Had not both shows been cancelled or postponed, I would be gearing up for Sun ‘n Fun and Aero Friedrichshafen. The important spring events were due to start in less than a week. Now, Aero is put off until 2021 and Sun ‘n Fun is about three weeks away from a Lakeland city-imposed final decision date (on April 17) regarding the new planned date of May 5-10, 2020. (I’m keeping my hopes up that our friends at that event will be able to launch their spring celebration of flight.) To help all of us through the next few weeks, I will be posting virtual airshow material — that is, I’ll write about aircraft you would have seen had you been able to attend the show. Companies work very hard to get new products ready for these big spring events. To not lose momentum as governments around the world impose all manner of rules, I’ll take the shows online… hence, “Virtual.” Why “Norden?” “The plane is just the sum of my experience in this sector,” wrote Zlin Aviation developer Pasquale Russo.
Zlin Aviation iCub / Savage
Website: http://www.zlinaero.com
Email: customerservice@zlinaero.com
Holesov, -- - Czech RepublicU.S. Distributor is SportairUSA
Website: http://www.sportair.aero/
Email: bill@sportair.aero
Phone: (501) 228-7777
North Little Rock, AR 72118 - USAZlin — Savage Cub-S (2014)
Cub-S, as it is known in 2014, is a very powerful Cub-like airplane. It isn't actually a Cub and it probably outflies the original or those who closely copied the Piper Cub of old. Yet with 180 horsepower hauling it enthusiastically into the sky, the is one to watch. It will be renamed late in 2014 and announced at Sebring 2015 because the name "Cub" is owned by another company that is acting to protect their asset. This video is our Part 1 edition of our Video Pilot Report (VPR) on the Zlin Cub-S ... or whatever it will later be called.
Cub-S, as it is known in 2014, is a very powerful Cub-like airplane. It isn’t actually a Cub and it probably outflies the original or those who closely copied the Piper Cub of old. Yet with 180 horsepower hauling it enthusiastically into the sky, the is one to watch. It will be renamed late in 2014 and announced at Sebring 2015 because the name “Cub” is owned by another company that is acting to protect their asset. This video is our Part 1 edition of our Video Pilot Report (VPR) on the Zlin Cub-S … or whatever it will later be called.
SportairUSA — Broad line of LSA
We spoke with SportairUSA founder, Bill Canino, who represents a broad and varied line of Light-Sport Aircraft... all of which just happen to begin with the letter "S." We wanted to inform you about all these quality airplanes but we also wanted to ask Bill about all SportUSA's activities including their Arkansas FBO and a flock of interesting accessories items, some of which are available for other brands.
We spoke with SportairUSA founder, Bill Canino, who represents a broad and varied line of Light-Sport Aircraft… all of which just happen to begin with the letter “S.” We wanted to inform you about all these quality airplanes but we also wanted to ask Bill about all SportUSA’s activities including their Arkansas FBO and a flock of interesting accessories items, some of which are available for other brands.
5 LSA Taildraggers
Video viewers like collections of LSA where we look at several different models and review their differences. In this edition shot at the 2011 Midwest LSA Expo, we bring in representatives from each company to help with the details as we tour five models in a circle: Zlin Savage iCub; FK12 Comet; Rans S-7 Courier; CubCrafters CarbonCub SS; and American Legend Cub. Note that this video runs 25 minutes.
Video viewers like collections of LSA where we look at several different models and review their differences. In this edition shot at the 2011 Midwest LSA Expo, we bring in representatives from each company to help with the details as we tour five models in a circle: Zlin Savage iCub; FK12 Comet; Rans S-7 Courier; CubCrafters CarbonCub SS; and American Legend Cub. Note that this video runs 25 minutes.
Zlin — iCub (Savage)
You may know the Zlin Savage, now distributed in America by SportairUSA (the same folks that bring you the Sting, Sirius, and other cool light airplane gear). But iCub improves on the already great-flying Savage by adding the very latest of new technology. The primary instrument up front is an Apple iPad. Communicating via an onboard wireless system, the aft seat occupant has an iPhone 4 for smaller but otherwise nearly identical instrumentation.
You may know the Zlin Savage, now distributed in America by SportairUSA (the same folks that bring you the Sting, Sirius, and other cool light airplane gear). But iCub improves on the already great-flying Savage by adding the very latest of new technology. The primary instrument up front is an Apple iPad. Communicating via an onboard wireless system, the aft seat occupant has an iPhone 4 for smaller but otherwise nearly identical instrumentation.
The Age of YouTube & Video Pilot Reports
When this website went live a few months before the Sport Pilot & Light-Sport Aircraft rule was announced at Oshkosh 2004, it began life as an archive of several hundred pilot reports I had written for a number of print magazines in aviation. That launch seems a long time ago … it has been eleven and a half years. (Development started only a few years after the World Wide Web emerged and ByDanJohnson.com went live in April 2004.) One year after going live, I began to add news via a blog, which I called “Splog,” for Sport Pilot web log. Videos started in 2008 and by 2015, news and video have become the primary content items. You might be surprised to hear ByDanJohnson.com predates YouTube, which began when three former PayPal employees created a video-sharing website. The Internet domain name YouTube.com was activated on February 14, 2005 and the website went public in November of that same year.
