I was just leaving So. Lakeland AirPark (X49) today, bemoaning the lack of activity down there — LSA dealers used to bring their aircraft down there for demos but not many people seem to do that the last couple years, and I don’t know why. *** That’s a shame because it’s a long grass strip with a wonderful country ambience…a great place to try out an LSA without the hussle and bustle of the airshow a few miles north. *** Departing the field, I came across the Dakota Cub folks. They were finishing the unhappy task of bringing the wreckage (fuselage on one trailer, wings on another) to a hangar at X49 until they could get a determination from the insurance people as to whether to rebuild it or write it off as salvage. *** Back at the airshow later, I talked with Amy Gersch and Speedy Richardson, my companions on the interminably long (weather-delayed) trip out to the show all last week.

Well, Day One for me anyway; the show started yesterday but I was still stranded in Alabama by soggy and intractable weather with a couple Dakota Cubs.We made it into Plant City at about 5:30 last night after squeaking under some very low ceilings, then running east once we hit the Gulf Coast. *** A 6-day odyssey…and we’re just glad to have made it at all. Several VFR pilots are still stuck in the South and the storms continue. *** Here’s a video I quick-shot today, thanks to Legend Cub’s Dave Graham, who took me over to meet the owner of a fabulous Piper Cub J3 restoration. LEGEND NEWS UPDATE *** It’s really gorgeous. My video doesn’t do it justice but it’ll give you a bit of a peak. The owner is having it judged and hoping to snag a Grand Champion Award. And it’s sure got a shot: absolutely immaculate. *** The restoration cost upwards of $80K!

Sun ‘n Fun 2011 kicks off, even as scores of planes — yours truly included — remain scattered around at airports up to hundreds of miles away, trying to beat the storm system that’s prevented them from making it to Lakeland, Florida so far. *** The big airshow’s big boss, John Burton, promises an impressive line up: • Blue Angels performances four different days; highlighting the celebration of the 100th anniversary of naval aviation; • a 20-year retrospective on Desert Storm; • a 10-year commemoration of September 11, 2001; • the formal opening of the new Central Florida Aerospace Academy (CFAA) on the Sun ’n Fun campus; • F-22 Raptor flight three different days; • AvBid Airplane Auctions; • Hot air balloon launch at dawn on Saturday, April 2; • Daily and nightly airshows with fireworks; • AOPA “Rally GA” Day; • Lindbergh Foundation Awards for electric-powered flight advances; • “Green Space” exhibit of environmentally friendly, aviation-related products and services, anchored by Lindbergh Foundation; • 75th Anniversary Cub Convoy mass arrival to Sun ’n Fun on Monday, March 28.

The FAA has a helpful publication that wouldn’t hurt us to check out now and then, whatever our level of experience and skill: the Airplane Flying Handbook. *** Sure, it may seem like plain vanilla… but where would hot fudge sundaes and banana splits be without good old dependable vanilla? *** We pilots need to maintain our good airmanship foundation, no matter how big a hotshot we sometimes imagine ourselves to be. Reviewing the essentials helps us recall those nuances we forget, or shortcut… and which, in a pinch, we may desperately need in our quiver of flying skills. *** Once we start down that “I-got-this-wired” slippery slope, the risk of incidents and accidents increases. Who needs that kind of education?Case in point: FAA’s Handbook section on porpoising. *** I sometimes revisit a landing tendency that I’ve been working to correct: I will make a bigger-than-necessary pitch correction after bouncing a landing.

Good news from Allegro LSA’s head honcho Doug Hempstead, as he spoke with Plane & Pilot publisher Mike McMann. *** Allegro, now a solely-American made, composite/aluminum SLSA (my flight report is due out soon in the magazine) told Mike he expects to hire as many as 35 workers within the next year. These are jobs that were formerly held by Czech Republic personnel. *** Allegro is a Czech-designed airplane (Fantasy Air) that, like so many LSA, was built in Czech Republic and assembled, test flown and delivered in the States.  *** Doug and his wife Betty bought the rights to produce the airplane here and production is now underway at the company’s Sanford, NC plant. *** More than 450 of the Kevlar-composite fuselage/aluminum wing Allegros have been sold since 1994, mostly overseas. The Hempsteads hope to change that proportion…and employ more Americans in the process. *** Three Allegro models are offered: Classic Trainer at $89,000 (also configurable as an IFR trainer), Voyager at $94,000 (adds things like MGL Voyager EFIS, Garmin radio and transponder and vertical card compass), and Executive at $99,000 (adds two Dynon Skyview Synthetic Vision displays).

