Close to Perfect It usually takes more than one try to get something right. To get close to a perfect aircraft usually takes many iterations, but Breezer Aircraft has come very close to producing a wonderful light sport aircraft with their Breezer II. We've seen the Breezer before when the U.S. importer brought the thennew model to AirVenture Oshkosh '05. I flew it that year and recently got the chance to fly the Breezer II. While many of the good qualities found in the earlier model were retained, some nice improvements have been made. But it isn't the airplane that is the real story. As experienced airplane buyers know, it is often the company behind the airplane that is the main story. Breezer's Brief Design History The design history is brief because the Breezer is a new aircraft, not seen before '05 except during its early development. That older, original Breezer was produced under agreement by Comco-Ikarus, the same folks that make one of Germany's bestselling ultralights (a different class than American ultralights), the C-42. U.S. distributor Sportsplanes.com first got involved with the Breezer when it was produced by Comco-Ikarus via an arrangement with Simon Du Boulay, a UK-based agent for the German company. However, beyond the reach of Sportsplanes.com or Du Boulay, the agreement with Comco-Ikarus fell into dispute and the production of the company was halted. Using his handsome design, designer Ralph Magnussen linked up with an investor in Europe - a man involved with the design and production of windmill power-generating systems - who took over the production, adding new equipment and quarters. Now the airplane that rolls out of Breezer Aircraft offers an improved finish and flies even better. The aircraft are on a more orderly production, reports the American importer, Sportsplanes.com, and availability is better than ever. Of course, like all aircraft valued in euros, the sticker price is up substantially since '05. Unlike most aircraft crossing the Atlantic, the Breezer II is an all-western-German design and production. Most light sport aircraft come from Eastern European countries, more often than not the Czech Republic. The Breezer fuselage and wings are made of aluminum with the engine cowling, the upper part of the fuselage, and the wingtips made of fiberglass. Sportsplanes.com says all the bare metal inside the airplane - including all those areas you never see - have been corrosion-proofed. A steerable nosewheel leads an undercarriage made of thick fiberglass. Controls are conventional 3-axis employing flaps, ailerons, elevators, and rudder. As with most European suppliers, the Breezer is powered by the 4-cylinder, 4-stroke, liquid-cooled Rotax 912UL version producing 100 horsepower. This firewall-forward package includes standard Rotax electric starter, electronic dual ignition, stainless steel exhaust system with integrated cabin heat, integrated reduction gearbox, and carburetor preheating. Basic equipment includes a Neuform groundadjustable, 2-blade, carbon-fiber propeller with fiberglass spinner. You enter the 46- inch-wide cabin after sliding the canopy aft. The Breezer shares looks with many low-wing airplanes, but it is an original design. I found this out when I tried to enter the airplane. Instead of the familiar trailing edge entry where I try to avoid stepping on the flaps, I instead walked toward the engine compartment. Here, in front of the wing, I saw a peg step intended to help entrants clamber over the leading edge. I liked it. Your weight doesn't tilt the plane aft and you have the windscreen support to use for a handgrip. With an aft-sliding canopy, the step design makes sense. The only downside is that you must be certain the engine has stopped before anyone exits the Breezer II. Once on the wing you step into the cockpit via the seats, again like nearly all low-wing designs. Using the seat back, you slide down into position. A roomy cockpit aids egress and the front canopy frame affords a sturdy grasp to help you up and out. Despite these helpful qualities, even on this new plane the floor carpeting had started to bunch up from occupants pushing themselves back against the seat as part of the exit effort. The Breezer's fuel system is as it was before, but with that highly visible and very clear presentation of remaining fuel. Fortunately, the Breezer II shows quantity in gallons rather than liters as on the original Breezer I flew. Both airplanes offered a choke and fuel shut-off but no carb heat, the common combination for Rotax engines. Elevator trim changed from a mechanical control on the center console to a handier electric trim atop the joystick, though its operation struck me as counterintuitive. The front button raises the nose and the rear button lowers it. I would prefer it the other way. The Breezer II's flap control on the center console is clearly labeled and an indicator appears right alongside it. The flap button is unfortunately almost flat so feeling its position isn't automatic. Plus, the flap indicator is upside down to my reference; the top of the indicator composed of a row of LED lights is labeled "Down" and the bottom of the indicator is labeled "Up." I got used to it. Up on a Breezer Mike Zidziunas provided my flight (see sidebar, "Mike Z Sport Aviation"). He's become an expert on the new Breezer and believes the next models to come from Germany will have the flap indicator up on the control panel so you don't have to be head-down to view the flap position. That will continue a pattern of steady improvements of this design. Mike also observed that vernier throttles popular on LSA use a screw method that can actually damage throttle parts because it can exert a large