Scott Severen, Author at ByDanJohnson.com

LSA Pilot Review of a Multicopter: Lift Aircraft’s Part 103-Eligible Hexa

By Scott Severen || January 9, 2024 9 Comments (Edit)

Ready or not, new flying machines are headed our way. Correction, they are already here and a wave of similar entries could follow (see earlier reports). The earliest market-ready arrivals qualify under FAR Part 103.

I believe this website needs to report these aircraft, so with pleasure, I announce the following to be perhaps the first multicopter pilot report from "one of us." Scott Severen is a longtime LSA pilot, the importer of Jabiru aircraft, and the newly-elected President of LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Scott offers his impressions as one of the very first non-company pilots to fly one of these aircraft. Some call them multicopters (me). Some prefer eVTOL. C'mon, have you said a mouthful like "eVTOL" to any non-pilot? …or even to most pilots? They look at you blankly, "Huh?" Marketers of these aircraft have yet to settle on a catchy word to identify them. "Drone" is still widely used but it's not specific enough for man-carrying aircraft. So, I'm sticking with multicopter for any aircraft that does not pivot its wings or powerplants. If you prefer, insert your term of choice whenever I write multicopter.

Scott has the titles I referenced above but he is also a very experienced hang glider, Part 103 ultralight, microlight, and LSA pilot with experience across the aviation spectrum for nearly his whole life (his father was U.S. Air Force). Scott knows more about light aircraft than most other individuals on the planet. I consider him an excellent choice for this pilot report on Lift Aircraft's Hexa. Enjoy! —DJ

A New Way of Flying …eVTOL… YES, YOU CAN!

A new kind of ultralight is emerging. Unfamiliar flying machines combine familiar ideas with new technologies — sometimes created from scratch — to provide a fresh new opportunity for more people to safely achieve one of man’s oldest dreams.

Jace “Digit” McCown, Director of Flight Operations and Chief Pilot for Lift Aircraft, gives simulator training to Scott Severen (in VR headset).

The Ultralight eVTOL, or multicopter, is a battery-electric vehicle with multiple motors and rotors (propellers). Being ultralight, they are single occupant and, yes, they are easy to fly with some training. No FAA pilot certificate is required. How do you prepare for this new sensation of flight? Simulators are an excellent training tool and Lift Aircraft uses them to great benefit. With or without previous flight experience, just a few minutes of Hexa sim time builds your confidence creating excitement about flying Hexa.

SIMULATOR TRAINING — Lift used about a half hour of simulator training: Take off, stabilize, land. Then take off, gain altitude, twist left and right. Then fly a giant square: fly forward about 100 feet, slide left, fly backward, then slide back to your starting point. Finally, fly forward and make a turn in one direction or the other. If you can do these things OK, then students get to “free fly” for a couple minutes. ••• A ground-based training covering regulations, airspace, and safety took another half hour.

While sims are great for preparation and familiarization, they do not re-create real life experience gained by flying. Just ask the sim pilots that tried to re-create Sullenberger’s flight when he chose landing on the Hudson River.

Describing Hexa

While simple in appearance, Hexa requires a preflight as any pilot would expect. Hexa is an all-carbon structure, using an overhead set of 18 independent motors, each with its own battery. These elements are easy to visually inspect.

While the powerplants are independent to prevent failure propagation, they are orchestrated to play as a team, forming a so-called distributed electric propulsion system that handles maneuvers around the different flight axes. Each motor and propeller is strategically canted just off the vertical — all tilt slightly away from center — to aid control effectiveness. Controlling power at each motor alters the flight motion. Redundancy Redefined — Hexa can lose up to 6 random or 2 adjacent powerplants and still maintain normal flight, engineers report. Hexa employs three redundant control systems. If one system has a glitch, number 2 takes over, and so on.

