The Video Pilot Report below may be one of the most anticipated VPRs my video partner Dave and I have produced. I did the flying at AirVenture Oshkosh 2015 on Lake Winnebago in late July, but because Icon preferred to provide the video footage, it has taken some weeks to put it all together.
Production of one of these VPRs is a two-part effort. First, I invested some time to get to where Icon did their demo flying (away from all the other flying locations associated with Oshkosh). Weather and the company’s desire to take aloft a reported 150 of their waiting owners forced a couple schedule changes. Since returning home, we worked with several helpful folks at Icon to assemble all the right video pieces. Finally, Dave invested many hours editing what you see below (or here).
Our video should show you most of what you want to see about this impressive LSA including water takeoffs and landings, in-flight maneuvering, stalls (such as they are), low flying over the water, and the interior of the airplane including Icon’s highly emphasized Angle of Attack indicator.
Archives for September 2015
Cleaning Your Flying Machine Without Damaging It
I know you like reading about aircraft. I like writing about them (and doing videos about them … more on that soon with a very special one in final editing right now).
However, most pilots also like their airplanes to be all clean and shiny. Well, they don’t get that way without effort and without the right products. The truth is, you can use the wrong cleaners on some aircraft components and it could cost you much more than you care to consider.
So, for your weekend reading, let me tell you about a couple cleaning product companies I’m glad are in the business. Welcome to Composiclean and iCloth Avionics.
Composiclean’s Ken Godin said, “[I saw] a lot of people doing damage to their airplanes using harsh products. I thought I should fix that.” In the process, Ken realized he had the makings of a business that would cater to enthusiasts of any vehicle that involved composite materials.
American Legend Running On All (3?) Cylinders
We see and hear a continuing focus on electric airplanes including here at one of your (I hope) favorite websites. We’ll continue to hear more about electric but the whirring motors are not the only innovation in powerplants. In true, another project with a completely different sound may be more meaningful in the short term and that statement is even more true outside the United States.
As our Sun ‘n Fun 2015 video shows, we have been following Superior Air Parts new Gemini Diesel 100 engine. The latest news in this development is a launch installation on an American Legend Aircraft Company airframe shown at AirVenture Oshkosh 2015 just three months after its debut. The two companies, both from Texas, parlayed their close proximity to one another to get the install done in a short time.
Recently Legend announced they would start making the diesel available to customers.
LSA’s Perfect Storm… Can Good News Follow?
At Summit 2011, EAA and AOPA jointly announced they will pursue driver’s license medical privileges for pilots wishing to operate GA airplanes with less than 180 horsepower with only two persons on board in day VFR. Combined with ongoing events in the LSA industry it seemed a “perfect storm” was brewing. *** The Storm includes: three years of sluggish sales (’09, ’10, and ’11); FAA’s intensified auditing of companies and the agency’s virtual shut down of Criquet’s Storch*; and, the threat of reduced sales following the EAA/AOPA announcement. Any new regulation about driver’s licenses medical is at least a year or two away and perhaps as many as five years — it may never be approved despite a mighty push by two large membership organizations combining their clout. Indeed, five previous tries failed. Nonetheless, many LSA sellers expect sales to slow further as some pilots elect to keep their medical until the proposed rule may become law.
The Age of YouTube & Video Pilot Reports
When this website went live a few months before the Sport Pilot & Light-Sport Aircraft rule was announced at Oshkosh 2004, it began life as an archive of several hundred pilot reports I had written for a number of print magazines in aviation. That launch seems a long time ago … it has been eleven and a half years. (Development started only a few years after the World Wide Web emerged and ByDanJohnson.com went live in April 2004.)
One year after going live, I began to add news via a blog, which I called “Splog,” for Sport Pilot web log. Videos started in 2008 and by 2015, news and video have become the primary content items.
You might be surprised to hear ByDanJohnson.com predates YouTube, which began when three former PayPal employees created a video-sharing website. The Internet domain name YouTube.com was activated on February 14, 2005 and the website went public in November of that same year.
SLSA N-Number Registrations in First Half 2015
The U.S. market for Special Light-Sport Aircraft continues to grow at steady pace, modestly better than the trend for single engine piston certified aircraft as reported by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association for the first half of 2015.
SLSA deliveries in the half-year period totaled 97 units, with 91 of those coming from 15 manufacturers, showing that the famous 80/20 rule still generally applies … more than 80% of the market is supplied by less than 20% of the builders. It also implies the majority of those companies who previously earned FAA acceptance for their LSA models are either quite slow or inactive in the U.S. market.
We’d prefer to describe vigorous growth but the so-named Great Recession seems to be lingering on; at least it appears the much-talked-about recovery has left most of aviation still looking for improved business. Evidence of a still-troubled global economy is even clearer when you consider the wild stock market gyrations of recent weeks.
VIDEO — Check Out the Speedy Swiss Risen
In addition to what you can read on ByDanJohnson.com, we have a growing library of videos. When I attend airshows, I frequently hear from attendees that they thoroughly enjoy these 8-12 minute productions. I have the fun job, seeking out airplanes and speaking to the developers behind them while on camera. After that my video partner, Dave, does the big job of editing these things into what I consider to be very nice productions. You get views of the airplane, hear the details, and see more about them than any other way than attending the airshow yourself.
In this newest posted video, you see the gorgeous Risen from Sea-Avio.com (SEA is Swiss Excellence Airplanes). Update June 2020 — SEA is now Porto Aviation Group. Now, this is not simply one more entry in the increasingly crowded Light-Sport or (European) microlight market. This may be the fastest airplane in the fleet and is certainly — if not the fastest — one of the speediest airplanes to use the Rotax 912 ULS engine.
Gyroplanes and Autogyros … Same or Different?
(Images updated 9/2/15)
Are you intrigued by airplanes that spin their wings? Helicopters are out of the budget for most pilots but have you ever sampled a gyroplane? Whatever your answer, you should know that Rotax Aircraft Engines reports selling more 912 powerplants to gyro producers than to any other airplane segment. Most of those are sold outside the USA.
Americans like and do fly gyroplanes, of course. Most associate the type with the Bensen Gyrocopter, but the history record reveals its overseas start. Again today, gyros are predominantly a non-U.S. phenomenon, a fact LAMA is trying to change through its advocacy efforts to press FAA to reconsider the fully built SLSA gyro as once envisioned under the SP/LSA rule.
While most pilots can identify a gyroplane, they mentally picture an aircraft with the engine in the rear. That isn’t always the case, though.
How about the “odd” looking gyroplane pictured with this article, with its tractor engine?