By Dan Johnson

Slovakia-based Aeropro CZ is making an impact on the LSA market with the impressive EuroFox LSA. Boasting quality craftsmanship and a reasonable price, the aircraft compares favourably to all of its European competitors. Dan Johnson took the EuroFox LSA for a spin to see what all the fuss was about.

Believe it or not, but there are some LSA aircraft that cost little more than ultralights. Seriously. And the Aeropro EuroFox is one such model.

Manufactured by Slovakia-based Aeropro CZ, the EuroFox is a factory-built two-seater that has been produced since 1990. More than 340 of the type have been sold worldwide. 

“The EuroFox carries a very reasonable price tag and is relatively low-cost compared to most SLSA while providing absolutely top quality," says Australian importer and long-time ultralight enthusiast and dealer, Tony Brand.

Brand has done a closer evaluation than most owners can. He performs a thoughtful, detailed inspection of any aircraft he plans to represent and he offers a positive summary of his EuroFox findings.

“We first started looking for an aircraft in which to teach family members and employees to learn to fly and safety was our number one requirement,” Brand tells Aviator. “After looking at many other aircraft we decided on the EuroFox for its many safety features and outstanding build quality.

“The EuroFox is a two-seat, side-by-side, high-wing, tricycle-gear aircraft that features the same quick-folding wings familiar to Avid Flyer or Kitfox buyers. It takes one person only 10 minutes to complete the job.”

The EuroFox uses a welded 4130-chromoly steel tube fuselage mated to aluminum structure wings with fuselage and wings covered with PolyFiber fabric for long durability.  The high wing design with its steel fuselage frame makes it extremely survivable if the worst were to happen.

With a background of 33 years in General Aviation maintenance, Brand says the EuroFox is built just like a GA aircraft, using traditional and very well-proven design and manufacturing techniques. “Aeropro do not even screw a screw into the steel tube frame anywhere, always opting for a welded tang onto the fuselage frame to prevent any moisture entering the steel tubes,” he says.

The fuselage frame internal structure is inhibited with oil and sealed, primed and painted after manufacture.

“A heavy-duty five-point firewall engine mount braces your choice of the standard 80hp Rotax 912 or the 100hp Rotax 912S coupled to a three-blade composite prop with spinner,” Brand adds. The three blade prop makes for a very smooth engine operation.

Ground handling in the EuroFox is familiar to ultralight pilots and is so light and easy that Brand reckons his nine-year-old daughter can handle it with ease. A handle is provided on all aircraft just forward of the horizontal stabiliser and an optional tow bar is available for the nose wheel aircraft, thanks to a steerable nosewheel coupled with hydraulic disk toe brakes. Earlier toe brakes were eliminated as Aeropro designed a one-lever brake system that actually provides stronger braking and is more durable and reliable. 

Ramp manoeuvrability remains quite good. A parking brake feature helps secure the EuroFox while stationary on a ramp thanks to a steerable nosewheel coupled with hydraulic disk toe brakes. Earlier toe brakes on the nose gear aircraft were eliminated as Aeropro designed a one-lever brake system that actually provides stronger braking and is more reliable and durable. Toe brakes are still used on the tail wheel version.

“Inside the cabin, you'll find comfortable seats with durable upholstery and four-point pilot restraints plus a large luggage compartment," Brand says.

Clear polycarbonate gull-wing doors with gas pistons help with entering and exiting the aircraft. You can also quickly remove the doors for those lovely warm flying days or aerial photography.  One door can even be removed during flight, a quality appreciated by many ultralight pilots. I didn't get a chance to fly the EuroFox with the doors off, but I sure welcome the opportunity. Aeropro completes the interior with a large skylights with UV filtering, door locks, and a carpeted cockpit. For dusk operations, the company even includes dual landing lights. All this interior finish and equipment is standard.  Strobes and NAV lights are optional.

“Pilots will enjoy a vernier throttle, elevator trim, flaperons, and a large instrument panel with flight and engine instrumentation, including: airspeed indicator, 0-20,000-foot precision altimeter, vertical speed indicator, compass, and slip indicator," says Brand. A EuroFox is delivered with Rotax's FlyDat digital engine-monitoring system, which provides engine rpm, oil temperature, oil pressure, water temperature, four EGT readouts, plus an hourmeter and your choice of instruments and avionics.