Designed differently from other Part 103 ultralight eVTOLs, Hexa is tall. The cabin structure is affixed to the “overhead powerplant.” Landing gear are fastened below and perform double duty as floats. To assure stability for a vertical take off and landing aircraft, six gear legs ending in floats are spaced around the perimeter. A seventh float is under the cabin. These allow landing on water and are energy absorbing on terra firma. Stepping up into the cabin, you buckle the four-point pilot restraint. A windshield moves air around the pilot but the sides are open and lend a very “out there, open cockpit” feel.

Cockpit "Interface"

The nearby image depicts how the Flight Screen and Control Systems are presented on Hexa, and how you interact with Hexa. Such information systems are unique to each Part 103 ultralight eVTOL. (Scott has examined several Part 103 eVTOLs as part of LAMA's program of providing a Technical Standards Committee to review aircraft wishing to approach FAA to qualify as Part 103 vehicles. Scott's experience is rare. Few industry people have scrutinized several of these entries. —DJ)

No rows of controls or banks of switches in this clean cockpit.

Hexa's 12.1-inch touch-screen displays flight and powerplant information:

wind direction/speed
groundspeed
compass
flight direction
home
altitude expressed in AGL (Above Ground Level)
how much flight time (battery) remains
back-up button controls for Takeoff, Land, and Go Home

Lift's joystick is the primary pilot interface with the aircraft. The screen provides information and backup buttons for the three main controls: takeoff, landing, and go home. The joystick describes four possible motions the pilot can initiate: longitudinal (banking); lateral (nose attitude); yaw (rotation about the vertical axis); and vertical (up/down).

PILOT'S VIEW — Here's the view that greets pilots entering Lift's Hexa Part 103 multicopter.

Hexa presents three physical buttons on top of the stick for Take Off, Land, and Go Home. A switch you push up or down with your thumb directs Hexa to go up or down. On the front of the stick is a switch you move left or right with your index finger which activates yaw, or rotation about the vertical axis, like a pirouette except both feet stay on the floorboard. Oh, and that’s all your feet have to do: rest on the floorboard. The joystick moves fore and aft, left and right, or any combination of those movements. This prompts Hexa in the direction the stick is moved. The further you move the stick, the faster you move. Altitude remains the same. A key message for fixed wing pilots is that you are not trading altitude for airspeed when you move the stick, unlike what your three-axis training taught you.

Take Off and Landing

After a systems check and initialization, you are ready to “start your motors.” If you have multiengine training, this may sound like an unusual step, but Hexa makes it easy. You start all 18 motors at once resulting in a soft buzz, all in surround sound.

Scott's brother Gary Severen prepares to fly Hexa.

Pressing the Take Off button on top of the joystick initializes the launch sequence and lifts you to about 10 feet in the air. At this point you set about your flight. You just toggle the up/down switch until you get to the desired altitude, then release. On my flight, I chose up to about 30 feet as the winds picked up to between 10-15 miles per hour. I found it interesting that since Hexa uses GPS for its position, it tilted into the wind just enough to keep me centered above the take-off spot. It doesn’t matter what direction the wind is coming from, Hexa tilts into the wind enough to do its job… technology wonderfully applied. Next, I practiced yawing left and right. A helicopter can do this maneuver, but it is simple in Hexa: you just move the switch on the front of the stick in the direction you want to twist. With no other inputs Hexa holds its position faithfully above the initiation spot, as though a plumb bob was hanging below. I found the flight experience very comfortable. Flight Time — Typical battery range is about 20 minutes. This term depends on how much power you use for maneuvers: the more you climb, the more power is used; the more level flight at slower speeds, the less power you use. Some will say 20 minutes is far too little but for what Hexa is attempting today, that may be sufficient. "Coasting" in flight — With forward flight, or movement in any direction in the same plane, one thing you learn is how far you “coast” when you return the stick to neutral (or just let go of it; it will go back to center). "Sliding" is another neat trick. It’s so easy in Hexa. Move the stick left and slide sideways to the left. I have to say, backing up in the air is an intriguing sensation. Just pull the stick back, a little or a lot. On my flight, I was geo-fenced, so there was no worry about backing into anything, though Hexa also has sensors for collision avoidance. You can see behind you a bit just by rotating your head and body. I didn’t loosen the pilot restraint to allow torquing my body out of the cockpit to see directly behind.

