We spent the first day of the second year of this event zooming around DeLand Showcase 2017 shooting several videos for you and I have a sample MiniVideo for you to view. This short take is modest compared to the more professionally-edited ones my video partner SportAviationMagazine.com will produce from the footage we shot today. Here’s the link to Videoman Dave’s YouTube channel where you can find hundreds more. Long days at the show filled with interviews, photo taking, and discussions with industry leaders and aircraft representatives swallow most of the available time. Yet these brief videos provide quick views and I hope to add more at DeLand and other events. Offer a comment if you like them. The Evektor Harmony LSA is represented in the USA by Dreams Come True, run by Steve Minnich (who by the way has flown the subject aircraft some 700 hours …though the aircraft obviously has received plenty of care and attention).
My video partner must be working around the clock as he prepared a blizzard of videos for release starting November 1st.
As you see in the list below, 20 videos will soon be available. I hope you'll enjoy them.
Besides giving you info on various aircraft to see at the event, we hope to encourage you to attend 
According to a local newspaper, "More than 6,000 people are expected on the DeLand Municipal Airport Thursday, November 2 through Saturday, the 4th, to inspect more than 100 aircraft."
The reporter went on to say that DeLand expects to "top the 1,000 flight operations recorded last year."
Hours all three days are 9 AM to 5 PM. General admission for adults costs $20 each day, or $40 for a three-day pass. Lower prices are available for youth aged 11-17 and kids under 10 get in free. The entrance and free parking for DeLand Showcase are off Industrial Way on the northwest side of the airport.
Here's the posting schedule for the gusher of videos you can watch. All these aircraft are expected at DeLand.
Nov. 1, 2017 10 a.m. 
Nov. 1, 2017 8 p.m. 
Nov. 1, 2017 11 p.m. 
However, Kolb has always had a problem. They build taildraggers.
After generations of pilots were trained in tricycle gear airplanes, many pilots aren't sure about their ability to handle a taildragger. When landed other than straight and true, a tricycle gear airplane auto-corrects, swinging toward the nosewheel. A taildragger can, if handled poorly, result in the dreaded ground loop, meaning that the tail can swing to the side, potentially causing a wingtip to touch the ground.
Kolb models have such a shallow deck angle (meaning the nose does not sit well above the tail) so this taildragger "problem" is almost invisible, but that doesn't change the fear many pilots have for the once-standard gear arrangement.
FireStar II delivers "great climb performance with the Hirth 3202 engine but can be fitted with the Rotax 582 engine," said Kolb's Bryan Melborn. Hirth is the standard engine for the FireStar II SS mated to a 2.58:1 gear reduction drive swinging a 66-inch diameter fixed pitch propeller. This combination gives outrageous climb performance (as our video below demonstrates) with a top speed of 80 mph.
"It takes very little power to maintain minimum flying speed in a FireStar II SS," Bryan added, "and such slower flying is more enjoyable because of engine noise and fuel consumption are at a minimum."
Handling Kolb aircraft is a wonderful experience. Like all Kolb models, FireStar II SS uses traditional cable and push-pull tube controls which yield a solid feel. Half-span ailerons offer good roll authority at higher speeds while still being powerful enough at lower speeds to retain roll control even through a stall.
"Optional hydraulic brakes provide for sure stops so the FireStar II SS can be landed and stopped in very tight areas," noted Bryan. Differential braking using heel pedals allows for a tighter turning radius which further improves excellent ground handling.
Previous customers who built the older tandem configuration are not left out. Bryan said, "We use stock FireStar wings and tail feathers, so if you own a FireStar II tandem seat, you can purchase a new cage and a boom tube from Kolb Aircraft and fit your wings, tail feathers, engine, and instruments to it and convert to side by side. 
Every pilot I know… every aviation organization… every aviation government official… all acknowledge the same requirement for the future of aviation. We need more younger people entering this activity that we current pilots enjoy so much. I feel sure you agree.
However, despite the efforts of many smart people over many decades, the number of younger folks in aviation is smaller than we might like.
Now, let's be clear. This is not an epic failure. We do have younger pilots involved today. Do you doubt this statement? If so, you are not alone but you may be wrong.
Consider this part of 
Let me repeat for emphasis. The second-largest group of pilots in an age range (20-35 years old) is almost as large as the one we think dominates (50-64 years old). Notice that each group contains pilots from a similar age range (15 years).
