Kitfox 7SS for sale. CAUTION

[ken nougaret]

Kyle Franklin

[109JB]

If I am not mistaken the airplane was owned by Kitfox when Kyle Franklin flew those airshows. It was then sold to a private individual. May have changed hands again afterward, but I do not believe that Kyle Franklin ever owned the airplane.

[Eric Page]

The broker is playing word games. Notice that he said, "Can be loaded at 1320lb." He did not say it can be made LSA compliant. Any Kitfox can be loaded at 1,320#, but that doesn't mean it can be legally flown by a Sport Pilot.

An S-LSA can be converted to E-LSA, but neither type can ever have a MGTOW above 1,320# (1,430# on floats). As others have noted above, once an aircraft has a MGTOW above those limits it can never go back to LSA-eligible status regardless of a new, lower MGTOW.

Furthermore, the only way a plane can be converted to an E-LSA is if it were an S-LSA in the first place. An aircraft that started out LSA compliant could be converted to the Experimental category and remain LSA compliant, but it still wouldn't be an E-LSA.

I'm a little fuzzy on how this plane ever got a 1,550# MGTOW in the first place. If it was factory built, then it had to leave Kitfox as an S-LSA, which means it had a 1,320# MGTOW. Even if it were later converted to E-LSA, it couldn't fly at a higher weight within that category. It would be ineligible for Experimental-Amateur Built, so that just leaves the other Experimental sub-categories.

Experimental-Exhibition seems most likely if this was Kyle Franklin's airshow plane, except that Franklin would have flown his airshow routine well within LSA weight limits, so neither he nor Kitfox would have had any reason to change it. The limitations inherent to the Ex-Ex category make it unlikely that a later owner would have made that change either.

Here's my bet: A later owner changed it to E-LSA, then made a bogus logbook entry raising the MGTOW to 1,550#, and it's been flying as a technically illegal E-LSA ever since.

[alexM]

I noticed the same thing as Eric, the "can be loaded to 1320" isn't a claim that it is an LSA. And holy crap, that price tag!

As for "factory built must be LSA", I'm not sure. What if the factory sells a Titan or 915 demo plane to make space for an upgraded example? I would think the factory could build and license their own plane as EAB, and when it comes time to surplus the plane it would be just like buying someone else's completed EAB plane - the only real limitation would be that you could never do your own condition inspections. Not a huge buzz kill for a beautifully built plane.

Experimental Exhibition isn't necessarily very limiting, though it can be. It all depends on "the letter" which accompanies the Ex-Ex airworthiness certificate. The letter for an F-101 or Mig 21 would understandably have some tight rules, but for the Yak 18 I recently scoured the logs of, it basically said it was limited to day VFR, no commercial use. It did say aerobatics were approved which isn't common. The only thing that jumped off the page was that parachutes were required at all times. I saw the letter for a nearly identical Yak 18 which did not allow aerobatics but also did not mention parachutes. Neither plane had the commonly referred to statement where the FAA must be notified in advance of all flight activity.

I would be shocked if there was a straight forward path from Ex-Ex to E-LSA

[109JB]

N157KS is registered as an Experimental Amateur-built.

[Eric Page]

Well, count me as surprised. I wouldn't have thought that the Kitfox factory could build a plane and register it as an E-AB. How do they convince an inspector that they built the plane for "recreation and education?" Perhaps a single person at the factory built the plane, or at least served as front man for its construction.

[Streamside357]

This registration information is from you are showing is from Flight Aware. If you go to the FAA website and the "Look-up N-Number" page, it lists the kit manufacturer as Kitfox Aircraft LLC and the Aircraft type as "Fixed Wing Single-engine". This indicates that this aircraft is LSA and not EAB. Without access to the aircraft records and being able to read what the seller is claiming, all any of us can do is speculate about the aircraft. Whom ever is interested in buying this aircraft, I would recommend a thorough inspection and records evaluation before making any offer.

[avidflyer]

Here is the info I found on it. It says experimental amateur built for airworthiness classification. JImChuk

Serial Number	KA16078327		Aircraft Type	Fixed wing single engine
Mode S Code	50162442		Year Mfr	2017
Aircraft Category	Land		Builder Certification	Not Type Certificated
Number Engines	1		Number Seats	2
Aircraft Weight	CLASS 1		Aircraft Cruising Speed	0
Airworthiness Classification	Experimental		Approved Operation Codes	Amateur Built
Engine Manufacturer	ROTAX
Engine Model Name	912 IS		Engine Type	4 Cycle
Engine Horsepower/Thrust	0		Fuel Consumed