It was the ninth annual LAMA Dinner at Sebring 2016. Each year, the organization has tried to do something different and this year broke new ground. In the past LAMA has brought in speakers such as AOPA then-president Craig Fuller, EAA then-president Rod Hightower, and FAA ex-administrator, Randy Babbitt. Except for the last, they were active in their roles when they spoke but this is evidence of how things change over a fairly short time. However, two things seem not to change. America (or at least the mainstream media) continues an infatuation with electing a new leader. Every four years — though it seems more often as the election cycles increasingly jam together — the two big political parties trot out their new candidates. The other, more relevant (to readers of this website) unchanging fact is that pilots love to hear about and talk about the engines on their aircraft. With its beta-test debate at Sebring earning warm reviews, LAMA, supported by its principal airshow sponsor, Aviators Hot Line, is moving forward with a Great Debate series at Sun 'n Fun. As those plans come together, I will report further here. Until then, you can see and hear the Sebring engine debate below. Meanwhile, back to that fascination with engines ... One of the regular readers of this website had some questions, the sort that might be answered at the engine debate at Sun 'n Fun. He asked, "Does Rotax have a aviation engine line? Or, are all Rotax engines made the same, be it an aviation engine or a snowmobile or land based engine?" Answer: Rotax has a line and facility dedicated solely to the assembly of aircraft engines. I've visited the facility and seen the sprawling yet immaculate and highly organized plant where motorcycle and snowmobile engines are built. With robots, computer-controlled tools, and a completely automated inventory system, Rotax BRP is very impressive. The main plant in Gunskirchen, Austria looks more factory-like while the aircraft engine line seems more of a custom shop moving at a deliberate and measured pace. I understand workers at Rotax BRP are very keen to get into the aircraft engine side, so that team is likely the best of the best building the 9-series engines and more. My inquirer said, "I know Rotax did away with most of the two stroke line." Comment: Most, but not all. While Rotax BRP no longer builds the 447 or 503 — and long ago did away with the single cylinder 277 — the Rotax 582 continues to be in demand and sells in good volume. "When they did sell [two-stroke engines]," he continued, "did Rotax have a special section for [those] engines that went into an airplane? Answer: They are built in the same aircraft engine facility as the 9-series though on different production runs. "How many work in this [facility]?" Answer: About 25 technicians assemble aircraft engines and they are supported by engineering, sales, and management personnel. Some components of the aircraft engines come from the big plant, but the assembly is separate. "Are Rotax aircraft engines made on an assembly line?" Answer: The Austrian engine manufacturer builds aircraft engines on a primarily hand-assembly line that is less automated than the main motorcycle and other engine production. Total volumes are quite different. In addition to designing and testing aircraft engines — for example the new 135-horsepower Rotax 915 iS is getting closer to market — the European manufacturer also supports dealers and mechanics with a training facility that I have toured. I've also visited the Continental Motors factory in Mobile, Alabama, and it is also impressive in its size and technical sophistication but Rotax in Austria is a more modern establishment. The questions above and more will be asked and answered at the Sun 'n Fun Great Debates, held in a new much-larger LAMA tent that will be front and center in Paradise City, the Light Plane area of Sun'n Fun. If you are attending the show, come to Paradise City each day and catch a Great Debate at 1:00 PM. You may get your questions answered, too. Get an idea how the debates will go by catching this video:

SEBRING EXPO 2016 — Opening day Wednesday started out unseasonably cool ... but true to form — Florida is called the Sunshine State for good reason — the sun warmed the day nicely. Several vendors told me they thought it was the best opening day yet for the Sebring Expo. Thursday was even more pleasant. A few of us showed sunburned faces by the end of the day, but in all, it was a second good day of the event in its 12th year (not coincidentally the same number of years for which we've had Sport Pilot / Light-Sport Aircraft). Several vendors reported many qualified customers and many attendees to whom I spoke seemed pleased with the depth of exhibitors and products to examine. Shows like Sebring and the Midwest LSA Expo offer more opportunity for demo flights and longer conversations with vendors who are often besieged with dense