Even if you accept those figures, it remains true that we need more young pilots.
One man is working to change the "youth problem" in his own unique way. You may already know him from his days directing the 
"AviNation is published four times a year and is distributed to FBOs, universities and trade events throughout the country, connecting advertisers and contributors with industry professionals, enthusiasts and of course, those that will continue to push the industry forward.
"AviNation, a special opportunity for a special industry."
Like literally billions of other people, I've come to depend on YouTube videos, whether for pure entertainment or when I'm trying to fix something in my house or on my car. As you probably know, YouTube will almost certainly have not one video to help or delight you, but dozens …on the same topic. More than 300 hours of video are uploaded to Google's computers every minute of the day, 24x7. Amazing! More than 5 billion videos are watched every day by more than 1.3 billion people (and that's without China's 1.3 billion people as the government does not allow YouTube in that nation).
However, this post is not to sing the praises of YouTube but to bring to your attention the yeoman's work done by my video partner, Dave Loveman, whom I've come to call "Videoman Dave," because unlike yours truly, he tends to shy away from being the on-camera guy or even promoting his name.
Seamax LSA Seaplane
Flight Design USA
Aeropilot L600 and New FX1
Aeropilot USA
When I started this website back in 2004, even before Light-Sport Aircraft officially arrived on the aviation scene, I began by uploading hundreds of pilot reports that had appeared in various aviation magazines. Most were very detailed descriptions of many ultralights (both single and two seaters) and light kit aircraft. After flying nearly 400 models, I had information that most buyers lacked, so I often took questions that were similar to, "You've flown all these airplanes. Which one should I buy?"
The question turns out to be impossible to answer. It is something like asking me, "Which color car is best?" The answer depends on what you want. What I like is nearly meaningless unless your desires are almost identical to mine …and that's very unlikely. If we spoke long enough at an airshow, perhaps I could learn enough about you — your experience, your home location, your expected use of an aircraft, your spending budget, and much more — such that I might advise you what might work for you.
I would rarely have that much time and even if I did, I only answered the question for one person. That is a definition of inefficient.
Thus came PlaneFinder. Version 1.0 was a series of three articles for EAA Sport Pilot magazine (since discontinued as a publication). The three articles were a lot of work for me, and for readers. At the end, maybe you knew what to buy …but possibly not. It was a worthy first effort, you might agree, but it was not the right solution.
So, 
"The goal of the project was the production and installation of a (public) charging station for electric airplanes, because the need for a stationary type of charging has been shown," wrote the company.
On August 30th, 2017 the electric charging station was officially turned on at the Pipistrel company and was used to charge one of their Alpha Electro aircraft. The project was "financed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the European Union from the European Social Fund."
In Pipistrel's 25 years, the Slovenian company has produced 600 aircraft of the Sinus-Virus family (the ones most familiar to Americans) plus 120 aircraft of the Taurus-Apis family (motorgliders and gliders). Together with approximately 500 weight shift trikes — the aircraft that started this company back in Soviet times — Pipistrel has manufacturered about 1,300 aircraft. 
"Oshkosh is all about airplanes, right?" asked 
Vastly easier demo flying can be done at events like the just-concluded 
To keep up with demand and spark more TAF-USA hired Barry Jay as North American Sales and Marketing Manager, who will work closely with Matt Liknaitzky and Jean D'Assonville. "Barry comes to us with decades of experience in the general aviation and automotive industries," said The Airplane Factory USA. Jay has sold new Piper and Mooney aircraft, managed Lexus national advertising and worked with Toyota's aviation business development department." A private pilot with over 900 hours, Barry has been a member of the Sling Flying Club for over four years and has been a strong promoter of The Airplane Factory brand. An FAA Safety Team Representative, Barry was also recently reelected to the post of President of the Torrance Airport Association for a twelfth term.
In a eNewsletter to what they call "Breezerians," the German company with the same name as their model reported a festive debut to their newest model called Breezer Sport.
Here's our earlier looks at 
"Today, we can do things differently and that’s why the Breezer Sport has a totally different approach. Plus, the current integration of 3D CAD/CAM systems enables us to create form factors meeting the expectations of strength and performance." Breezer Sport is not only an enhancement of the B400/B600, series they say. "It is a completely new aircraft with totally different technology approaches."
