What kind of skiplane am I?

[Steve Foss]

I was fishing on Burntside earlier in the week when I heard a plane in the distance and pulled a camera out of the vehicle in case the plane came close and low. Since I was the only living thing visible over the whole part of Burntside west of Waters Island, I reckon that was enough for the pilot, who saw me and turned about 90 degrees to buzz me with one pass.

Clearly, the word "experimental" is visible on the fuselage of the closer image. I included the wider view to see if any of our pilots hanging out on this board know anything about the plane and its specs.

You suppose he built it himself?

[Dbl]

Steve, that is a Kitfox Classic IV. They are a homebuilt 51% kit airplane. You can build them in sub-kits or firewall back type kit. They have been around for many years. I just looked at their web site and the base price is about $16,000 but you need to add an engine I believe. So yes he built it himself.

[MN Shutterbug]

Those look like pretty small skis.

[Dbl]

I think the skis look fine but wonder where the tailwheel ski is?

[Steve Foss]

Do they even make a ski that would work on one of those taildragger wheels? Don't those wheels pivot pretty freely in all directions, making it potentially easy to bury a ski at a bad angle and foul up the landing?

[Dbl]

Most of the tailwheels are lockable and when you put a ski on it you would of course lock it so it doesn't swivel. I would think it would be tough to taxi around on snow without a ski, that tailwheel would be trying to bury itself.

[Steve Foss]

Ahhh, lockable wheels make good sense. You pilots. Such detail people.

With only four-six inches of snow on the ice on Bside and Shags early in the week, maybe not an issue for him.

[MARINERMAGNUM]

Where did he crash?

I mean,his engine doesn't look like it's running.

[Steve Foss]

MM, it's such an experimental design that the propeller is just there for looks, not propulsion.

[MN Shutterbug]

I guess I was comparing the skis to the ones used on bush planes in Alaska.

[Steve Foss]

I guess I was comparing the skis to the ones used on bush planes in Alaska.

It's not that easy to tell in the photos, but this is a very small (and I'm assuming lightweight) plane. Wouldn't take much ski to float it.

[HawgMan]

I think it's a spy plane!

[311Hemi]

Nice pics!!!

Totally off-topic, but Steve...why don't your photos show and exif data? I was looking at your recent post on your new dog and was curious on the settings you were using.

[Steve Foss]

I typically use the "save for Web" feature in Photoshop, which streamlines the image for Online display. One of those streamlining measures is to strip exif data.

[MinnesotaBoatman]

The plane is registered in Winton.

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