crowds at AirVenture or Sun 'n Fun. Friday, however, brought a threat of strong thunderstorms, prompting Sebring airport's executive director to close the show and cease ticket sales. It was also recommended that all the vendors leave the grounds. Some thought this decision was a bit "drastic," or "hasty," but after tornadoes at Sun 'n Fun in recent years and wild weather at Oshkosh that causes debris to be blown about, sometimes violently, the action to close the event for the day might be described as no more than an excess of caution. I was just informed that the show will continue for its final day Saturday. Weather will be cool again after the front passes, though it is hard to be too critical while the country's East Coast gets hammered with blizzards and very hazardous driving. Saturday at Sebring is also a free day for students and all visitors will find more exhibitors than last year, although a few may have bailed due to the uncertain weather on Friday. However, for those flying or driving north to their home base when Sebring concludes, most saw no hurry to leave as the further north you go the higher the likelihood of encountering truly difficult weather. Florida is looking mighty good in comparison. On the first two days and planning to continue on Saturday, Videoman Dave and I were scurrying about the show grounds collecting a batch of new video material for your viewing enjoyment in the weeks ahead. I am pleased to report LAMA's Ninth Annual Dinner went very well with about 280 LSA and light kit business persons in attendance. They witnessed the first of the "Great Debates," this time with engine manufacturing describing their products and answering questions posed by moderator Sebastien Heintz (Zenair). Numerous comments were offered that revealed even those in the business learned new facts about engines. Of particular interest was a discussion about fuels that can be used with each engine. Part of the fuel debate portrayed ethanol as a very challenging substance not only for the engines but for the airframe systems such as fuel tanks and lines. LAMA Dinner invitees also heard about the coming 2210 and 3310 Jabiru engines, an announcement that caught everyone by surprise. The debates (photo below) included Rotax, Continental, Jabiru, UL Power, and Viking with comments from publisher Will Tacke regarding electric propulsion. With its "beta test" of the Great Debates successfully completed, LAMA will now dive deeper into plans for additional Great Debates at Sun 'n Fun 2016. Debates will be held on LAMA's space (LSA Mall) in Paradise City. Everyone is encouraged to visit, not only for the debates but to see the newly improved and significantly lengthened runway at Paradise City.

For my weekend posts, I often like to check out something out of the ordinary. From the photos you see nearby, you can see I found a qualifying topic. However crazy as this activity — involving the name "WingBoard" — may look, it appears grounded in reality. If you think of wingsuit sky diving as just "edgy," then Aaron "Wyp" Wypyszynski's Wingboard could seem relatively tame. Watching all his videos, I'd say Wingboarding was more akin to sky skiing, as in water skiing behind a boat, except a wider use of three dimensions than you get on water. Start with the following video which gives a decent explanation of the project from the developer's point of view. Aaron "Wyp" Wypyszynski began flying full-scale aircraft at age 13, soloed at 16, and remains an active pilot (photo below). He was inspired by a cartoon, saying "Kit Cloudkicker [was seen by] millennials who grew up watching "TaleSpin," and dreaming of carving through the sky like Kit on his airfoil." Funny how something we experience as a very young person can stick with us our whole lives, eh? Aaron went on to more conventional flying but was drawn back to Kit and his board. Having acquired real world skills, he was driven to try designing a real wingboard. You can ponder if this was crazy or inspired. Look, I know it's highly unlikely that you would ever try this but the idea is engaging. Sky divers do stuff somewhat like this all the time. Jetman inspired many with his stunts. BASE jumpers show incredible daring do. Maybe not you, but somebody will think this is the neatest invention ever, and it is actual flying, not like riding along in an automomous air vehicle. The project has progressed through several stages from miniature to one-sixth scale to 40% scale (in December 2015) where the "pilot" — itself a pretty nifty bit of engineering — parachutes away from the board for landing. The wing has its own parachute. Let's check it out further. According to the WYP Aviation website, "WingBoard works through a close coupling of the rider, tow rope, and WingBoard itself. The best analog is to look at the WingBoard as a wakeboard [operating] in three dimensions." Staying true to his childhood fantasy Aaron WingBoard's "rider" — he uses this term instead of pilot but it clearly involves piloting skills — "...stands in an upright stance, similar to a wakeboarder, allowing him or her to lean and twist in all directions, while still maintaining a stable stance to brace against the tow forces." Aaron continued, "The rider is attached to the board via a binding, similar to a snowboard biding, providing a flexible connection to the board." If flying a WingBoard sounds a bit nuts to you, how about standing on it while doing so? As a longtime hang glider pilot I can tell you this is not so very different than modern ultralight-aircraft-tow-launched hang gliding, except the hang glider wing is above the pilot not below him and you fly prone rather than standing. Yet essentially these are very similar and hang gliding enjoys an excellent safety record. A good friend, Malcolm Jones, has operated a hang glider tow park called Wallaby Ranch in central Florida for nearly 25 years. They have done several tens of thousands of tows with very few incidents. How does Aaron plan to tow his WingBoard? "A key design feature is the tow rope connection," he wrote. "A single tow rope [splits into a Y-shape] approximately 10 feet in front of the rider. A lower line connects to the WingBoard, while the upper line goes to a tow bar, which the rider holds. The tow bar is then connected to the rider in a manner similar to a kite surfer, alleviating the loads the rider must bear." The hang glider tow crowd learned the hard way to use things like weak links in the tow line to keep pressures from getting too high." Before a loss of control, a weak link triggers a release under tow, however, this makes me wonder how Aaron will cope with practical problems like this especially when it happens before parachute height. "WingBoard is controlled via two methods. The primary control input is the rider's position. Leaning forward and backward changes the angle of the tow rope triangle, thereby altering the WingBoard angle of attack, vertical position behind the tow plane, and amount of lift generated. The rider also leans and rotates to the side to place the board at that angle, using a side component of the lift vector to pull out to one side or the other of the tow plane. In addition to the rider's position, force sensors in the foot bindings and on the tow bar allow the rider to input additional roll commands. These commands further aid in rolling the WingBoard to the side and also allow for spectacular aileron rolls." Aaron seems to have considered safety carefully. He is surely aware of some important things to work out about initial launch but he reports a cadre of high-time test pilots with backgrounds in piloting, skydiving, and wakeboarding. As Aaron's team prepares for manned flight, they figure to start with a helicopter-deployed rider and WingBoard. "The helicopter will allow for sufficient height to be obtained before starting testing, allowing the rider to detach and deploy their parachute at any time during the testing should need arise," explained Aaron. As he learns more, he'll proceed to fixed wing aircraft of varying description. Here's a link to their Phase 3 manned flight plans if you want read further. And if you're so inspired you can help with crowd funding.

Back in early 2014, Flying magazine online wrote, "There's an old saying among pilots that 'airspeed equals life.' In other words, keep your speed up, and you'll avoid stalling the wing during critical phases of flight, such as the base-to-final turn. But, that's a misnomer since the stalling airspeed of a wing will change based on aircraft weight and load factor." Many ex-military pilots also insist AoA is a vitally important gauge. Air Force jet jocks are often shocked that civilian pilots are still flying based solely on airspeed. FAA certainly caught the fever, proclaiming statements similar to this one: "Inadvertent stalls are implicated in almost half of the GA approach and descent accidents." The implication is that AoA will cure this deathly problem. Advanced Flight Systems was quoted as saying, "Nearly one-half of Experimental and over one-fourth of certified aircraft fatalities are the result of stalls and spins. The killer-turn from base to final is the leading culprit." Wow! You better get an AoA as soon as possible, right? Not so fast. John Zimmerman, writing on AirFactsJournal.com back in 2013 (whole article here), took a more thoughtful approach to all the AoA buzz. While I see the value of AoA, I thought John summarized the situation well. He wrote, "Icon's new AoA instrument (photo) is nice, but it won't magically make pilots safer. I think that's hopelessly naive." John added, "Pilots have to look at the instrument for it to be of any use. In the Asiana 214 crash in San Francisco, the crew managed to ignore the airspeed indicator for a long time, even as it eventually showed them being almost 30 knots slow. Another