APOLLO FOX

Pricing and Options Night VFR Construction and Maintenance Instrumentation Trigear or Taildragger Handling and Specs Contact

The Apollo Fox from Apollo Aircraft is a Light Sport Aircraft that complies truly with the ASTM consensus standard set forth for design, performance and continued airworthiness by this standards body. The key differentiating features of the Apollo Fox in the LSA genre are as follows:

Night VFR Flights Allowed:
Above the standard day VFR package pricing the Fox is qualified to be flown at night in VFR conditions by a properly rated pilot (private pilot) with the options described below. IFR flight is not permitted. Flying in known icing conditions is not permitted.

Option Required for night VFR flight
Price
XCOM Radio, Antenna, VOX Intercom package with Audio-In port $1865
Lighting Options (position
lights, anti-collision lights on wingtips and landing light on front, Red LED night lights for inside the cabin)		 $750
Color EFIS + Aviation GPS
in ONE - MGL Avionics ENIGMA Glass Cockpit		 $1700
Artificial Horizon, Attitude
turn, bank, slip, G-force and heading solid state sensor for Enigma EFIS		 $1700
Electric Turn Co-ordinator - Analog instrument package - (2 minutes). Also available with glass panel as a backup instrument if night VFR is desired $500
Backup vertical card compass to heading sensor on glass panel $200

Construction:
The aircraft is classic tube and fabric airplane and has welded steel alloy tube fuselage covered with medium weight ceconite fabric. The wing section spars and ribs are both made with aluminium, treated with anti-corrosion chemicals and then covered with medium weight ceconite.

Wing halves can be folded backward by one pilot within 10 minutes using simple tools. This makes the aircraft quite portable and trailerable. A huge plus unless hanger expenses mean nothing to you. For a detailed procedure of how to fold the wings and unfold them take a look at the appendix to the aircraft operating instructions here. We can provide trailers for the aircraft upon request. Even without a trailer, the possibility of keeping multiple aircraft in the same hanger that otherwise would only have one, reduces ownership costs. For the weekend flyer, its very very practical to unfold the wings, setup and pre-flight and then fly.

The landing gear is 7075-T6 aluminium plate solid sheet leaf suspension as used on aircraft like composite MX-2 aerobatic airplane and so on. Wheels are equipped with hydraulic disc brakes.

The hardware is mostly AN aviation grade US hardware. There is some metric hardware in the engine compartment because of the use of Rotax engines from Europe that are metric.

Click on the above images to see in full size

The propeller is provided by the Plant City, Florida GA prop manufacturer, Sensinich Prop. This beautiful American made quick ground adjustable composite prop specifically designed by Sensinich for the 912 series engine with nickel leading edge protection can provide a cruise of about 100 knots at 65% power with Rotax 912ULS (100 HP). This is one of the best 912 series propellers available today in the market.

Apollo Fox comes standard with ASTM compliant BRS full airplane parachute system for the latest in safety devices. In the case of an emergency when all hope of making it down safely is lost, this allows the pilot or educated passenger to pull the handle and come down at a relatively slow rate of descent under a full airplane parachute system. We have taken great care to offer this system while not increasing the price a lot so that you do not have to make a financial choice in this matter. Its about your life and realizing we are all human. You may think you don't need the BRS and its just extra weight but your family may have a different idea. You don't need to tell your family that you were trying to save $4500 when you buy the Apollo Fox.

 

We simply did not raise the gross weight of the airplane from its European counterpart without stringent testing and changes that were required. One of the reasons Apollo North America Fox LSA is slightly heavier than possibly a kit built plane of the same genre is because raising of the gross weight required the strength afforded to it by additional metal. ASTM standard has very stringent demands to be able to declare gross weights based on proper strength testing that includes shock loads on both frame and on control surfaces that could be put on the structure by abrupt control movements due to weather phenomenon or pilot error. Independant structural engineering firm was hired to setup and witness the load tests to both operational (+4, -2) and ultimate strengths (+6, -3) at gross weight. Even in the ultimate strength test structure was made to hold these loads for 3 minutes and after the load was removed the structural components returned to their original shape even though this is not required by ASTM standard and permanent deformation (yield) at ultimate strength is allowed. We believe this analysis along with field experience of the basic design of this airplane very conservatively allows the current gross weight of the Apollo Fox LSA.

