The year started with hope. As 2022 arrived, America and most countries (China excepted) were emerging from two years of difficult lockdowns and Covid. The good news was that a flood of money from the U.S. government had buoyed the stock market and I’ve long observed that in a rising equities market, LSA and SP kit aircraft sell well.
No one thinks this is because anyone sells stock to buy a Light-Sport Aircraft. Rather, it’s something economists call the “wealth effect,” where rising asset values give stockholders confidence that good times are here and they can buy an airplane to have fun.
Then… Russia invaded Ukraine and global markets trembled.
Despite a year of war, of plunging stock markets and sky-high energy prices, of protests and riots in multiple countries, plus on-going supply chain strains and lingering Covid fears, the light aircraft nonetheless grew by a very healthy 18%, after rising 10% in 2021.
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What’s Happening in Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kits? Here’s Our 3Q19 Update.
This website seeks to offer a reliable source of market information for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit aircraft as a service to the light aircraft sector.
If you follow light aviation intently as many readers do, knowing what aircraft and subgroups (within LSA and SP kits*) are thriving or stumbling can be of great interest. Thanks to our fantastic “datastician,” Steve Beste, we know more now than we’ve ever known about aviation’s recreational aircraft segment. You simply cannot find this information anywhere else.
With Steve’s superb help, following are a few stories within the numbers. If you don’t care about market shares and just want to hear about aircraft, we won’t keep you waiting long. However, for many, these figures are quite valuable and this is the only place you will find them. Let’s dive in…
2019 Is a Good Year (so far)
We’re only three quarters through the year but extrapolating from the first three quarters and assuming a steady pace (which is not a guarantee, of course), we see that all of 2019 should result in 724 new aircraft registrations in the light aircraft sector defined (by us) as Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit-built aircraft.
Cessna — Skycatcher Discover Flying (0812)
Meet the eight youthful-faced Cessna “kids” that served as ambassadors for Cessna as they flew eight distinctively-painted and numbered Skycatcher LSA around the USA promoting Sport Pilot, Light-Sport Aircraft… and, of course, Skycatcher. After we meet each ambassador pilot and their dispatcher to hear of their experiences, we speak with Tracy Leopold about Cessna’s move into Primary Category certification so the company can more quick satisfy Skycatcher demand in Europe.
Going, Going, Gone … So Long, Skycatcher?
In the last few days, I was informed about a most unusual negotiation. A group that I agreed not to identify approached Cessna Aircraft with an offer to buy all remaining Skycatcher LSA. Various reports identify more than 80 aircraft parked around Wichita, home to the aviation giant. Some Skycatchers are allegedly complete, some supposedly lack engines or other components. The group with which I communicated made a multimillion dollar offer to acquire all this static inventory. Cessna took it seriously enough to send some executives to discuss the offer in person. “We thought we had it done,” I was told by the leader of the group making the offer. “Eventually they got back to us and said it was a no-go. I think they plan to use the aircraft and parts they represent to maintain the existing Skycatcher fleet,” my source said. Cessna has a proud tradition of supporting all their models for the long run.
Discussion: LSA – Primary Category – Part 23
Since AirVenture 2012, I’ve been part of several discussions about the way — and reasons why — aircraft become certified. Sound boring? Yes and no. One way this might get your interest is to consider if Icon could join Cessna in going Primary Category instead of LSA. Disclaimer: I have no info about any such decision from Icon; this is merely a discussion. Perhaps even more to the point is the price of airplanes based on their certification cost.
*** COST Some informed estimates from knowledgeable persons suggests the cost of taking a fully designed, tested, and otherwise ready LSA through the full process of ASTM approval including the manufacturing process may be the cost of one airplane at retail. In other words, it might cost $125-150,000 to “certificate” a new LSA, after all design work and testing has been done. A weight shift trike might cost $80,000 as ASTM standards are somewhat simpler for those aircraft types.
Skycatcher To Move To Primary Aircraft Category!