instrument wouldn't have prevented this disaster." In his article, John referred to the breathless campaigns proclaiming the life-saving potential of AoA instruments. Since loss of control is indeed the number one cause of general aviation accidents, the AoA revolution could be the most important safety innovation in our lifetime, we heard. FAA declared affordable AoA instruments one of its most-wanted safety improvements and AOPA's Air Safety Institute has enthusiastically supported the cause. However, enthusiasm and federal pressure cannot solve all problems. "Besides looking at the instrument, pilots have to know how to react to its indications," John explained. "For the [sport] pilot struggling to log 25 hours in a year, the physical stick and rudder skills may be more important than the recognition skills." "Here's the simple fact that most AoA proponents know, but don't like to admit: airspeed is a great proxy for AoA most of the time," continued John. "[Sport] pilots fly in a very small envelope: +/- 10 degrees in pitch and 30 degrees of bank in most cases. Within those boundaries, monitoring airspeed is a perfectly good way to keep from stalling. If you're doing aerobatics or flying a jet at FL410, an AoA instrument may be essential; in the pattern in a [light plane] it's not going to tell you much more than the airspeed indicator." While I think John makes some excellent points, AoAs do appear to coming to our cockpits. In fact, any Dynon (and other digital instrument brands) already has AoA capability. My own observation, though actual use, is that AoA indicators require training and acclimatization like any other cockpit instrument. As wonderful as I now find computer screens from SkyView to G3X to an iPad, all took some familiarization. Even that's not right. I spend hours studying and practicing before I truly began to see all the potential of a glass panel. AoA strikes me as more of the same, albeit somewhat simpler. I've flown quite a few hours with SkyView and for the most part, I ignore the AoA indicator. Airspeed is what I'm most familiar with and on which I primarily rely — that, and plain old seat of the pants flying where I use my senses to avoid getting too slow. At the Copperstate show last fall, I flew with John McBean in his Kitfox equipped with AoA. He was very familiar with it and used it. I tried with John's encouragement. Yet seeing my sluggishness at interpreting it, John referred me back to airspeed. This summer when I flew Icon's A5 (video pilot report), I found their portrayal of AoA far and away the best. I could actually use it and did so soon after takeoff — admittedly with encouragement and advice from my ex-military demo pilot Craig Bowers — nonetheless, I found it quite useful. What do you think? Find my post on my Facebook page and add your comments, if you like.

As techies know the giant Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has been in the news over the last week and we've seen articles about cool stuff at the event. I don't remember ever seeing anything about manned aircraft in CES coverage before though quadcopters have had a clear presence. At the 2016 event, though, one vehicle got a lot of attention: eHang 184, from China. You can check out their video below. I found eHang very intriguing but I hesitate to call it an aircraft, at least compared to manned airplanes. It is more like an autonomous air vehicle and I say that because the occupant is not a pilot. As its developers tell the story, you get in, use the screen in front of you to tap where you want to go and eHang flies you to that destination. I'd be more likely to call it an "aircab." As currently portrayed and as seen at CES, eHang is something very different. It is a one person transport device though I imagine they are thinking more seats in the future. When you think about modern drones — such as the dji-brand I am flying — you realize these things are already quite capable. My Phantom 2 Vision will automatically return to "home" if I lose signal, will automatically return home before its battery gets too low, and can be programmed with up to 16 waypoints to fly autonomously. Is it so hard to envision eHang taking you to your doctor appointment or the grocery store? Yet eHang is entering a field we may shortly call crowded. Let's have a look at another example, one we know better. On several occasions, I've reported about Terrafugia's Transition The brain trust at Terrafugia worked hard on their flying car even going to the trouble to get a weight exemption so they could meet highway regulations that are as onerous as FAA regs for airplanes. Yet it appears the Massachusetts company has set off a new direction. Enter TF-X. What's the difference? A lot, actually, as TF-X is driven like a car, rather conventionally, but only to a runway or helicopter-like pad where you tell the TF-X where to take you. TF-X does the flying for you, autonomously. Do