Lift Aircraft Founder Matt Chasen (pointing) speaks to prospective pilots of his Part 103 Hexa multicopter.

Once you’ve mastered the basic maneuvers, you can manipulate the controls to interact in many interesting ways. You can fly forward (or backward) while yawing/pirouetting. You can fly a “facing forward” square: forward stick, up button, aft stick, down button. You can finesse the controls to make a giant vertical circle, like on a Ferris Wheel, or you can scribe a lateral circle. You can fly forward and climb, then reverse the actions and go backwards “downhill.” Or, you twist around to see your descent. Imagine a 3-dimensional dance floor… Hexa presents a moving map on the glass display, though all I referenced was how much battery remained. I found so much to enjoy outside of the cabin but not to worry, Hexa will take you “home” to your lift-off spot before you run out of battery. It’s pretty smart that way.

After my encounter with Hexa, let me assure you, you really won’t want to stop flying this machine! Hexa is a blast to fly and no flight experience is needed. A high confidence level comes quickly, supported by the inherent safety of all the redundant systems including a ballistic airframe parachute, one optimized for Hexa's common low altitude of operation. This parachute system is autonomous; it fires if it senses a non-recoverable situation. A pilot does not really have time to assess the situation then pull a handle from 40 feet in the air. You won’t want to miss an opportunity play in the skies with Hexa when you get the chance! The company plans tours to get more people airborne in a Lift Hexa

Thanks, Scott, for that fun look at Hexa. I don't know about you but when I'm anywhere near one of these whirlybirds, I'm going up in it! —DJ

ARTICLE LINKS:

Earlier article with lots of facts and info about Lift Hexa, from January 2022
Lift Aircraft, contact info and all content on this website
US Sport Planes, Scott Severen's Jabiru import business
LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturer's Association, organization website
Multicopter articles, published on this website

Watch Scott Severen and his brother Gary fly Hexa by Lift Aircraft in this short video. https://youtu.be/06HeLzfgZAY

Ready or not, new flying machines are headed our way. Correction, they are already here and a wave of similar entries could follow (see earlier reports). The earliest market-ready arrivals qualify under FAR Part 103. I believe this website needs to report these aircraft, so with pleasure, I announce the following to be perhaps the first multicopter pilot report from “one of us.” Scott Severen is a longtime LSA pilot, the importer of Jabiru aircraft, and the newly-elected President of LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Scott offers his impressions as one of the very first non-company pilots to fly one of these aircraft. Some call them multicopters (me). Some prefer eVTOL. C’mon, have you said a mouthful like “eVTOL” to any non-pilot? …or even to most pilots? They look at you blankly, “Huh?” Marketers of these aircraft have yet to settle on a catchy word to identify them.

Guest Editorial: Why Consider Buying a Light-Sport Aircraft?

By Scott Severen || March 25, 2018 4 Comments (Edit)

Scott Severen is an old friend and a longtime veteran of the light aircraft business. In addition to a long career with wide experience, Scott is a board member of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA). Most recently, as US Sport Planes, he took over American sales of Jabiru LSA when former importer Pete Krotje reached his planned retirement date. Scott is a great choice to represent this popular set of airplanes. As part of his role for LAMA, Scott stepped and wrote an article I think makes several good points. It follows below. —DJ

Why Buy LSA?

You have many opportunities for flying these days and the different methods to become airborne — to move through the sky — are increasing even as you are reading this. Experience shows two reasons to fly: (1) for transportation, where the flying device is a tool and, (2) as a recreational pursuit. Often, the two are blended as the complexity, discipline and logistics of the ownership, and operation of a magic carpet can be half the fun. The successful mastery of the systems integration into the airspace system, yielding quick trips across the land can be very satisfying. For many, just getting from point A to point B in the quickest fashion is the objective.

