Can anyone familiar with the Avid / Kitfox / Highlander / Escapade type airplanes (or who owns a set of plans) give me a measurement or two?

I'm working with a friend on an idea to bring back a light experimental aircraft configuration from the distant past, and we might have access to a used set of wings as a starting point. We don't have them yet, but we want to start sketching and basic big-parts layout.

What I need is the "spar spacing", or the exact distance between the centers of the forward and rear wing root mounting bolts, which should be the same as the distance between the centers of the welded mounting bolt lugs on the upper cabin frame.

Let me know what the measurement is for whichever of the airplanes in this series you are measuring. I understand that several of them are identical, but if one is different I'd like to know.

Thanks in advance,

Kitfox Model 4: 27.5" center to center.

Muchos Gracias ! Thank you sincerely, this is a great start.

Does anyone know if the Escapade and Highlander are the same dimension?

Yes they are. Avid Flyers are, also.

Off topic, but how's your Cessna t/w conversion STC takeover coming along? Haven't heard anything about it in quite a while.

hotrod150 wrote:Off topic, but how's your Cessna t/w conversion STC takeover coming along? Haven't heard anything about it in quite a while.

If the forum admin will allow this to be here...

Life has a habit of getting in the way of one's higher callings. Lost 8 or 9 months due to working at a job with a long commute, then major eye surgery (depth perception... what a concept).

As it stands now:
1) We recently finally finally finalized the final finished tailwheel mounting system in finality. All the structure is in the tail, and a wood mock-up of the tailwheel spring is mounted and functional. Only the final weight and balance will determine if I can make this tail spring out of metal or if I have to go to composite. Will all of you please join hands in a circle, singing Kumbaya, and pray for it to balance with metal. I don't want to certify a composite part at this point.
2) First prototype set of aluminum main gear is made and almost done with heat treat. Taller, wider, and lighter than 170 "lady legs".
3) Floorboard access panel design and methodology for (future, customer) aircraft done, we found a way to leave most of the floorboards riveted in place but still create easy access to the bulkhead. Even though it's not structural, this will be a much bigger time saver than anyone would imagine

We're into the final details now:

1) As soon as the main gear is here, I start on the main gear shim system. I'm hoping to have enough room to make adjustable shims for the fore-aft (toe-in) movement, but this may not happen. I'm working in an area where there's about 1/8 inch of room to try and make something adjustable. The movement and wear (where Cessna used a wedge shim above the gear) is going to be addressed by an adjustable clamping system from below. I have plenty of room there to improve that. It'll be a beautiful thing
2) Address the main gear mounting bolt at the inboard fitting. The Cessna design leaves very little "edge distance" for this large bolt, but you can't increase edge distance without applying offset loads to the fitting which creates different problems. Just like a stock Cessna taildragger there will just simply be some point at which you have crashed the airplane by pulling the gear leg out the side of the fuselage. I can't really solve that without re-designing the fuselage (for a one-piece gear), and not even my ego is that big.
3) Once the gear mounting and shimming is finalized, we make up another set of fittings, shims, and bulkheads... and mount all of it to the drop test rig. We take a big deep breath, my wife holds a .45 to my head, my engineer holds a bucket and mop on the other side of my head, and we drop test the gear. The gear legs are designed up to the Cessna 175's weight of 2350, they will have to be a little thicker for the 182 conversion. The gear box fittings are good up to a late 185 weight (probably a 206 for that matter). If the gear legs don't break, the gun doesn't go off.
4) Making proper drawings of the parts.

Never should have started this,

Measured my Kitfox I today. Same as the Kitfox IV: 27.5" bolt center to bolt center.