Search Results for : Colyaer

At big airshows with thousands present, it’s easy to miss one sharp airplane. When I completely missed Sun ‘n Fun 2006, I also lost my second chance to examine the Colyaer Freedom amphib. But the airshow judges were on the job. Colyaer’s amphibious Freedom won Best Composite Seaplane. The same model also won a take-off award. “We were averaging 6 to 8 seconds, even with two people,” said Colyaer’s U.S. importer, Don Langford. *** The Colyaer designs boast some strong performance numbers. In particular, glide is reported at 20:1 and sink rate at 300 fpm. These reach up into sailplane figures but 40.6 feet of span and wing area of 130 square feet surely help…a land version claims 23:1 and only a 240 fpm sink rate! Freedom is built entirely from composite materials (carbon, kevlar, and fiberglass) except for a few metal parts. Colyaer hails from Spain.

Another design has made its way to American shores and will be available for examination at the 2005 Sebring Expo (see the event link to the left of your screen). LSA Aero, an importer based in Tanner, Alabama, is introducing the Spanish designs of Colyaer. The design has three family members, a land plane — the Martin 3; plus two seaplanes, one boat hull and one amphibian — the Gannet and the Freedom. All feature wingspans over 40 feet which provide a strong 20+ glide ratio. They also offer exceptional visibility with a high wing aft of the cockpit.

Once upon a time, in the early days of Light-Sport Aircraft, way back in 2006 and 2007, new LSA models were being introduced at the torrid pace of two, three, even four per month. Aviation had no prior design outpouring to compare. The rate of development had to slow — such a pace is not sustainable — and it did. Yet the young industry continued on to the astonishing sum of 131 models and it ain’t over yet. Meanwhile, though, a new tsunami is building within the LSA sector. I’ve written about a wave a new seaplanes and as summer 2013 approaches, a tour of the many choices may help guide interest of seaplane enthusiasts.
Current Seaplanes (distinguished from float-equipped land planes *) include FAA-accepted SLSA models: Mermaid, SeaMax, SeaRey, and Freedom. At present all are being offered and have some measure of U.S.

Last month the southern China city of Zhuhai hosted a large collection of aircraft at Airshow China. We’ve been hearing about this once-closed country in matters of aviation so often, I thought it would be something different to show a collection of photos taken by my LAMA Europe colleague, Jan Fridrich. He works for the Czech Light Aircraft Association and you know his name as the man who does the hard work to gather figures for our regular LSA market surveys.
Another associate of mine, Will Escutia, one of the new owners of Quicksilver Aeronautics, also traveled to China recently. Visiting dealer prospects in the north of the large country Will reported that he sees four main forces driving the opening of aviation in China: (1) airspace below 3,000 meters is opening to civilian aircraft; (2) high interest in flying follows that airspace opening; (3) government is concerned about their economy and aviation is seen as helpful; (4) entrepreneurs are jockeying to take early advantage of the burgeoning market.