Factory Visit.
June finds me in Homedale, ID. Haven’t had a chance to visit headquarters of all things Kitfox since the last Factory fly in. Many changes occurred since I roamed these buildings last. The pace has quickened substantially even from last visit. Beautifully welded fuselages congregate briefly waiting for handcrafted parts to flow in to the shipping department all to become a large wooden dreams filled crate with some lucky builders address on the outside. Works of art called quick-built wings come lovingly and expertly together in the “Wings” building on precision assemblies guaranteed to make even the fussiest builder tear up with admiration. The new composite shop is compositing at a pitch near the fever level. The phones are now liquid cooled. They ring so often they never cool off. I love this place. It’s where the best aviation dreams come to life. I feel privileged to watch this process and these people do what they do.
👍👍👍I got to fly the STi with the 915 Rotax. I’m having just a little difficulty letting you all know what this experience was like. Let me see...... On application of full power I became acutely aware of a seat back cushion compression factor which, up until now, had never allowed me into such a close proximity to the vertical part of the seat pan while in take off mode. Was this a TemperFoam failure or an acceleration until now unheard of. Knowing TemperFoams reputation, I vote Rotax 915 horse power, that mighty M.T. prop’s capabilities along with one incredible STi wing. The big tires rotated just a couple turns and the windshield was full of blue Idaho sky. The last time I felt just a little uneasy about a climb out angle in an aircraft was the very first time I flew my model 3 solo way back in 1998. Of course shortly I became accustomed to ridiculous take off angles from all models of Kitfox. At least I thought I had until this beast wrenched us from our Earthly bonds and committed us to flight way before I even imagined it might. Please note that this flight had two full “growed” boys in the seats and lots of fuel in both tanks. I gotta try this thing solo! I think.
All for now. I’ll leave you with a couple photos of customer’s aircraft. Remember that AirVenture is just around the corner and Kitfox Aircraft’s booth will have a new location on the EAA grounds. Their new location is slightly South of the previous one so you may even save some steps getting to their booth this year.
Also this year’s Factory fly in is approaching fast. Make your plans for the 35th anniversary of the Kitfox aircraft. Please R.S.V.P. the factory soon if planning to attend. This one will be special.
Kitfox.... proving for 35 years and over 7,000 examples that S.T.O.L. aircraft can be beautiful aircraft.
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This one is called “Butterfly”.
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P.S.****To see photos in an enlarged version just tap on desired photo once. Let it re-appear on screen then tap it once again and it will expand even larger. After, it will then allow you to enlarge even further. At least that’s the way it works on my iPad.
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