you see a theme emerging? TF-X unfolds short wings but then deploys electric-powered, folded propellers to achieve an MV-22 Osprey-like take-off that morphs to level flight. Once aloft and moving forward the spinning props retract and a high-horsepower engine pushes TF-X through the air at speeds around 200 mph until near your destination. Then the spinning props redeploy and resume a helicopter function, lowering you to the ground. After folding the empennages into the body again, you drive to your destination. Like eHang, the TF-X's "wow factor" is almost off the charts. Even Transition has would-be competitors as I described in this article or this one. Most of these are dreams that may never happen although I-Tec's Maverick has been flying for a few years and a limited number of examples were delivered. I have also written about a China-developed "carcopter." This is a twist on the Transition flying car, the Maverick dune buggy-ish powered parachute, or SkyRunner's MK 3.2 "flying ATV." However, all four of these entries are meant to be flown by someone, by a trained pilot inside the machine. Autonomous air vehicles such as eHang or TF-X (when airborne) are something different. Of course, by now every knows about Amazon's ambitious drone delivery plans. That, too, is something yet again. One we know even less about due to a dark curtain of secrecy surrounding it is the Zee.Aero concept. All I know is what can be found by anyone digging through patent applications. I know one employee of the company but he will not say a word. I also know the founder who created some interesting hang gliders. I don't know what Zee is planning but based on the drawings it sure looks like a — you guessed it — autonomous air vehicle, perhaps an aircab. Why write about such non-pilot vehicles on a website frequented by pilots who want to be at the controls? Well, these developments are technologically interesting and they may start to occupy the air we use, just like drones are doing today (though conflicts are vanishingly small, at least so far). These future of flight developments also make a favorite expression of mine even more relevant. As a Star Trek fan, I have long said that when we can "Beam me up, Scotty" the end will come for transport aircraft. Who'd sit in a crowded human mailing tube if you could beam to your destination? However, flying for fun will always have a place. Airliners may disappear in the far future but LSA, hang gliders, gyrocopters, aerobatic airplanes and other sport or recreational aircraft should continue as long as people want to play in the sky. Following is eHang's promotional video with a story that includes development failures. eHang's time may be off in a distant future but given this level of determination, who knows? You may have already seen this (it has almost 3 million views) but since Terrafugia is a U.S. company deeply involved with the ASTM standards and the LSA regulation, I include their impressive video.

If you ever read newspapers or watch network news, you can hardly avoid hearing about the meltdown in Venezuela following the early 2013 death of Hugo Chavez. That Cuba-emulating country was taken over by Nicolás Maduro and things deteriorated quickly. I start the story of Levil this way as I recently visited their Oviedo, Florida facility and I had to wait until proprietor Ruben Leon returned from travel. When I arrived at Levil headquarters I found he had returned to his former home, Venezuela, to vote in the elections. The elections won by the opposition served notice on the Maduro administration that his countrymen are fed up and want change. How this all relates to the business of Light-Sport Aircraft products is a tale of one man's resolve and determination. I found it fascinating and hope you will, too. After completing his education, Ruben sought work in a country where finding a good job can be a challenge. As a bright, young fellow with an education he did find work but realized this was not as fulfilling as he wanted. Over time, he ended up starting a machine shop enterprise that continued for many years ... until the arrival of Chavez in 1999. For a time, things worked for Chavez, a self-described Marxist who used oil revenues to pursue a socialist agenda, nationalizing industries and implementing social programs. However, the economy began to decay with increasing speed. As Chavez policies intervened, Ruben saw a dimming future and chose to leave his home country. Ruben still owns the machine shop in Venezuela but he turned it over to his employees. However, that shop continues to make machine parts for some of Levil's line of small CNC machines. After a stop in Miami — that gateway to so many from South American countries — Ruben and his family ended up in Oveido on the northern outskirts of Orlando, Florida. Most Americans have no real idea what it is like to leave their home country and to essentially start all over. However, like other high-achieving immigrants, Ruben is powerfully motivated and was willing to learn new skills and take the risks necessary to succeed. Ruben started his U.S.