Single Seat Darling — Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had so many new SLSA offerings lately (though don’t look away too long as more are definitely on the way!). Maybe it’s because the new airplane is a single seater. Certainly we have not had many single seater SLSA … well, none so far, but that, too, is going to change with the Snap aerobatic aircraft and the electric-powered Yuneec eSpyder working on SLSA approval as one-place airplanes. It could be the low price tag. No question that a price under $60,000 for a ready-to-fly Special LSA is attractive. However, I’m always amazed at conventional aviation magazines droning on about the “high cost” of LSA when, in fact, we have many aircraft offered at below $100,000, several below $80,000, and a handful for even less the new SD-1 Minisport (and the other low-priced LSA are all two seaters).

Airplane Overload — Imagine a gymnasium, the full court kind where basketball is played. Imagine ten of them placed side by side. Big space, huh? Now imagine all of them filled to capacity with aircraft and airplane gear of every imaginable sort. Presto! You’ve got Aero Friedrichshafen. No wonder we go year after year (I think this was my tenth Aero and, for certain, I’m going again). In this wrap up post, I’ll provide a few more views of this truly excellent event. Good as my reporting hopefully is, however, true-blue aviation enthusiasts owe it to themselves to make the trip to the southern edge of Germany for this outstanding (nearly) all-indoor aviation extravaganza. I can find so many good reasons to like Aero, I’m sure you’d be pleased if you attend. Final Facts and Videos — Aero Show Director Roland Bosch somehow made time in what must be an awesomely tight schedule to let us tape a video with him and his U.S.

Photo Galleries — Thanks to my good friend and LAMA Europe collaborator, Jan Fridrich, I offer this link to his many photos of Aero 2013. Photo legends are written in Czech language so few Yankees will be able to read them. As the old saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words” so Jan’s photo review is worth hundreds of thousands. Enjoy and I’ll add more in the days ahead. Meanwhile Thanks, Jan! • Aero is a special show for many reasons, but one of the best is that we can view so many airplanes we never see in the USA — and fascinating designs many of them are, indeed. UltralightNews YouTube channel and I are working hard to collect lots of videos including a quick tour of many airplanes you can’t buy in the USA … yet. Super Authentic P-51 Replica — Roland Hallam, the South African boss of light aircraft producer FK Lightplanes in Poland, showed us around the dazzling FK 51 Mustang project.

Excitement Amid the Chaos — If you’ve been to any show the day before it opens, you know what I mean by “chaos.” With mere hours to go before the doors open to the public, it appears no hope exists to be ready in time. Weather in Europe — a lousy winter drags on inexorably, as it does in the northern U.S. — is preventing airplanes from arriving. Protective plastic still covers the carpets. Booth spaces, called “stands” in EuropeSpeak, are still being assembled. Everywhere you look, it seems a week’s worth of work remains but Aero opens tomorrow morning as I write this. Fear not. I’ve seen this act before. Somehow, it gets done and no one is the wiser. As the frenetic pace quickens to a climax, I uncovered a few delights worthy of passing on before Aero truly gets under way. Here we go! Apple Event Magic? — Peter Funk (photo) may be the Steve Jobs of Aero.

Thanks to a credible survey effort at Sebring 2013, we have some demographic information that is difficult to obtain. We also found out how Sebring Expo’s 20,000 LSA enthusiast attendees felt about the event. On Friday and Saturday, TouchPoll South Florida used six iPad stations to survey 540 respondents, a sample size yielding a 95% confidence factor. TouchPoll reported that only fully completed surveys were used to collect data on 25 questions, which they said took three minutes to complete. The starting question will surprise few with 74% of respondents between the ages of 42 and 71; the biggest single decadelong age group was 62-71 years of age at 32%, again not particularly surprising. However, one unexpected fact was that nearly 23% of respondents were female (perhaps attending with a male but nonetheless willing to participate in the survey). Another revelation was that the largest single income group was $50,000 and under at about 21% although 46% reported incomes north of $100,000.

An “engine” is a machine distinguished from an electric, spring-driven, or hydraulic motor by its use of a fuel, by which most mean gasoline or diesel fuel. An electric powerplant is often referred to as a motor to make it distinct although “motor” is defined as a device that converts any form of energy into mechanical output, which would include engines. Without fretting over the definition, Evektor flew their new “motorplane” (my word) recently and this post presents our view of this accomplishment. We’ve reported several electric aircraft projects, for example, Yuneec’s Spyder and their larger e430 mentioned in my full-length article on electric aircraft. We’ve also covered Randall Fishman’s ULS (which will be on display in the LSA Mall at Sun ‘n Fun) and several others. To read all our 37 articles of coverage, type “electric aircraft” in the Full-text Search box on our Search page.

Next month, in April 2013, the Light-Sport Aircraft industry celebrates an anniversary. It will be the eighth year since the first Special LSA approval was granted by an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative in 2005. Evektor‘s Sportstar was first, followed hours later by the Flight Design CT and then an amazing outpouring of innovation now stretching to 131 SLSA models approved. That’s better than four brand new aircraft every quarter for 32 straight quarters; worldwide aviation’s never seen anything like it. Most of the early brand names in the industry were new, at least to Americans. Yet along the way, some famous aviation names joined the party. We’ve seen entries from Piper, Cirrus, Cessna, Lycoming, Sensenich, and Wipaire Floats plus the major member organizations embraced Light-Sport in their own way. One multibillion dollar company to serve the sport and recreation community has been Garmin.

Technology and radios seem to be obvious partners, don’t they? In the old days of a few round dials to help a pilot operate his flying machine, the comm radio was perhaps the highest technology to enter the cockpit. Radios continued to improve over the years but much of the innovation was seen in the faceplate or occurred in transceiver functions. We did get digital readouts and flip-flop frequency change options, but otherwise radio have seemed rather static … frozen in time, while GPS, moving maps, EFISs, EMSs, PFDs, MFDs, and more swept past with wave after wave of innovation. Compared to Dynon’s SkyView or Garmin’s 796, radios were looking long in the tooth. Thanks to recent announcements from top LSA radio supplier, Garmin, the radio product line is changing. The ubiquitous SL30 and SL40 that kept Sport Pilots talking to control towers have been favorite panel friends to many a Sport Pilot.