For others, the ability to acquire an aerial perspective is the objective …flying 1,500 feet over fields and rivers, catching the smell of a planted crop in the air, or freshly plowed ground, the salt air near the ocean… As the owner of an LSA MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) operation, I interact with many Light-Sport users. One of my customers was eloquent, saying, “There is a profound simplicity to Sport Plane ownership. There is really no need for often complex and expensive maintenance programs as maintenance is straight-forward due to fewer and less complex systems — and I can do much of the maintenance myself, if I choose! Insurance policies are simple and [can be] inexpensive. The planes don’t take up much room in a hangar, and many don’t need a tug to move them around on the ground as they are easily maneuvered by hand. Recurrent simulator training that can take a week of your time each year? Not applicable to LSA. With 2,000 hour TBOs — the standard for LSA — there is a lot of enjoyment to be had before thinking of serious maintenance.”

Is it smart to keep current, always learning about your craft and honing flying knowledge and skills? Of course it is! This is just like on the golf course or in any sport. Is maintenance really required? Of course, and the engine and airframe manufacturers have specific maintenance schedules you should follow. A fascinating provision here is that many repair and maintenance items can be performed on their Special LSA by the owner. These vary by manufacturer and are specifically authorized in the aircraft manufacturers’ maintenance manuals. The better — safer — we do something, the more we enjoy it. Added to the simpler maintenance, Light-Sport Aircraft require a Condition Inspection every year instead of an Annual Inspection so that an A&P can perform this task rather than requiring someone with IA, or Inspection Authorization. If you want to be hands-on, you can take a 120-hour course that allows you to perform all of the maintenance and inspections on your LSA, along with other privileges as well.

What is one of the simplest things about LSA? If you have a private pilot certificate, you can simply exercise Sport Pilot privileges without doing anything else! What a simple option: just fly! Some may not realize how advanced are the instrument panels on LSA. Full glass panels seamlessly integrate moving maps, GPS, communication, transponder with 2020 compliance and EFB transfer. Everything you can get in a Citation? Practically, yes. How about IFR capability? Yes, the technology allows it, though flying into IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) is not part of the LSA parameters. However, LSA can be an excellent IFR training platform. Is it all needed for this kind of flying? No, but it sure can add to the fun, and, for those complex, twin and/or turbine operators, having a similar environment can make the transition to flying for fun quicker, easier, and safer. From tail dragging cub clones to Italian styling to German engineering …from sleek, racy, arobatic-looking to having enough cargo space for your wife and to bring your pet along, there is truly the ability to achieve whatever kind of recreational flying mission you have.

The FAA has taken LSA seriously, auditing the aircraft manufacturers to ensure they correctly implement quality assurance systems through production, and that they utilize continued operational safety programs to ensure reliability and safety in the field. LSA is still the only place to get brand new, factory built aircraft with the most advanced avionics and technology integration for under $200,000. Some are much less, even below $100,000. To reach 120 knots of cruise speed burning only five gallons an hour is marvelous You can do much for so little!

Are LSA practical for flying from coast to coast? In terms of reliability, absolutely! Enjoing fun and adventure, of seeing the United Sates from 1,500 or 4,500 feet, or FL10, well… it doesn’t get any better! You can use small municipal airports, or go to big FBOs you may used to, getting the same service and amenities. You may have some landing fees at places like major airline, Class B airports — and you may need additional training to enter Class B airspace — but that is available and only takes a logbook entry, Many pilots prefer to stay clear of Class Bravo airspace, but qualified pilots can use the system just like a Jet A turbine-powered aircraft. If your thoughts include how to enjoy flying even more, expanding your knowledge of flying, and increasing your adventure… Light-Sport may be a great prescription!

— This article will also appear on the LAMA website.

