and adding an open cockpit feel.

Tundra Tires = Steep Deck Angle

Carbon Fiber Prop

Cockpit

Plush Seats and 5-Point Harness

View through the Doors

View Over the Cowl

EFIS, PFD, and MFD Display

Unlike some tail draggers, whose engines spit, sputter, and rumble to life, the turbocharged Rotax and gearbox-driven prop started and settled into a clinical idle like a finely tuned race engine. Squeezing 115-horsepower out of an engine barely larger than a flight bag it's easy to see why. Paul pointed out that below 2000 RPM's gearbox chatter would resonate thought the fuselage cueing the pilot to increase their idle speed. The gearbox facilitates a 5500 max continuous engine RPM. Monitoring engine parameters like manifold pressure, RPM's, coolant temp, oil temp, oil pressure, and turbo boost through the digital EFIS display was more BMW than Piper Cub.

After a quick run up we were cleared for takeoff on runway 10L. We were airborne in less than 300 feet and climbing through pattern altitude abeam the tower on our early turnout to the south. Once we cleared Boise's airspace, the vast open desert along the lower Snake River afforded us the opportunity to safely and legally fly the Kitfox as it should be flown -- low and slow. Following the contour lines of the high desert to the rim of the Snake River Canyon was a blissfully rudimentary flying experience. It wasn't quite as organic as hang gliding, but similar enough that I couldn't help noticing a dozen turkey vultures and a pair of red tail hawks turning shallow circles in the weak morning thermals. Once we reached the canyon, the blue-green water of the Snake River earned its name carving a slithering path through towering rock walls. The Kitfox's full span "flying" ailerons and a slow-speed turning radius that rivals some luxury cars made the following the river a breeze. 

Me Flying from the Right Seat

The Snake River Canyon

(the prop lines are from the rolling shutter iPhone camera)

Course Reversal

Paul instructed me to break left into a side canyon and climb UP to the pattern altitude of nearby Murphy Airport. With a runway length of 2500 feet, Murphy had tons of runway to spare. Landing was straightforward. The ailerons double as flaps, dropping them requires a slight pitch trim. The recipe was simple; throttle idle, 65 mph, fly it to the touchdown point, flare into a 3-point attitude, and maintain directional control with rudder. If you can see the runway over the nose, you're too flat. Sub-500 feet ground rolls were possible even with my rusty tail-wheel skills. Add power, neutral initial stick, raise the tail slightly, lift off nose high, and repeat.  After a few laps we moved on to a proper Kitfox runway where Paul showed me a backcountry approach and landing. Final is flown in level flight to the touchdown point on the elevated uphill strip. Once we touched down, we had to add considerable power to get to the top of the hill. The take off was similar in its brevity.

Backcountry Practice Strip

(free of backcountry obstacles)

Approach, landing, and Take Off

On the way back to Boise we stopped at Nampa Airport for more practice landings. My 3-point attitude was consistently slightly flat, which was due to wheel landing the Mustang II tail-wheel I had flown last. I was able to roll on a few greasers, but the ginormous tundra tires surely played a role in that. In level flight the double-cambered wing of Paul's Kitfox will do 120 mph, a considerable speed advantage over my friend's single-cambered style airfoil. On approach to Boise we set up a full power descent to 10L behind a Horizon Q400 and were on the ground in less than two hours. 

More Kitfox Pics

Tundra Tires

Laminar Flow Cowling / 3 Bladed Prop

LED Landing Light

Full Span "Flying" Aileron / Flaps

Greenhouse Style Cockpit

The Kitfox is one of the most enjoyable airplanes I've flown. It's intuitive, honest, and has no negative tendencies lurking to surprise the unsuspecting pilot. The tactile, low and slow, hands-on flying experience was a refreshing contrast to the highly automated and regimented professional flying environment I am used to. It brought me back to the basics of what drew me to aviation, which can easily get lost in the modern air transport system. I highly recommend it to anyone at that finds himself or herself in Boise. It's an affordable way to take to the sky in way that is all too often lost in modern aviation.

Back In Boise

A few weeks later I took Moose's Kitfox up for a spin.  Moose's airplane is a Franken-Kitfox made from the combination of a few variants.  It flew a little different, but it didn't take long to get the hang of.  I'd like more landings, but in tail dragger that's always the case!

Moose's Kitfox

My Takeoffs & Landings