BIGGER THAN YOU THINK
I think most pilots will immediately like the EuroFox gull-wing doors with their gas pistons that prop the door for easier entry. The doors latch securely with a single easily accessible door handle and the doorframes bow out noticeably at the elbow, giving the feeling of more interior room.

Thanks to those bowed doors, the EuroFox's cockpit measures a hair over 44 inches wide, which compares well with a Cessna 150's 39-inch width. In flight with a large passenger, I found the cockpit reasonably quiet even without headsets. The EuroFox may not be as quiet as high-end LSA, but with its much more modest price tag, you could afford the best headsets.

As we taxied for takeoff, I found the EuroFox has effective brakes with a simple control. As with many aspects of this design, the execution is simple but flawless. For manoeuvring in taxi, the steering has a generous range of motion such that I barely used earlier differential braking, which reinforces the change made by Aeropro engineers, offering  a very useful and tight turning circle.

With 100 horsepower delivered by the Rotax 912ULS, takeoff was rapid. Company literature lists 160 feet as the takeoff distance at gross weight and I can confirm it was a brief run into flight. Landing takes a bit more at 225 feet, but both are so short that short and soft-field operations are more easily handled.

I first flew the EuroFox from the rather short ultralight strip in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On my first landing I didn't slow enough to get the EuroFox down within the confines of the runway so I added full power and tried again with better results. The challenge came from the EuroFox's very respectable 14:1 glide at around 52 knots. As many pilots know, the northwest runway in the ultralight area requires that you must make a short angled turn to final. Since you also approach over rows of aeroplanes and a roadway, I'd stayed too high and flew too fast. My subsequent landings were quite good and I never had to use the adequately powerful brakes.

When you slow it down using flaps and a good approach speed, the EuroFox can deliver a remarkably short landing. It'll take a few hours of practice to do as well as a factory expert, but the potential is present. I found the best touchdowns came from full-stall landings where the nose is rather high. I prefer such landings so this came quickly to me. If you like to approach fast and do a wheel landing you may find yourself burning up more runway than needed. A tailskid protects the rudder from damage if you perform steep deck-angle landings.

The EuroFox exhibits very lively handling that some feel is "too light." Keeping the ball centered perfectly requires time logged in a EuroFox, but the Slovak engineers have refined the design from earlier Kitfox and Avid Flyer models I've flown. Light handling is something to which most pilots will easily adapt, and I believe it will train new pilots well. Some ultralight or general aviation pilots used to more docile controls could be initially surprised by EuroFox's quick response and rapid roll rate. 

Though the EuroFox will zip along at good speeds ­ say around 95.5 knots - cruise is easily achieved on nose wheel aircraft with wheel spats – and aileron flutter won't be a concern. Small weighted tubes at the outboard section of each aileron sport mass balances to keep ailerons in line. Like all component parts of a EuroFox they were simple but cleanly integrated. Tony Brand says the factory has worked long and hard to place the full-flying ailerons in precisely the right location to make them as effective as possible while maintaining the light handling for which this design shape is known.

I found the EuroFox's trim to be highly effective. While getting used to the design and changing trim to sense pressure changes, I noted that you could probably pitch the aircraft for an emergency landing by the use of trim only.

Now delivered with a useable fuel capacity of 22.5 gallons (around 85 litres), the EuroFox can demonstrate a range of more than 550 miles. The fuel load and miserly burn rate equate to nearly six hours endurance.

Many pilots prefer high-wing aeroplanes and this is even truer among pilots operating in intensely sunny locales. Yet high wings block visibility in turns. To offset the disadvantage, the EuroFox's large UV filtered skylight opens upward visibility and even somewhat to the aft. All turns made toward the opposite of the side on which you're seated will produce an enlarged view of the turn ahead.

All the stalls I performed in the EuroFox were very mild in characteristics, a great situation when this aircraft is used for flight training. Except for the snappy handling that will take a few hours of acclimation, the EuroFox seems well suited to newer pilots. Through power-off and power-on stalls plus accelerated stalls, I noted no tendency to fall on a wing and nose fall-through was muted.
 