Apollo Fox achieves its high visibility and cabin quietness thanks to the use of heavy grade lexan gull doors that are hydraulically loaded to open comfortably, giving easy access to entry into the cockpit. The tinted lexan skylights behind the pilot and passenger complete the all around clear view.

The engine compartment has in front of its stainless steel firewall, a Rotax 912UL (80 HP, standard) or the upgraded 912ULS (100 HP with slipper clutch and heavy duty starter) in it. All firewall penetrations are done with fire-resistent high temp silicone red grommets on stainless steel with approved fire shielding on all fuel and oil lines as well on the ends of the wire bundles going through the firewall to satisfy ASTM design standard requirements. Steel bulkhead fitting with aeroquip ends are used on all lines. There is NO plastic fuel filter element in the high heat enclosed engine compartment for safety. The radiator coolant hoses are one piece high temp silicone hoses secured with Adel clamps against structural components for routing. Besides the fact that ASTM standard requires many of these things to truly comply, why are they important? They are not, till you have an engine compartment fire in an airplane where the engine is in front of the occupants. Then it becomes really really important. At least we thought so. What do you think?

There is a backup electric fuel pump behind the pilot seat for priming the engine after long periods of unuse and in case of an emergency as standard equipment. Again, why is this important? Its not till you have a fuel pump failure. Rotax had a few safety directives for the fuel pumps just recently. We'd rather provide our customers a second chance. Wouldn't you want a second chance or do you still believe that Rotax fuel pumps never fail?

All these steps are taken to ensure proper compliance with ASTM standard for systems installation and for safety in case of an emergency.

Click on the pictures above to see larger pictures

Although this airplane has been available in Europe for a while and owes much of its heritage to the Avid Flyer and Kitfox designs, we have taken our time in making sure the airplane in its US format has changes like AN hardware (for ease of maintenence in the US), different engine and instrumentation installation, 5" taller vertical stabilizer section, faired gaps between vertical and horizontal surfaces in order -not- to develop negative pressure and thus gain very positive yaw stability, to comply with the ASTM design standard properly. Importing fuselage and wing components from Europe and doing a full assembly here in the US allows us to maintain quality and consistency and compliance with the ASTM design standard. The Halley factory in Europe provides us with sub-assemblies using their skilled work force spread across 5 workshops and a small airport owned by Halley. The specs for Apollo North America Fox are met stringently to meet ASTM design standard and checked by our personnel in the US for every single frame sub-assembly.

Specialized always on carb heat is available which only heats a small area around the carb throat with hot coolant. This keeps the temp where carb ice would form above freezing without heating the air supply, thus giving negligible power loss (less than 1 HP) with no loss of smoothness whatsoever. Would you rather have this or react to carb icing after its already occured and throw in hot air that makes the engine run rough and hope the carb heat melts away the icing in time. Many auto throttle body injections did exactly this for carb heating for years before multi-port-fuel-injection became popular. We'd rather you don't have carb ice form at all. Wouldn't you?

The wiring harness is aircraft grade made with tefzel coated aircraft wire and milspec crimps that runs all the way from the engine compartment to all avionics. The wiring harness is protected with on dash circuit breakers for every single component. A ground seeking aircraft master solonoid shuts everything cold for safety and a main charging circuit non-pullable circuit breaker is standard, just in case. All the tefzel wiring in the engine compartment is further protected against heat and chafing with milspec spiral wrap and per ASTM design standard requirements firewall penetrations for wiring have been fire shielded. We believe aircraft wiring harness should use aircraft wire and aircraft spec crimps, not automotive stuff. There is a difference. What would you rather have?

Maintenance. Who can do what.?