I just finished a column that’s becoming an annual event: talking with Avemco Insurance‘s VP Mike Adams, who filled me in on the general picture for LSA accidents, claims and what it says about pilot’s flying habits and the market strength as well after two brutal years trying to grow a fledgling industry.That column will be out in the mag this spring. The short tell is: rates haven’t gone up…and they haven’t gone down. We’re in a general market stagnation where new pilots are replacing those who are dropping out. *** Pilot accidents are less frequent, especially experienced GA pilots, because Avemco’s 5-hour minimum transition requirement before they’ll write a policy for a new LSA owner is helping pilots get the touch they need to fly these aircraft well.  *** LSA are generally lighter in weight than the birds they’ve flown all their lives, and the initial experienced-pilot mindset tended to regard them as toys instead of a new type of aircraft that deserves respect.

Now this sounds like fun: trying to blow up an iPad2! *** Jeppesen, the aeronautical charting company, just ran a rapid decompression test on the iPad 2. The poor, innocent device was explosively decompressed at an altitude of 51,000 feet! It came through with flying colors, which ought to be good news for just about every private or airline jet passenger intent on finishing their latest World of Warcraft scenario (after getting to a safe altitude first of course.) *** Jeppesen had previously tested the original iPad, part of a successful program to get initial FAA authorization for the Jeppesen Mobile TC charting App. *** The Jeppesen Mobile TC App is available, of course, from the App Store or through iTunes, and it’s free for those already subscribed to Jepp’s electronic navigation service. *** What does this have to do with LSA? Nothing much, I just thought the prospect of iPad2 coming through the fog of a rapid decomp unscathed was kind of cool.

Cessna marches on with its C-162 Skycatcher production. Latest milestone: it’s first international delivery to an Australian customer.Aeromil Pacific of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Airport took delivery and will use the bird for sales demos. The FBO also plans to display it at Avalon 2011: the Australian International Airshow in early March. *** In related news, Skycatcher’s design team won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Piper General Aviation Award for 2010. Congrats to those hardworking slide-rule pushers. *** AIAA presents the award annually for outstanding contributions leading to the advancement of general aviation. *** As I posted after Sebring, Cessna plans to deliver 150 Skycatchers this year.

Here’s a thoughtful piece by John Zimmerman (for Sporty’s Pilot Shop online) that has the virtue of giving you a broader picture of the flight training experience. *** I’ll share the highlights, then urge you to link on over and join the discussion – there are reader comments and you can weigh in yourself. *** The article is 7 Things Your Flight Instructor Won’t Tell You. John isn’t out to accuse instructors of duplicity, but rather acknowledge that in order to pass on a wealth of information, things get unintentionally glossed over: • Students are likely to take more than the minimum of 20 hours (Sport Pilot) or 40 hours (Private Pilot) to get their tickets; • A Recreational license is still a viable alternative to both… if you can find a school offering the training; • Don’t show up unprepared for a lesson… CFIs don’t like it and it adds to your training hours; • You need both pitch and power to control airspeed and altitude.

In its declaration of 2011 as the year to “Rally GA”, AOPA echoes the call to action of its President, Craig Fuller, who said recently, “We don’t just want to watch for a turnaround (in General Aviation), we want to do everything we can to make it happen!”  *** He’s urging members from all sectors of flight to honor, protect and promote our common treasure: – the freedom to fly.  *** To do its part, AOPA put together a list of events for the coming year, places where we can all join in the celebration of flight and the discussion of how to move it forward. *** Check it out to see what’s coming your way.