mechanical advantage not sensed by the pilot. You could unscrew the throttle so far, Mike believes, that you could shut the engine down, a fact that might not be obvious on landing approach as the prop could continue windmilling. This comment may apply to any LSA that use such a throttle. In my experience, when we pulled up to park, I twirled back on the vernier and went far enough to shut down the engine before I could reach the usual switches. The Breezer II's interior was good, providing a fit and finish that impressed Mike. I viewed it as a notable improvement with a style and color theme that made a good presentation compared to the plainer earlier model. Being a Floridian, Mike had installed some window sunscreens that helped keep the heat off our heads. The radio stack area was gently angled toward the pilot. It was located on the copilot's edge of that angled section of panel that reveals the fuel quantity indicator tube. The Breezer II has a spacious hat rack area but also a smaller locker aft of the seats that holds 44 pounds with tie-down straps, also available. The design possesses enough useful load to benefit from this baggage area. The canopy slides aft and we taxied with it in that position, a welcome quality for a low-wing airplane being operated in a warm climate. A single latch centered overhead secured the canopy in flight. Like other designs, the Breezer has dual joysticks but the earlier design with its dual outside throttles popular in Europe gave way to a more common single center throttle with the vernier control. The Breezer II's instrument layout was composed of conventional analog gauges . ASI, rate of climb, tachometer, gyro, compass, sensitive altimeter, and a slip indicator . all mounted in front of the pilot. On the right side were engine instruments for oil temperature, water temperature, and cylinder heat temperature. On its angled center panel, the 2008 Breezer II had an Air Gizmo dock holding a Garmin GPS. Underneath was mounted a conventional radio stack with radio and transponder. On a sloped center console, I discovered a pivoting lever for the choke, a fuel shut-off knob, and an electric flap switch. The older Breezer had a trim knob that went to electric operation mounted atop the Breezer II's control stick mounted. The earlier Breezer used a centrally mounted hand brake with a parking feature alongside the since-replaced flap lever. The Breezer II went to more conventional toe brakes that general aviation pilots will love. Easily seen yet subtly hidden was a fuel sight gauge. Right where the angled panel steps back to the engine gauges on the right is a rounded lip. At this point, a clear tube was mounted behind a slotted opening so that levels of fuel remaining can be illustrated on the panel. The early Breezer showed fuel quantity in liters; this has been changed to gallons on the Breezer II for the American market. Aft visibility was unusually good in the Breezer II. I could see the rudder by turning slightly. By turning more fully I could check traffic over a wide area above the fuselage. Forward visibility was also good, but naturally, the low wing prevents straight down viewing. When I flew the original Breezer, I found it a most cooperative landing aircraft, which qualifies it for training, especially given its good low-speed characteristics. Nonetheless, the Breezer II is a light airplane with light wing loading that could be overcontroled. Breezing Around I learned about "overflying" the Breezer II during landings. I tried to deep-flare the airplane when it worked better to attitude-land it, letting the Breezer II settle to the runway. When I used this technique, I had wonderful landings that were child's play. Beforehand, I held the nose too high, flying a bit slowly. I had to concentrate to lower the nose to maintain the correct approach speed. The Breezer II does appear to have a good glide, but the view over the nose causes some pilots to want to lift it. I used 21.2 indicator bars to set flaps for landing, at least with this particular Breezer II. I didn't care for the position of the flap indicator and I wished it read the opposite way, but the LED bars are quick to assess. Though I never used them all for landing, I did deploy full flaps to 45 degrees aloft and performed slow flight. It went well and the Breezer II flew very slowly, hanging easily on the edge of stall with an absurdly low airspeed reading. Mike pointed out that with flaps that low, the Breezer II shakes around and lets you know you have an unusual configuration set. The Breezer's slow-speed characteristics were quite impressive. When we maximized the exercise at a safe altitude, the airspeed indicator read below 30 mph indicated. At such slow speeds and high angles of attack, instruments give erroneous readings. But I could sense the slow movement through wind noise. I needed a little more rudder to enter turns at slow speeds, but the controls remained quite effective. Overall, the Breezer largely handles via the joystick. Rudder pedals needed very little input to make coordinated turns, but neither can you ignore their operation. The Breezer II does not automatically resume straight flight. You must apply action to the rudder pedals to straighten the airplane. No return springs are used to help center the controls. Mike, a longtime Avid Aircraft pilot, says he takes corrective action without even thinking about it, but a general aviation pilot with all his or her experience in a Cessna 172 would have to learn this control technique. Stick pressures were good, not particularly light but very solid and predictable. Through maneuvers like the Dutch roll coordination exercise done at slow speeds, I found the stick