Edit: There was some confusion after I first posted this a few days before Oshkosh, so I hope this addendum clears things up: *** First Piper, now Cessna…wow, didn’t see this coming. I’m referring to Piper leaving the LSA field after dropping the PiperSport a couple years back. Similarly, Cessna will no longer list the Skycatcher in the LSA category, but…and here’s where there was some misunderstanding, although I do say this in the text below…the aircraft will continue to be produced at its current specs and will still be legal to fly by Sport Pilots. *** —– *** Even though I’m not arriving in Oshkosh until Friday, this newsflash hot off the wire can’t wait. I just picked this up from the Wichita Eagle. In brief, it says: *** Cessna just announced they’ll move the C-162 Skycatcher into the Primary Aircraft category. It will no longer be a Light Sport Aircraft .
Skycatcher To Be Primary Aircraft: LSA No Longer!
First Piper, now Cessna…wow, didn’t see this coming. *** Even though I’m not arriving in Oshkosh until Friday, this newsflash hot off the wire can’t wait. I just picked this up from the Wichita Eagle. In brief, it says: *** Cessna just announced they’ll move the C-162 Skycatcher into the Primary Aircraft category. It will no longer be a Light Sport Aircraft . This on the heels of news that the Wichita-based aviation giant had pulled it’s European marketing and EASA CS-LSA certification efforts because of the cost and complexity above and beyond certifying to the U.S. Light Sport category. *** The company said switching to Primary Aircraft will aid in the certification process with countries worldwide, which certainly includes Europe’s EASA CS-LSA standards, which you can think of as FAA Airworthiness Lite, or looked at another way, LSA Heavy. *** Cessna was quick to add that the Skycatcher will still be flyable by pilots with a sport pilot license.
While FAA Reworks Mosaic, Other Nations Are Moving Ahead — Is USA Falling Behind?
Capitalism and competition are one thing. Government policies and actions are quite another. You already know this.
Sometimes, however, these two seemingly-opposite concepts aren’t so different. What does this have to do with Light-Sport Aircraft?
American pilots, like aviators in other countries, must obey regulations in the nation where they operate their airplanes. Yet the same requirement is not necessarily true for those who produce the airplanes we enjoy. Producers, it turns out, have choices.
Under an arrangement called reciprocity, manufacturers in certain nations (Note 1; see at bottom) can meet their local regulations and FAA will then accept such aircraft without them going through the American certification system. What results is a form of competition between government regulatory agencies.
European builders may be early users and beneficiaries but American companies could use reciprocity as well.
Readers may remember that when Cessna was still promoting their ill-fated Skycatcher SLSA, they considered pursuing 1990’s-era Primary Category.
LSA Market Info 2.0 is Here! — Broader Survey, More Aircraft Types, User Controls
If you like Light-Sport Aircraft and if you like statistics, you are going to love this article.* Our wholly refreshed look at aircraft registrations marks the return of our popular market share rankings and now includes much more information. We also provide more aircraft classes in various tables and charts and much of this is user-configurable.
Yet, as late night TV advertisers might exclaim, “That’s not all. It gets even better!”
You have always been able to consume all our market share info that includes articles about the industry and enterprise of light aviation conveniently grouped on its own page. With the relaunch of this popular and vital component of ByDanJohnson.com, you gain new ways of looking at the information. Let’s call it LSA Market Info 2.0
Introducing Tableau!
Using a new service that our associate Steve Beste engaged, check out the “Dashboard” look at the LSA industry at Tableau Public.
Icon Reported Scheduling First 20 A5s for Delivery
According to a report in the North Bay (San Francisco) Business Journal, Icon will build its first 20 A5 LSA seaplanes before the end of 2015. Certainly in the LSA space, this can best be described as “much-anticipated event.”
At an annual meeting of the Solano Economic Development Corporation, the Business Journal reported, guest speaker Kirk Hawkins of Icon provided an update on the production of the A5. “The first Icon Aircraft production planes are currently undergoing flight verification testing, and 20 of our A5 aircraft are scheduled to roll off the Vacaville production floor in 2015,” the Journal quoted. They added that Hawkins said production will follow the completion of construction at the facility in August, 2015.
Earlier the California company reported taking more than 1,250 aircraft deposits, which they said represents nearly $300 million in backlog. “By comparison, Tesla Motors had approximately $100 million in order backlog just prior to its production start,” Hawkins noted to the business development group.