Experience with Vixxen?

[pmccarthy]

Can anyone provide an update on owning and flying a Vixxen? There hasn't been much posted recently. It is on my short list, maybe a wish list, but who knows what the new year will bring?

 

 

[Toucanfly]

Just a great aircraft. Still learning how to fly it but Joe Newham from Rylstone is making it so much easier. Support from Ido of Foxbat Australia is first class. Other owners just rave about it. Very comfortable and I am pretty tall. Visibility is nearly as good as a trike!  Suggest you check out all the YouTube reviews. 

 

 

[APenNameAndThatA]

I bought a second hand Foxbat about 12 months ago, which has the same manufacturer and distributor. They have provided excellent support, both with getting things and giving me information. For example, they got me a bit of the firewall that cracked (but had not cracked on anyone else's plane apparently), pretty quickly. They sent me a ballistic parachute quickly, even though they are a pain to get from the factory because they contain a rocket. And you pay after your stuff arrives, at least for smallish things. 

 

They way I see it, there are so many airplanes to choose from that it is sensible to get a plane with good support, not just a good plane. They have sold hundreds of Foxbats in Australia and quite a few Vixxens, so if you get a Vixxen it won't be an orphan. Peter said online that he sold two Foxbats and two Vixxen at whatever the recent flying event was that had the high winds. 

 

I have never heard the slightest suggestion that the Vixxen's claimed slow stall and fast cruise are exaggerated. I have minimal skills as a pilot and, IF I remember correctly, I was flying along in a Foxbat at 22 kt indicated on the Dynon with power but no flaps. The Vixxen is supposed to stall a knot slower than the Foxbat. 

 

One thing about the Vixxen, if you want to fit 8.00 X 6 tyres (like on a Foxbat Kelpie) you will be doing something that the factory has not approved and loses you all the speed gains over a Foxbat - at least that was the case a year ago. I am not sure about more normal 6 x 6.00 tyres, which are (in my opinion) probs just as good on rough surfaces so long as they are only four ply. 

 

 

[jackc]

I have been training in a Vixxen, done 18 hours now and I really like it, however my flying school is selling it and getting a Sting 2000, so my future lessons will be in it.

 

Interesting that you got a ballistic chute, is it a retrofit job? What is required to do this as I was considering looking for a S/hand Kelpie or A22LS.

 

Cheers,

 

Jack.