On a S-LSA aircraft (any brand) no changes are allowed without a letter of authorization from the manufacturer for the particular airplane with a serial number on the letter. The maintenance manual is to be followed and any rated FAA mechanic who is also qualified (has previous experience in the task being done) can accomplish a task listed in the maintenance manual. It is important to note that the regulations for a S-LSA from the FAA require both a rating and previous experience to accomplish a certain task. Having a rating alone is not enough. If a task is not listed in the maintenance manual, then the mechanic should contact the manufacturer for guidance. We offer e-mail and phone support seven days a week. We also offer free task specific training to accomplish certain tasks on the Apollo Fox. These courses will allow you to work on the Fox (only) for the tasks you have been trained in by manufacturer's authorization under specialized training clause. Dealers of Apollo Fox are supposed to take such training to service local customers for warranty service. Rotax maintenance manual are to be followed for any engine maintenance. It may be necessary for the mechanic to have Rotax specific training required by Rotax to work on Rotax engines. 100 hour inspections on a S-LSA have to be done by a Light Sport mechanic with a Maintenance rating or higher. All preventative maintenance can be done by the owner himself.

On an E-LSA anyone can work on the aircraft and any additions can be made once the primary airworthiness certificate has been granted. Some changes may require the aircraft to go back into Phase I flight testing period before passengers can be flown again. Such changes would be considered major changes like changing a propeller etc. The annual can be done by a Light Sport mechanic with an Inspection rating or higher.

Instrumentation Options

The dash of the airplane can be adorned utilizing two instrumentation paths. One is the classic analog flight and engine monitoring gauges. These are included in standard pricing and include

  1. Sensitive altimeter
  2. 0-140 knots Falcon AirSpeed Indicator
  3. Inclinometer (Falcon) - 2-minute turn co-ordinator in lieu of inclinometer is optional
  4. 0-2000 FPM Vertical Speed Indicator
  5. A pedestal mount magnetic compass
  6. An ACS keyed ignition
  7. CHT gauge
  8. Dual EGT gauge
  9. Fuel pressure gauge
  10. Tachometer (RPM)
  11. Oil Pressure gauge
  12. Oil Temperature gauge
  13. Low fuel warning lamp
  14. Battery charging warning lamp
  15. Fuel sight gauges

The second choice is the Enigma EFIS color glass cockpit that can also optionally include an AHRS solid state sensor for true attitude information. This package include

  1. Color glass cockpit (single screen) with all VFR flight and engine monitoring instruments, second screen is optional if desired
  2. Color glass cockpit has aviation GPS with America's or relevent database with terrain awareness built-in and comes with flight planner software for route planning
  3. A solid state heading sensor for glass cockpit heading display and wind direction and speed indication
  4. Fuel flow (gallons per hour) indication
  5. Low fuel warning lamp (1.2 US Gallons left)
  6. Battery charging/Alternator warning lamp
  7. A backup sensitive altimeter (analog gauge)
  8. A backup 0-140 knots Falcon AirSpeed Indicator (analog gauge)
  9. A skid/slip ball backup (analog backup)
  10. A magnetic compass (backup)
  11. Artificial horizon is available with optional sensor that allows HITS (Highway In The Sky) capability
  12. A backup 1.2 AH color glass cockpit battery (about one hour of flight) if main charging circuit fails and main battery drains out as well
  13. ACS Keyed ignition
  14. Fuel sight gauges

For both packages above XCOM radio with built-in intercom with audio-in (mono) setup for your choice of headsets and with PTT switches mounted cleanly on top of the control sticks and MicroAir Mode C transponder are available as factory installed options. The regulator is placed on the "inside" of the aircraft away from heat so as to keep it away from voltage variances due to overheating. Care has been taken as night flight is allowed in the aircraft to minimize any chance voltage spike happening. Techniques to reduce RFI are utlized extensively because of glass panel installation. Ground loops are avoided and placement of wiring and routing is keenly done.