Belite entrepreneur James Weibe has successfully used his tech industry background to raise interest for his latest project, this time his first two seater called Chipper. (It was named Pipper but that apparently energized the anxieties of Piper Aircraft lawyers so James altered the name.)
James has informed his Facebook and email readers with continual updates. After making initial flights fairly recently, he has judged the aircraft able to make a cross country flight.
Chipper uses power from the 912 
"I flew Chipper to Angel Fire, New Mexico," James exclaimed. "I flew nonstop one way (960 miles roundtrip) from Wichita, Kansas to Angel Fire, performed flight tests, and then returned to Marion, Kansas before the sunset." Now that's a good day's flying.
"Angel Fire is the fourth highest elevation airport in the United States at 8,322 feet above sea level," James reported. "Density altitude was 10,400 feet." Three conditions can degrade aircraft performance at altitude: higher elevation, higher temperature, and higher humidity. The latter is not much of a problem in desert-like New Mexico but all affect aircraft performance. (Humid air, made up of water vapor, is less also dense.)
In my experience, operating at more than 10,000 feet density altitude causes a Cessna 150 or 172 to take significantly more runway to get airborne and climb performance can be sharply reduced.
"Chipper's takeoff roll length was 600 feet," said a proud James. "Why did they make the runway 8,900 feet long at Angel Fire," James wondered with a twinkle in his eye?
"Climbout was greater than 200 fpm," he added. Now that's not nearly as fast as a 80-horsepower Chipper would perform at sea level but it's better than a Cessna 150. "Everything in the pattern was normal," James continued, "it just took longer to climb."
For his evaluation, Chipper's test weight was 950 pounds. He observed that a normally-aspirated (carbureted) 80-horsepower Rotax develops 52 horsepower at Angel Fire's pattern altitude.
Brian and Carol have created a valuable service by their work for more than a decade. The LSA industry is lucky to have them hard at work.
I believe you should applaud Milan Bristela. Now a veteran of the Light-Sport Aircraft sector, he has steadily built a successful aircraft manufacturing enterprise — 
Back in 2003, when I was still involved with BRS Parachutes, I traveled to the Czech Republic. My contact was American Chip Erwin, then head of Czech Aircraft Works and now the man behind 
The company began selling the first version of Bristell Classic in 2011, a fixed-gear aircraft. In 2012 Milan developed a Bristell RG retractable gear aircraft and in the following year Bristell TDO, their taildragger option (photo) that lends a very sporty look. BRM Aero acquired their own production facilities only five years after starting the business. Since moving, production capacity more than doubled over the next two years.
Today's Bristell Ultralight (the European regulatory description) and BRM Aero's LSA variation is offered in these three configurations that obviously pleases many pilots. A tricycle gear fixed undercarriage configuration is the right choice of aeroplane for use in flight training at flight schools, glider towing and for most recreational flying. Thanks to the solid performance, combined comfort involving thoughtful ergonomic design with and the largest cockpit in its category, and modern instrumentation, any of the Bristell models is an excellent choice for cross-country flights. A Bristell HD version offers heavy-duty wing spars, which make cross-country flights safer in stronger weather conditions.
In the USA, Bristell now enjoys a highly experienced and dedicated team at 
FX1's cabin is fully enclosed and sports large, curved doors. The tail is joined by a more conventional looking fuselage rather than a simple tailboom. The engine is now fully enclosed. Flightstar built it the way they did for some 1,000 aircraft to keep the weight down to a minimum because of the ultralight regulations of the day. That was also a simpler time and today's FX1 may have appeared bulky and expensive back in the early 2000s.
After bringing in the aircraft of other producers Alfredo began work on his own design resulting in the JetFox 91 (in 1991), followed by an upgraded model called JetFox 97, and finally the JetFox GT in 2005. That was about the time Light-Sport Aircraft burst on the scene and caused pilots to look in new directions bringing doubt about the future of JetFox.
A dozen years later, Alfredo is back with his best looking project yet, called FX1, a fourth-generation sport plane evolved from multiple European sport planes over the last three decades. "This modern computer-aided design has been carefully engineered to optimize all aspects of a proven configuration," said Di Cesare (see sidebar). "It incorporates countless improvements and refinements that came from the knowledge and experience of working with similar designs."
