KITPLANES FOR AFRICA
Established in 1993, Kitplanes for Africa started out with the production of Bushbaby aircraft. The Bushbaby made a name for itself as a true bush plane in the Microlight and Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) category and soon became one of South Africa’s best-selling light aircraft with more than 160 sold.
2003 saw the birth of the Explorer, a larger Bushbaby with some upgrades and subtle changes in the process. A third model was added in 2008 to the already popular pool called the Safari. The Safari is the largest of the three models with a maximum take-off weight of 750kg (Experimental) but restricted to 600kg in the LSA category.
Based at Petit airfield (FARA), near Benoni, Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2018 KFA started the process of acquiring the German DULV type approval for the Bushbaby Explorer. This aircraft fell into the new 600kg UL category in Germany and it was decided to use the German DULV (local German Recreational Ultralight Association) as the certifying body and also use the LTF-UL 2019 certification standard as the basis for the approval. It was also decided to rename the Bushbaby Explorer to the EXPLORER UL-600. During October 2018, all structural and computational requirements were met and the factory prototype was issued a permit to fly.
The type approval will be issued once the flight test phase is completed, after which production-built aircraft can be supplied to customers.
All KFA models are available in kit or fly-away form. Factory completed Safari aircraft will only be available from mid-2019 when all approvals should be in place. (depending on the country being exported to, every country has their own local rules with regards to accepting foreign production build UL aircraft).
Kit delivery times vary according to factory workload but are currently at around eight weeks. The kits are easy to build and the average builder normally takes less than 600 hours to complete the build from a standard kit.
However, various quick-build options are available that significantly reduce build times. KFA has the best builder support in the industry, because you become part of the KFA family when you build or own one of KFA’s models.
To date KFA has produced in excess of 400 airframes, some of which have been exported to Germany, Australia, USA, UK, Netherlands, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.