The color EFIS option makes being able to see the instruments a snap because of contrast and flashes a light when a parameter is out of bounds. An aviation GPS and True Airspeed calculation is included in the Enigma color EFIS. In addition the EFIS provides 3D terrain wire mesh view, a fuel flow sensor that allows you to monitor your fuel burn per hour and 9 different fully programmable easy to use screens. Want to set frequency of your factory installed Apollo Fox radio from the glass panel and are not even sure what the frequency of the ATIS is of this close-by airport? Click here to see how you can accomplish that using the glass cockpit easily. Too much to list here. Nothing packs in as many features for such a small upgrade price.

Click on the images below to see them in full resolution

Glass cockpit with solid state AHRS sensor can show attitude and HITS (Highway In The Sky)

Programmable screens. A sample VFR screen shown. Take a close look at the engine monitoring bar graphs. They are EASY to see at a glance with yellow overlay indicating currnt reading over a green and red (caution) area. This is much different than engine monitors offered in many planes that are monochrome and you have to actually read your oil temperature and know the range in numbers for your engine. Upto 9 different programmable screens available at a touch of a button. Use what suits the current flight requirements with "ease" and switch in a second if needed with changing requirements.

Aviation GPS with Terrain Awareness

The color glass cockpit can "look ahead" and warn you of upcoming terrain if you'd like

Aviation GPS on the glass cockpit. Press shift 1 and select the airport from the list to "Go To". What could be simpler

A GLS approach screen shown

Highway In The Sky (HITS) to guide you where you want to go at any altitude

 

Available tail or nose wheel configurations:

Tail wheel configuration generally tends to cruise about 5 MPH faster than listed specs for nose wheel. Tail wheel version is also 18 pounds lighter than listed specs here for nose wheel tri gear. Tundra tires also available as an option (no wheelpants) for the tailwheel version.

For prices please refer to our price list or call us with questions

Click on the pictures to enlarge.
For more pictures please see the Apollo Fox Photo Gallery here.

Handling and Specs

The airplane wants to be flown. Its fun, light, responsive and unincumbered by heavy pressures in any axis yet positive. Its makes for a great trainer to teach students essential stick and rudder skills. The new larger vertical stabilizer and faired gap between the vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer was specifically developed to comply and pass all ASTM design standard flight tests as done by an independent test pilot. The positive yaw stability and feet off the rudder pedals cruise flight is a direct result of this development compared to the many popular brand renditions of this genre of airplane. The difference is easy to see. One can give a good amount of rudder to yaw the aircraft in one direction and take the feet off the rudder pedals completely and the aircraft returns without assistence to true center. A feature required by ASTM design standard. The roll pressure is low but positive. The stalls are benign and the aircraft gives tremendous feedback to the pilot before stall, warning him or her of the stall coming their way.

Rotax 912UL 80 HP is plenty of power for most operations, however, 912ULS is a popular option and gives tremendous performance.

Power: Rotax 912UL (80 HP) and 912ULS (100 HP)
Max Take Off Weight: 575 Kg (1265 pounds)
Weight/Hp Relation at gross weight: 15.4 pounds/LE (912) or 12.32 pounds/LE (912S)
Empty Weight with 912ULS including unusable fuel, oil and coolant and hydraulic fluids. Fully optioned with BRS 1350 installed 715 pounds as weighed by certified electronic Evergreen Platform load cells S/N 610-3C-692-693 & 908. Certification date of platform 03-01-2006
Payload 250 kg (550 pounds)
Wingspan: 9.15 m (30 feet)
Wing Area: 11.4 m2 (122.7 sq. ft)
Length: 5.80 m (19 feet)
Length With Folded Wings: 6.25 m (20.2 feet)
Total Width With Folded Wings: 2.39 m (7.85 feet)
Height: 1.7 m (5.58 feet)
Fuel Capacity: 60 L (15.5 US Gallons) - OPTIONAL 29.5 US Gallon gas tanks for extra range (700 miles) - Normal cruise fuel burn of around 4.2 GPH
Stall Speed (clean at gross): 64km/h (39.75 MPH)
Maximum Speed: 212 km/h (132 MPH)
Cruise Speed at 75% power (Calibrated Airspeed at Sea Level) 110 MPH 75% Power with 912UL (80 HP) or 65% Power with 912ULS (100 HP)
Max Straight and Level Cruise Speed (912ULS) at Sea Level 129 MPH
Never Exceed Speed (Vne) 136 MPH
Take Off Length to clear 50 foot obstacle (15 meters) 750 feet (912UL - 80 HP) or 560 feet (912ULS - 100 HP)
Landing Length over a 50 foot obstacle (15 meters) 680 feet
Climb Rate (prop pitched for cruise) 1000 FPM with 912UL or 1300 FPM 912ULS - standard conditions at sea level. If prop pitch is changed for climb (allowed per manual), 1600 FPM climb can be achieved
Max. Range (with reserve): 600 km (375 miles) or 700 miles with larger optional tanks
Maximum Operational "G” Load : +4, -2 (+6, -3 Ultimate)
Maximum Cabin Width: 44.1 inches