Given a fresh design with Italian styling and the promise of future sales, InnovAviation announced several developments.
"We've got financial support to ramp up our serial production," said the company. They plan to demonstrate Special LSA compliance and will seek FAA acceptance "within 2017."
Their first sale went to their dealer in Israel and they noted, "We are in negotiations for dealerships in France, Scandinavia, Australia, and Iran."
For U.S. consumption, "We are in negotiations with a group of investors from Florida in order to establish a US sales and assembly point."
"We've people coming to our factory for demo flights every month," added Alfredo.
Looking for more? Contact Alfredo via 
Improved forward visibility — to enhance flying enjoyment and safety.
In this pre-Eclipse weekend post, I'll show you some images of cool flying things I saw at the big event.
Starting off with my fascination about spaceflight, EAA communications guru Dick Knapinski told of the challenges of arranging an 80-foot-tall flying machine on the central Boeing Plaza square. This is where you see a changing kaleidoscope of aircraft from old to new and slow to fast. However, no aircraft I've ever seen in this location flies as fast, stands as tall, or is more unique than the 
Nearby, from one of light aviation lightest aircraft sellers — Michael LeMaire and his 
Machines like Stratos aren't what we usually cover here — any more than space rockets — but since it was beautiful to behold and is coming from one of our LSA suppliers and supporters, I enjoyed a look-see and thought you might as well.
On the way to the Ultralight Area — rebadged as the Fun Fly Zone (an accurate name, IMHO) — we passed by the antique airplane area with its own red barn, seen in the background of the nearby image. What caught my attention was the snazzy paint job or decal on this taildragger.
It doesn't compare to the superlative 
Finally, we arrived in arguably my favorite area of 
"Coming to America" is a common refrain from light aircraft producers in some countries. Why? The obvious reason is that most designers perceive a huge market in the USA. Another is that shipping from the USA to other countries proves easier than shipping from their home countries. Other reasons also exist but those two are enough to decide in favor of the move.
One builder of a LSA seaplane is 
"Atol's cockpit is totally newly designed and looks great," added Anssi. The long established tradition in aviation (and most industries) of adapting the good ideas of other designers shows in Atol's new MVP-like approach.
Anssi explained, "Atol's new articulating canopy retracts up and back, getting out of the way, allowing pilot and passenger to stand upright and access the cockpit from the front if desired, which makes docking and beaching easy. Our avionics retract with the canopy allowing them to be out of harm’s way, avoiding water spray. The seats are removable so when operating solo you can load up with gear to take advantage of our industry leading 600 pound useful load. Carbon fiber is accented with beautifully finished wood trim providing the feel of a classic automobile… it truly is striking."
Among LSA seaplanes a 600 pound useful load is also striking. Anssi explains how they achieve that, "The outer layer of our hull is Kevlar with cold-molded, foam-cored birch. This combination is extremely rugged, light and strong. We use fabric covered wings featuring Oratex. These can be lighter than carbon fiber with the added benefit of field repairable. This is a real plus for a seaplane."
“Finland has 188,000 lakes," said Anssi, "so we know the joys of water flying as well as the demands. Many of these lakes are remote and require range and reliability to access so we designed the Atol 650 for this environment.” Atol's 650 designation refers to 650 kilograms, the metric equivalent of FAA's 1,430 pound seaplane weight limit.
"We think Atol USA is the best and fastest solution for us to be able to serve our North American customers. Our Rovaniemi factory in Finland (photo) will produce for the rest of the world and continue product development,” Anssi added.
Atol USA will produce the 650 at Brunswick Executive Airport (KBXM), site of the former Brunswick Naval Air Station. A local development authority has created a manufacturing technology incubator and is "currently constructing an environmentally-controlled composites layup room, curing oven and paint booth designed to aviation standards and sized to accept wings, fuselages and other large structures. These complement our CNC machining center, welding shops, 3D printers and on-site Composites Engineering Research Lab," said development director Steve Levesque. "We make these assets available to companies throughout the State of Maine." The northeastern state has a long history with amphibious flight having been the home to Lake Aircraft for decades.
We expect to deliver these airframes beginning in the first quarter of 2019 and at a firm fixed price. What price? "Current pricing is $179,000 for delivery through 2018, although most of these positions are allocated so our open slots begin in 2019," explained Paul.
Want to know more? Review Atol's technical specifications