About the airplane...

[MikeFairbanks]

The Kitfox Series 7 Super Sport... first, you can see lots more on Kitfox Aircraft's website.

For a detailed history of the Kitfox check out this wikipedia page.

And of course if you want to see the Kitfox in action, you have to check out Trent Palmer on YouTube.

Regarding my airplane in particular... I would have loved, and actually initially ordered the STi model. But one of the deciding factors for me ordering a Kitfox was that we could put it in a trailer and haul it behind the RV... something that is important as I approach retirement. But I ran into a problem with the STi in that its width when the wings are folded is 8' 7 3/4". This means it will not fit in a "legal" 8' 6" wide enclosed trailer. Living in Alaska I probably would have never had a problem pulling a trailer that was a bit wider, but... this is my retirement airplane, and my wife and I would like to do some traveling. So after a lot of agonizing and consideration I changed my order to the Super Sport, which is only 8' wide when the wings are folded, and it will therefore fit into a "legal" width trailer.

Here's a comparison between the three Series 7 models...

While I didn't get the STi wing, I did get the Monster Shock bush gear, 29" ABW tires, T3 tail spring with a Baby Bushwheel tailwheel, and Beringer wheels & brakes... and I will be putting a Rotax 916iS on it with the 3-bladed MT propeller. I will basically be building an airframe with everything offered on the STi except the wing.

I went for pretty much every option offered, and got every quick build option available. I want to get this thing built in a reasonable amount of time so I can start flying it! I also opted for a rather advanced panel for a tube and fabric bush plane... all glass, and full IFR. I would not consider a Kitfox an ideal IFR platform, and don't plan to fly in hard IMC... but in Alaska you can quickly run out of landing options if a layer rolls in. Unlike most of the lower 48 where there are airports everywhere, it's easy to find yourself with no alternate airport within 100+ miles up here. So I wanted that extra margin of safety to be able to get down through a layer if I needed to.

Here is the final computer rendition of my panel before going into production...

I went to Midwest Panel Builders to build this panel. I considered doing the work myself... I did spend 10 years as an avionics tech, while a lot has changed since then, I do know how to build a wiring harness. But it came down to time... an advanced setup like this takes quite a bit of time to build, and as I already stated, I want to get the airplane flying as soon as I can while still working a full time job. Kitfox Aircraft offers 4 beautiful pre-wired panel options, but they are all VFR only.

The panel has a 10" G3X, GMC 507 autopilot, GNX 375 GPS/transponder, a G5 for backup, and all panel labels are back lit. There's also room on the right side of the panel to mount a full size iPad. You may notice there are no circuit breakers, that's because there is a VPX-PRO behind the panel to handle all that. As well as a GMA 345R audio panel and two GTR 20 com radio remotely mounted behind the seats. This panel really sings to the geek in me!