As they’ve done numerous times, Hansen Air Group — a team of dedicated pilots, nearly all of whom fly or formerly flew airliners for their day job — has helped shepherd another Light-Sport Aircraft through the ASTM standards process to get a FAA airworthiness certificate. The Altanta area importer has done this with several aircraft including some Tecnam models, Sky Arrow, and Peregrine. In recent months, Hansen took over U.S. import duties for FK Lightplanes, which has facilities in Germany and Poland. *** Welcome to SLSA #123, the dashing FK12 Comet biplane. FK12 is the first-ever biplane to win SLSA approval, the second qualified LSA for FK Lightplanes, and the second LSA type to arrive in the USA for aerobatic flight (the first was the Snap from SportairUSA). FK12 made a first official U.S. appearance in the LSA Mall at AirVenture 2011 (as did Snap).
Archives for October 2011
Is Flying for Fun Shrinking? Here’s Another View.
Our good friend, Mary Grady, posted an article on AVweb, one of our favorite aviation news sites; lots of good content available. Mary recently editorialized about electric aircraft and their potential appeal. Following the NASA Green Flight Challenge, her timing was as impeccable as her writing. I encourage you to go read the editorial, but what you’ll find at least as entertaining as Mary’s editorial are a great many reader comments; the topic clearly inspired aviators. *** That said, I had to write Mary* about one line and I want to share some of what I told her. *** Mary wrote, “For people who fly for fun — presuming there are many of those left, it seems to be one of the fastest-shrinking segments of GA — electric airplanes are sure to appeal.” *** In my communication to Mary, I asked about the source of the knowledge that flying for fun is shrinking.
Doing What You Cannot Do in Most Aircraft
My good friend and Air-Cam developer, Phil Lockwood, likes to hold fly-outs for his customers. More than 160 kits have been delivered and built; each fly-out has attracted several of these owners. Phil and his Lockwood Aircraft associate George Weber have invited me several times but I’ve had to miss earlier gatherings for owners of this iconic “twin engined ultralight” (it isn’t really an ultralight but has its roots in that category). For once I got to attend. The destination was the beautiful Jekyll Island resort area of Georgia; it’s near St. Simons Island, another popular vacation destination. *** On a stunningly beautiful day, I was privileged to take my wife and two friends aloft for 30-minute tours of the Island. This was great fun for all. But what made it especially interesting is that I did this in N912LA, one of three Air-Cams badly trashed by the tornado at Sun ‘n Fun 2011 (photo).
Hit or Myth? Flying with an All-Duct-Tape Covering
James Weibe is a different sort of airplane pioneer. He doesn’t make an LSA. He bought the rights to the former Kitfox Lite and has gone through several iterations of changing and improving the airplane. This makes sense considering his background in the computer accessory field, where he learned the constant upgrade path so common in the tech industry. *** Belite’s aircraft can meet Part 103 and other variations are Experimental Amateur Built. Evidently that wasn’t enough work, so Belite also developed a line of superlight instruments. Just keeping up with this prolific fellow tires many folks. However, he also knows how to reach outside the aviation community. For example, on TV… mainstream TV. *** When I was a kid, I used to say, “Just scotch it.” I mean that Scotch (brand) tape could fix anything, or so my young mind thought at the time. Apparently, duct tape is the new Scotch tape, at least for aviators trying to fix tears on a fabric-covered aircraft.
Green Flight Challenge A Teachable Moment
Posting from Istanbul, Turkey where I’m on vacation with my family, but just couldn’t wait another day to talk a bit about what most everybody in aviation’s been talking about these last several days: the CAFE Green Flight Challenge (GFC). *** History was made when the Pipistrel Taurus Electro G4 twin-fuselage electric-powered aircraft carried four adults, around 1000 lbs. of batteries, one electric motor with a bit prop, and a lot of engineering and piloting savvy to victory in the GFC. They earned themselves $1.35 million in the process. Huge and well-deserved congratulations to Pipistrel!But for my money, the deeper story is not just that they flew off with the biggest aviation dollar prize ever, or even that they accomplished the task of flying 200 miles on one battery charge while also averaging more than 100 mph for the entire flight, or that they did it while “burning” the equivalent of 1 gallon of gas per passenger, or four gallons total…but…that they accomplished all that yet consumed the equivalent of around 1/2 gallon of gas per passenger!