Standard Equipment:

Power: 80 - 100 Hp Rotax 912UL or 912ULS
Slipper Clutch and heavy duty starter with 912ULS (100 HP) - an absolute must for smooth operation in this high compression engine Standard
Cabin Heat Standard
BRS 1350 Ballistic Recovery System (shut the engine and pull the handle to come down gently and save your life. How much is your life worth? You don't have to answer that with Apollo Fox, the parachute is part of the plane) STANDARD
Spacious cockpit with gull doors Standard
40 pound luggage compartment Standard
Vernier style throttle Standard
Stainless Steel Exhaust Standard
Carpetted Cabin Standard
Cabin Heat Standard
Two Sticks Standard
Altimeter Included
AirSpeed Indicator Included
Vertical Speed Indicator Included
Compass Included
RPM Included
Oil Pressure Gauge Included
Oil Temperature Gauge Included
Dual CHT Included
Dual EGT Gauge Included
Voltage Included
Wheel Pants Included
Tinted Skylights Included
Locking Cockpit Doors Included
Sensenich Composite Propeller Included
Hydraulic Disc Brakes on Main Wheels Included
Parking Brake Included
Fuel Level Indicators (Sight Gauges) Included
Low fuel warning light Included
Alternator or Battery Charging failure warning light Included
4-point ASTM compliant harness Included
Flaperons trim Included
Elevator Trim Included
Window Fresh Air Vents Included
Faucet backup emergency electrical fuel pump Included
Always-On Carb Heat Included
ELT Included

Standard package pricing (VFR Day Instruments, BRS included, Trigear or Tailwheel):

With Rotax 912UL - 80 HP (BRS 1350 included) $68950
With Rotax 912ULS - 100 HP (BRS 1350 included) $71600

Optional Equipment:

Extra Range Fuel tanks (29.5 US gallons total instead of 15.5 US gallons) - increases range from 375 to 700 miles $550  
Two Tone Paint scheme - instead of white with stripes. Colors available, Red, Blue, Yellow $800
XCOM Radio, antenna and VOX intercom with Audio input jack $1865
MicroAir Transponder Only $3135
XCOM Radio, MicroAir Mode C Transponder, VOX Intercom package $5000
Vertical card compass in lieu of standard compass $200
Lighting Options (position lights, anti-collision lights on wingtips and landing light on front) $750
ELT Standard
Carb Heat (Always On, without effecting performance or smoothness. Hot coolant runs only around the carb throat keeping it above freezing temperature. This avoids heating any incoming air at all that decreases performance and makes the engine run rough. Used in many aircraft equipped with the 912. Proven system) Standard
BRS 1350 (Ballistic Recovery Chute) NOW STANDARD (Included in the basic plane)
Electric Turn Co-ordinator - Analog instrument package - (2 minutes). Also available with glass panel as a backup instrument if night VFR is desired $500
Color EFIS + Aviation GPS in ONE - MGL Avionics ENIGMA Glass Cockpit $1700 per VFR screen (max. 2 screens can be used per plane but one is quite enough)
Artificial Horizon, Attitude turn, bank, slip, skid, G-force solid state sensor for Enigma EFIS $1700