Scott Severen is an old friend and a longtime veteran of the light aircraft business. In addition to a long career with wide experience, Scott is a board member of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA). Most recently, as US Sport Planes, he took over American sales of Jabiru LSA when former importer Pete Krotje reached his planned retirement date. Scott is a great choice to represent this popular set of airplanes. As part of his role for LAMA, Scott stepped and wrote an article I think makes several good points. It follows below. —DJ Why Buy LSA? You have many opportunities for flying these days and the different methods to become airborne — to move through the sky — are increasing even as you are reading this. Experience shows two reasons to fly: (1) for transportation, where the flying device is a tool and, (2) as a recreational pursuit.

LSA National & World Record Attempted

By Scott Severen || July 7, 2012 Leave a Comment (Edit)

Michael Combs and his Remos LSA.

Michael and his Remos benefited from guidance by big Texas provider, US Aviation.

Michael and his son Daniel Routh attempted the world record flight together.

In a valid but failed attempt, LSA pilot Michael Combs tried to set a Coast-to-Coast record and came up just 91 miles short (out of 1,954) when thunderstorms blocked his route. He reports he'll try again. He flew the first attempt with his son, Daniel Routh. *** Many of us think about our activities with our airplanes but Combs looks at it quite differently. After facing a life-threatening illness that almost took his life in 2003, Michael realigned his priorities. He pursued learning to fly. *** Michael found US Aviation in Denton, who supported his dream by providing flight training in a Remos. He later solicited Remos Aircraft, who agreed to sponsor "Hope One," (N82GX) a nicely equipped Remos GX. In April of 2010 — not long after after his first solo flight — Michael headed off on a true piloting adventure of a lifetime. He embarked on a quest to land in each of the 50 United States in his LSA as a Sport Pilot. His mission meant day VFR all the way landing at more than 200 airports and logging 32,000 miles. His goal is to reach 50 million people with his central message: "It's never, ever too late to follow your dreams!" *** Setting records and gaining media attention seen by the non-flying public is part of the program. On Saturday June 30th, he attempted a new Coast-to-Coast national and world record in a Light-Sport Aircraft. While we've had round-the-world flights, we haven't heard much about LSA records. What does it mean? *** Michael's flight is sanctioned through the National Aeronautic Association (NAA), America's aviation record-keeper and Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the world aviation record sanctioning body. The record specifies a flight from one place to stated destination, and the flights have to be more than a certain distance. Various aircraft classes are available, depending upon weight. Michael's Remos fits in the under-1,000 kilogram class called C1B. His record is attempted in an unmodified Light-Sport Aircraft under the restrictions of the Sport Pilot certificate. The maximum time to achieve a world record is determined by dividing the total straight line flight distance by the slowest flap speed of the aircraft, which for Michael's Remos calculates to 43 hours. The Straight Line Distance is 1,954 nautical miles, with an Actual Calculated Flight Distance of 2,030 nautical miles involving eight fuel stops, and one night stop. *** Such record attempts are challenging in many ways. Once you take off the meter is running. The challenge is to overcome the speed restriction while adhering to the limitations of the Sport Pilot Airman Certificate. That means no night flying, but the meter is still running while you sleep, and of course, you must cope with weather. *** Michael had a delayed take off from near San Diego due to clouds. Literally, 15 minutes before his Go/No-Go time, conditions improved enough for a special VFR departure. That started him about and hour and a half late. He experienced some weather along the route that forced a stop in Abilene, Texas instead of his home base at US Aviation in Denton, Texas. The next morning, Hope One made good time, and was still within the time restriction at 91 miles from the destination. After flying VFR through fairly violent weather, he was forced to scrub record attempt as the destination airport was socked in under lightning and thunderstorms. *** So, the clock ran out without setting a record, but Michael made a valiant attempt. Safety and sanity must prevail, as they did, so he can make another attempt and continue to inspire people to follow their dreams. Check Michael's record attempt where you can see more of his exploits. Then, stay tuned for the follow-up attempt. Maybe this will inspire all of us to do more following our dreams!