“Personal Video” has gone mainstream. Seems like everyone from pilots to skiiers and snowboarders to skateboarders to mountain bikers to…well, anybody in outdoor motion is slapping on these small, rugged, HD-quality, purpose-built camcorders to immortalize every breathtaking moment. *** Imagine how different memorial services are going to be in 2082. *** All it takes is your desire to slap a camera onto a helmet, headband, monopod pole, suction cup or get some Ram Mounts and tape/sticky-back/bolt/clamp them to a vehicle hard point and you are, “good to go!” *** And by vehicle, I mean airplane, car, snowmobile, dune buggy et. al., but also ski, snowboard, hang glider, shoe… you name it, the Adventure Vid gang is doing it. *** We’ve talked about some of these tres’ cool cams in the past but I just got re-seduced by the phenomenon yesterday. *** After wrapping up my Phoenix motorglider pilot report, due out in late spring’s Plane & Pilot, Jim Lee of Phoenix Air USA told me about a new POV camera he’d used to tape the 127 mile all-soaring flight he just made in that truly fabulous airplane.

As I preflighted a rental J3 Cub last fall, an older gent, kind of scruffy looking, was keeping me company, though we’d never met. *** A pilot and airport regular, he quickly revealed his belief about preflighting in general. “Aw,” he said, rubbing his grizzled chin, “just go. It’s a Cub, it’s fine, just get in it and takeoff.” I looked at him, wondering if he was kidding. He wasn’t. *** “Well, thanks… I think…,” I replied, mildly annoyed, “but I think I’ll just finish up here if you don’t mind.” *** “Naw,” he said, waving at the air, “just jump in and go; it’s alright.” *** I ignored him and his distracting insistence, wondering what his game was. *** We didn’t know each other. He had no reason, or right for that matter, to try and persuade me to skip a vital part of good airmanship practice. Perhaps, I thought, he’s an angel sent to cement my determination to do things right.

Right after Sun ‘n Fun, the e-flight Expo kicks off for the third time at “Aero” in Friedrichshafen, Germany, April 13-April 16. *** Bunches of new aircraft and propulsion technologies along with the awarding of the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) will mark the gathering of 550 exhibitors from 26 countries. *** The e-flight name stands for more than electrical flight innovations: ecological and evolutionary advances in flight regardless of their nature are embraced, although electric is certainly leading the show. *** Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, will present his foundation’s prize for outstanding achievements in the development of electric flight. *** This year should bring several exciting advances in electric flight . I’ll be doing a broad story for Plane & Pilot magazine soon on what’s up and what’s coming. *** Another highlight of the Expo is “History for the Future of Flight”, a tantalizing assemblage of descendants and close relatives of last century’s aviation pioneers:  Claude Dornier, Igor Sikorsky, Marcel Dassault and Count Zeppelin.

There’s been some controversy lately regarding FAA’s mandate that flight training towards the Sport Pilot license is not allowed to count toward the Private Pilot (PPL) and higher licenses and ratings unless the instructor is a certificated CFI, rather than a CFI-S (as FAA delineates Sport Pilot-only instructors). *** Recently, AOPA petitioned the FAA to change the regulations and allow those hours to count for all higher levels of certificated airmanship. *** The pilot member organization picked up support along the way from EAA, GAMA (General Aviation Manufacturers Association), and NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors), all of which are now petitioning FAA to change these regs: FAR Part 61.99 and 61.109.  The specific language asks FAA to “permit the instruction time received in pursuit of a sport pilot certificate to be credited toward the instruction requirements of additional certificates and ratings.” *** Of course, getting advanced ratings requires training from a qualified CFI.

Although not strictly LSA-centric, here’s a cool story: German-based Flight Design, maker of the top-selling CT-line of LSA, is coming out with a new, certified four-seat aircraft dubbed the C4. *** As the name unintentionally implies, Flight Design surely hopes to have an explosive impact on the General Aviation market, and we wish it success. *** The first full-size POC (proof of concept) version debuts in April at Europe’s big Aero 2011 airshow in Friedrichshafen, Germany. It’s a fabulous show, BTW, especially since lots of electric-powered aircraft will also be on display. I’ll do a wrap up of its coming events in the next couple days. *** Back to the C4: An interesting wrinkle is the company’s outreach for feedback on the merits of the airplane’s design. They’ll poll the show goers at Aero, but also will have an online survey for all of us to weigh in on.