-based career building tabletop computer-controlled machine tools or mills. Levil's machines — a little larger than a home microwave — are designed for small machine shops, jewelers, educational institutions and R&D laboratories that want to fit a complete CNC system into a small space.  The machines feature servo-control technology that enables high speeds and precision when machining small parts or prototypes made of a variety of materials, including plastics, aluminum and steel. Though small in size, Levil's machines aren't limited to small volume manufacturing. For example, the company's second biggest customer in Malaysia uses their Levil machines for round-the-clock manufacturing of tiny plastic lenses. While I found the small CNC machines interesting, my focus was on his aerospace devices. Now 60 years old, Ruben's efforts have developed these twin high-tech niches. He enjoys serving as head of R&D for the two companies he launched in America. While he remains the leader of the business, Ruben's "desk" is actually a workbench crammed with works in progress. I was most impressed with his versatility and drive. When he doesn't know something, he throws himself into study and in seemingly short order, becomes expert in the endeavor. He is backed by family members who serve roles inside the company. Turning to Levil's aviation business, Ruben said, "It didn't start out as a business venture." With a partner, Ruben fabricated a homebuilt aircraft, pictures of which adorn his walls. "There were a bunch of instruments I wanted to put on an airplane I was making," started Ruben. "The instruments were expensive. I decided I could make them for a lot less money than I could buy them." Being a creative and restless entrepreneur, Ruben devised instruments that others admired and he thought to take some examples to an airshow to see how the market responded. At one of these event, he showed one of his instruments to representatives of a big aviation company. "They liked it and asked him to build one customized for their need," recalled Ruben. The helicopter company needed FAA certified instuments, a process then unknown to Ruben but, as usual, he threw himself into the effort and gained approval for what became on ongoing product. His daughter, Ananda Leon, now works the airshows with her father. Ananda grew up flying with her father and is now a private pilot herself. "We started selling aviation products in 2008," Ananda remembered. "That was the year I graduated from college, and I started working for the company." Her focus is on the software side. With the introduction of Apple's now-ubiquitous iPad, Levil's special ability with electronic gizmos opened the door to a new line of products. Today Ananda is General Manager and Chief Software Engineer of Levil Aviation. The Florida company manufactures standalone Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS) boxes that are designed to replace conventional mechanical flight instruments. The arrival of glass cockpits a few years into the LSA phenomenon followed by the iPad in 2010 provided the power to move Levil's aviation enterprise forward. The company claims to have developed the first iPad-compatible AHRS for general aviation. (Some others were in the game before, but had focused on supplying GPS signals, not digital flight instruments.) "All of your instrumentation can now be contained in a little box with a WiFi chip that sends flight data to an iPad," said Ananda. With a smartphone or tablet — Levil now serves Android as well as iOS — she added, "Basically, you can have a full panel in the palm of your hand." Levil's current line for LSA and Experimental aircraft includes the following products — Sport, iLevil2 SW, and iLevil2 AW. Here is a summary of their capabilities and other specs: Levil's hand-holdable $795 Sport provides AHRS, GPS, and a WiFi connection with an internal antenna. It offers a 12-hour battery life, a small solar panel, or external power, for example, from a USB or serial port. It weighs 5 ounces (141 grams). iLevil2 SW is an $1,195 paneltop unit that provides AHRS, GPS, weather, traffic, and a WiFi connection. It offers a 5.5-hour battery life, a small solar panel, or external power. It weighs 10 ounces (283 grams). iLevil2 AW is an $1,395 remotely mounted unit with a remote antenna that allows a full suite of avionics, including Pitot-Static data providing AHRS, GPS, weather, traffic, air data and a WiFi connection. It offers a 4-hour battery life or external power. It weighs 11 ounces (311 grams). All Levil units offer WIAM or Wireless Integrated Avionics Module. WIAM is a term invented by Levil and refers to WiFi compatibility that integrates more than one flight instrument such as AHRS, GPS, and ADS-B.