Maybe pilots are frustrated because FAA has delayed the release of Mosaic. This also happened almost 20 years ago with the Sport Pilot / Light-Sport Aircraft regulation. SP/LSA was anticipated for more than three years after the first announcement.
However, Mosaic is coming and this time we know more about it than most regulations. Why? Because FAA must involve ASTM committee members along the way. (More on this? See at end.
Naturally, Van's isn't the only company aware of what FAA is planning. Any other company or individual who participates on the ASTM committee can know most of the same information. Indeed, this is where I get most of my knowledge about Mosaic as 
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For FAA, this is somewhat new ground. It's unusual for the agency to release this much information about a regulation before they issue it. These things change internally as different FAA departments weigh in, so they usually keep their cards close to the chest until the NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) is near final form. All this relates only to the airframe.
A different FAA group handles pilot privileges and who gets to fly what size aircraft with how many people on board. They are much less involved with ASTM committee work. That is why we have much less information about what the agency plans regarding pilot certification or flight operations.
Darkest before dawn? I hear growing concern about FAA’s new Mosaic regulation and what it will or won’t do. An increasing number of comments I hear are variations of these words — “FAA is never going to get this done, and if they do, it will be a crappy rule.” Why so glum? Maybe pilots are frustrated because FAA has delayed the release of Mosaic. This also happened almost 20 years ago with the Sport Pilot / Light-Sport Aircraft regulation. SP/LSA was anticipated for more than three years after the first announcement. However, Mosaic is coming and this time we know more about it than most regulations. Why? Because FAA must involve ASTM committee members along the way. (More on this? See at end.*) Earlier FAA rule writers did not reveal their work as broadly. Yet FAA is sufficiently pleased with industry consensus standards, ASTM’s work, that they will use it on the next generation of GA aircraft (think: Cessna, Cirrus, etc.).
"Duck and cover" was a phrase to describe the morning on Thursday, Day Two at 
Some, like Scott Severen of 
L600 importer Deon Lombard said he expecting his first with the 
One of my favorite tales was taken from an old Delta Air Lines house magazine, the sort sent to employees of the company before email invaded our lives. Airlines have their own meteorology departments and the Delta guys once wrote, "Every time you forecast the weather, you know you're wrong; you just don't know by how much or when. If you are ever right, never let 'em forget it." Ah, yes, remember when we correctly forecast that big storm, back in 1967? I got a lot of chuckles from telling that story.
Weather forecasting is much better today, but statistics can often be wrong despite best efforts. Along this line, I heard from a reader, an engineer in Italy, "In your article '
In this update article, I wish to correct that shortcoming and add a couple more pieces of information. The result of my deeper examination pushes sport and recreational aircraft closer to 50,000 worldwide.
My Italian reader, who preferred I did not use his name, wrote, "Apart from being the country from where several LSA aircraft arrive — he mentions 
The Italian engineer continued with his amplification, "Although the number (13,000) includes 'ancient' aircraft from the '80s that might be out of commission now, I can confirm that well over 6,000 aircraft are flying from hundreds of grass strips and aerodromes across the country." As such, this places Italy — correctly so, based on corroborating information — in the top tier of countries with a large base of light and sport aircraft.
"The reason why [the aircraft count] is not so obvious," he further clarified, "is that the certification of pilots and aircraft is done outside of ENAC (Italian equivalent of FAA) and therefore does not get reported in the usual channels where numbers of registered aircraft are accounted."
"Ultralight (generally meaning the European name for light two seaters, not the U.S. superlight single seaters) registrations for Italy follow the [aircraft registration] format I-1234, or I-A123 now that we passed 10,000 registrations. I have seen I-C1xx (can't remember the exact number, but it means that we passed 13,000 registrations already)." He added, "I think we had over 2,000 in the last five years or so."
Looking at the pilot side of the equation, he noted, "On a forum I read the impressive number of 17,500 active ultralight pilots."
"So, despite the obvious intention of keeping a low profile to make sure that the Revenue Service does not develop some new creative tax to hit a vulnerable sector, it looks like there are plenty of pilots and planes filling our skies," the Italian writer concluded. He then invited, "Come visit and we'll be happy to show you around." That's an offer I'd like to take when I also wish to visit the large Tecnam facility in Italy.
My source finished his message saying, "I fly a older Aeronca with American N-numbers using an FAA Private certificate and therefore I don't even show up in that list."
I also managed to overlook two other countries of note. My apology and the only excuse I can offer is that 
What do sugar cane harvesting equipment and light aircraft and engines have to do with one another? The former was the original work of 
So Rod and Phil did what entrepreneurs do. They took their dough and started a new company. This is the story Jabiru USA boss Pete Krotje told to begin his talk about the engines and airplanes the duo created. *** The first Jabiru flew in 1991 under Australia's then-new "ultralight" rule that allowed a new class of aircraft with no medical (long before FAA found such a solution useful). That first airplane — called a Light Sport Aircraft, again well before FAA used a similar term — used a KFM engine but that powerplant company soon said they were leaving the business. Thus was born one of only two companies I know that makes both airframe and engine. (The other such company is Sonex, which offers the 
The Jabiru engine uses auto industry parts, such as pistons and valves from Toyota. Among other tactics, this held down costs and started Jabiru down a path of delivering 6,000 engines to 45 countries. In addition, some 2,000 Jabiru airplanes are flying worldwide, 600 of them in Australia. Today, 80% of all flight training in Australia is done behind Jabiru engines. In South Africa the J-planes are the market leader. More recently, China took delivery of 20 of these airplanes with 20 more on order and an additional 20 forecast.
The heart of the engine is the crankshaft and unlike other brands, the Jabiru crank starts as a seven-inch round shaft of steel which is fed into a CNC machine. Heads are milled from aluminum. Pete offered additional details of these powerplants but you'll need to attend one of his forums to get the whole story.
In an interesting twist, Jabiru does not set the TBO for their engines. Instead CASA (the Australian FAA) sets the TBO, which is now 2,000 hours, the same as Rotax and Continental.
Demonstrating his own entrepreneurial strength, Krotje's Tennessee-based 