range was slightly limited by our legs and outside aircraft structure, though this would rarely be experienced in normal flying. The Breezer II had a good roll rate and the breakout forces were light. Mike has observed that most general aviation pilots tend to "overfly" the Breezer II, that is, they use more coarse control input and don't use a light enough touch. Instead, he indicated, they should just let the airplane "have his head" more. When I followed Mike's advice, things went swimmingly; it pays to listen to your instructor. General aviation pilots accustomed to flying heavier airplanes that don't respond as quickly get more of a heavy hand on the controls and this works against them in light sport aircraft. Overall, the Breezer was very stable and felt quite solid, a joy to fly. I could detect no oil canning in its metal wing surfaces. Like a number of LSA, the Breezer is genuinely lightweight, yet can carry a load. Even loaded with full fuel (18.5 gallons), the Breezer can haul two 225-pound occupants plus 50 pounds of luggage. With full fuel, the Breezer can carry this payload for longer than 3 hours and some 400 statute miles. Running Swifter Mike feels sure the Breezer II flies a bit faster, though he hasn't yet found the reason why. The earlier Breezer I flew managed 105 knots at about 5,000 rpm where this Breezer II ran 115 knots at 5,200 rpm on the 100-hp Rotax 912S. Mike speculated the earlier Breezer might have been slightly out of rig. His memory is good; my notes reflected that as well. Climb was strong, better than 1,000 fpm. This performance gave the feeling that Breezer II was "athletic." Its 18 gallons of fuel produced a 300-mile range, says Mike. That's all I need, though some pilots hanker for longer, bladder-challenging distances. During the high power running at lower elevations, all the engine instruments read below green or in the lower green range, speaking well of engine compartment cooling. When throttling back for slow flight, I was amazed that at a 3,500-rpm power setting we could nearly maintain altitude. Steep turns went well to the right in that I was able to hold altitude at only 4,000 rpm, which is a medium setting and definitely not the added throttle over cruise power most general aviation planes seem to require to maintain altitude while banked at 45° to 60°. Steep turns done to the left required a slight addition of power. The original Breezer had been equipped with a ballistic parachute system; the Breezer II was not. I missed this emergency device that is common on LSA. Curiously, previous Breezer producer Comco- Ikarus once developed their own Ikarus FRS (Flight Rescue System) and offered the system back in '82, the same year American builder BRS delivered its first units. Stalls in the Breezer II produced a little break, but controlling it took modest effort and no added power was needed to recover quickly. The airplane wandered somewhat at stall. Both power-on and power-off stalls were modest and slow, reading well below 40 mph indicated though, as usual, airspeeds in this low range are often slightly in error. Accelerated stalls to the left rolled to level. To the right, the Breezer II did not roll to level and required some control application to recover. When I performed a yaw stability check with firm application of rudder and release, the Breezer II did not automatically resume straight flight. I had to apply action to the rudder pedals to straighten the airplane. At one point, without such corrective action, I found myself flying along with the slip-skid ball well outside of center. Cruise power stalls done at 5,000 rpm got mushy with the nose held high, but the nose showed no tendency to break over. Throughout the stalls, steep turns and fast runs, I heard no creaking in the airframe. The Breezer II's overall polite behavior reinforced the trainer capability of this reasonably speedy airplane. Stir Up a Breezer? My flight with Mike was in N304WS, which he indicated is priced at $126,000 equipped with the Garmin SL40, the Garmin GTX 327 transponder, and the Air Gizmo Garmin GPS dock (but not the Garmin GPS). The blank spot in my panel photos will later be fitted with an optional TruTrak artificial horizon, says Mike. Mike also reported that the producers in Germany have been very good to work with and they make changes quickly. He also stated that Breezer Aircraft has shipped planes according to schedule so far. Indeed, Sportsplanes.com has Breezer II's in stock as this issue goes to press. For the Breezer II's base price you get quite a finished aircraft. Standard equipment includes upholstery for the seats, cockpit and luggage area made of quality textiles and a blue-tinted lockable canopy with fresh-air inlets on the left and right. Cabin heating is standard, as are hydraulic disk toe brakes plus electric elevator trim and flaps. Flight instruments include altimeter, airspeed indicator, compass, vertical speed indicator, and bank indicator. Engine instruments include a tachometer, oil pressure indicator, cylinder head temperature gauge, oil temperature gauge, and a sight fuel gauge mounted in the instrument panel. Creature comforts include a 12-volt outlet and luggage area behind the seats. Supplied by a new and well-equipped factory, the Breezer II enjoys quality control based on work done completely in Germany. The model has earned its Special Light-Sport Aircraft (SLSA) certificate and proved its good manners to me, twice. But the only way for you to know if the Breezer II is right for you is to fly it and talk to the Sportsplanes.com folks representing it in the USA. One of their 15 regional centers can probably arrange a demo flight for you soon. Go enjoy the Breezer II.