Like the original Avid Flyer and those similar designs that followed, a primary EuroFox sales feature is its easily folded wings. After loosening and removing a few linkage pins, the wings swing back flat and easy just like the older designs. When properly stowed, the EuroFox measures slightly less than eight feet wide, less than six feet tall, and 21.5 feet longlegal vehicle towing dimensions so the aircraft can be trailered.

YOU CAN AFFORD IT
At this time, the a well equipped 100Hp EuroFox with VHF ICom A210 radio, a moving map GPS, conventional instruments with the addition of a Dynon D10A EFIS system costs approx A$87,000 (plus GST), ready to fly away from Horsham, Victoria. This includes the 80hp Rotax 912 engine and delivery to Australia. You could love flying a EuroFox equipped with only standard equipment, but many pilots love to personalise their flying machines.
One owner posted these words about his EuroFox: "Some of the things I have found since purchase have amazed me. For instance, the fit of the windshield is perfect and the screws holding the sides in place are all turned and tightened with the outside slot facing the exact same way as the rest of them, on both sides. The doors are fitted so close to the front side that you can see the careful cuts follow the very outline of that plane at that spot. All over I continue to find incredible caring craftsmanship from all parts of the plane. The engine comes with heat from the stainless muffler and attention to detail in the engine compartment is incredible."

Another owner says “The aircraft is absolutely magnificent, with its fit and finish being an absolute credit to the EuroFox team in Slovakia. “I don’t know why anyone would choose anything else!”

Such a positive view of the craftsmanship is all the more significant when a EuroFox is compared to virtually any composite LSA from Europe. The Aeropro model is a significant bargain, approaching half price! In these days of modern LSA, an equipped price of about A$87,000 (plus GST) for a ready-to-fly light sport aircraft is a relative bargain. Few companies can put together a more attractive package than Aeropro's handsome EuroFox. 

EuroFox 2K & 3K AEROTREK A240

SPECIFICATIONS
Seating: 2, side-by-side
Empty weight: 877 pounds (approx. 3298kg)
Gross weight: 1,232 pounds (approx. 56059kg)
Wingspan: 30 feet, 2 inches
Wing area: 123.8 square feet
Wing loading: 10.0 pounds per square foot
Cabin Interior: 44.1 inches
Length: 18 feet, 11 inches
Height:  5 feet, 10 inches
Kit type:  Fully assembled
Set-up time: 10 minutes wing fold time (1 person)

PERFORMANCE
Standard Engines: Rotax 912S 80HP or Rotax 912ULS 100Hp
Power: 80Hp/ 100Hp
Cruise speed: 80Hp – up to 100Kts; 100Hp – up to 110Kts
VNE: 143mph (approx. 124 knots)
Rate of climb at gross: 980fpm (299 metres per minute) 100Hp2
Takeoff distance at gross: 160 feet (48.7 metres) 100Hp2
Landing distance at gross: 225 feet (68.5 metres)

Notes:
1 With 80hp Rotax 912 engine at 75% power or 100hp Rotax 912S engine at 60% power
2 With 100hp Rotax 912S engine

STANDARD FEATURES
Rotax 912, three-blade Fiti-brand prop, vernier-control throttle, carburettor heat control, stainless steel exhaust, large instrument panel with large map pocket, airspeed indicator, precision altimeter, VSI, compass, slip indicator, FlyDat digital engine instrument providing display of tach, CHT, four EGTs, oil temperature, oil pressure, CHT, hourmeter, and Rotax fuel pressure gauge, steerable (not castoring) nosewheel, fully enclosed cabin, cabin heater and vents, clear doors with locks, carpeted floor, overhead skylight, quick-folding wing system, dope-and-fabric wings and tail, flaperons, wheel pants (nose gear only), hydraulic disk brakes with parking brake feature, 4-point seat belts, large baggage compartment, dual landing lights, one-colorwhite paint with various graphics choices.  Other single colour options are all over red, yellow or blue.

Expected fabric life 50 to 60 years if hangared.

OPTIONS
100hp Rotax 912S, radios, transponder, ELT, additional avionics, wing strobes and position lights, two-color paint scheme, ADI attitude indicator, and BRS 1350 emergency parachute.

CONSTRUCTION
Chromoly welded steel fuselage, aluminum wing structure, fiberglass nose cowl and wing tips, dope-and-fabric wings and tail coverings.