Ride-On Zlin; New Variation on Theme
Thanks to powerful Cubalike airplanes — those vintage yellow taildraggers types with huge engines up front to make them perform more energetically — 2014 saw increased attention to the Savage Cub S. The Czech company offered their 180-horsepower version of the Cubalike phenomenon albeit at a more affordable price. The leading brand of Cub-like airplanes has pushed prices beyond $200,000, which strikes plenty of people as paying a premium, though most agree the design is handsomely achieved. They continue to sell well so vintage style appears to hold appeal. Meanwhile, Zlin engineers aren’t sitting still. This company has quite a flock of intriguing models, including Savage Classic, Savage Cruiser, Savage Cub (marketed as iCub in the U.S.), Savage Cub S, and Bobber. All these are now represented in America by SportairUSA, which also imports the TL Ultralight Sting and Sirius as well as selling Searey amphibious kits among a variety of other products of services they’ve assembled.
Midwest LSA Expo 2014 Highlights
The sixth annual Midwest LSA Expo just concluded. These LSA-only events offer a more intimate setting where you can speak at length with an aircraft or other product representative. They don’t offer the dense traffic of the big shows but the valued trade off is that nearly everyone who shows is interested. People came from as far as California and I witnessed many demo flights. The Mt. Vernon airport is as good as it gets for this purpose with easy access to big broad runways and plenty of open airspace. Lead by energetic Chris Collins, a team of volunteers made it work again. When the event isn’t swallowing all their time these folks have a little fun. Don’t worry about the nearby picture; TSA and Homeland Security can calm down. This was a planned promotional venture on the side of a great new restaurant called Rare, a chop house.
Super Duper Stroker from the S-Planes Company
The go-up-faster competition in Light-Sport aviation just got more boisterous. SportairUSA loves their S-planes and they just announced a new one: Cub-S. Why do I call them the S-planes people? How about this? They sell the Sting, Sirius, Savage, Snap, and now Cub-S with the Titan Stroker IO-340 engine producing a whopping 180 horsepower. The company is SportairUSA, U.S. distributor for aircraft manufactured by Zlin Aviation of the Czech Republic and they plan to showcase their new Cub-S at AirVenture 2013. “Look for the SportairUSA site at #295 Knapp Road, located just off of Celebration Way, between the Lycoming display and the EAA Welcome Center, said the company publicist. Here’s another company using Lycoming engines, a move we’ve increasingly seen in the last couple years, adding to Renegade, Arion Aircraft, and Tecnam. “With its best-in-category power-to-empty weight ratio of 4.74 pounds per horsepower (7.33 pounds per horsepower even at MTOW), the Cub-S climbs at up to 2,100 fpm,” said Bill Canino of SportairUSA.
Aero Friedrichshafen Video Bonanza
We were busy at Aero Friedrichshafen 2013, knocking out more than 30 videos for your viewing information and entertainment. That’s more than seven videos per day and a sum of more than five hours total running time (more than three Hollywood movies in minutes of viewing time). With these and all the videos shot at Sun ‘n Fun the week before Aero started, we expect to offer more than 300 videos on our LSA Video page. I’d like for you to understand how much effort that represents. I’d also like to thank BRS Parachutes, ICP North America, and Renegade Light Sport Aircraft for providing financial assistance to Lightsport and Ultralight Flyer. Without their support, these videos would not likely have been made. Today, I uploaded more than a dozen new videos to ByDanJohnson.com. We have many more coming. The newest ones include • Introduction to Aero and what you’ll see • Tecnam’s aerobatic Snap • FlyEco’s Diesel engine • FK 51 replica Mustang • Yuneec’s electric-powered eSpyder • lightweight electric aircraft • Zlin’s customizable Bobber • ICP’s Savannah taildragger and new engine • BOT SpeedCruiser with D-Motor • BRM Aero’s Bristell taildragger • Phoenix Air’s electric-powered ePhoenix • Nando Groppo tri-gear and, • one from AirVenture 2012 on the Zenith CH-650.
Out-Cubbing the Cubs… Can You iCub?
Sportair USA thinks the American Cub replicas — those from CubCrafters or American Legend — are rather expensive. After all, when LSA started and the European aircraft began arriving, those across-the-Atlantic manufacturers enjoyed very low wage rates and lower general costs allowing them to sell at prices below that U.S.-based producers could match. A couple years before the first European LSA arrived, a euro and a dollar had roughly the same value. Then things started to change. Wages began to rise in eastern Europe. Simultaneously, the dollar began to lose value… or the euro began to gain (it doesn’t really matter which way you look at it). The two conspired to cause the price of European-built LSA soar in cost to American buyers. Today, at least one (Allegro) and perhaps as many as four more European aircraft will be built in the USA.
The Range of LSA is Wide as the USA
Plenty of folks think LSA are mainly carbon fiber speedsters with autopilots and huge computer screen instrumentation. No doubt, we have some beauties that are equipped like luxury sport planes. If you’ve got the budget, the Light-Sport industry has the aircraft. Yet not everyone can afford those birds and not everyone wants one. *** FAA pretty much eliminated ultralights when they came out with the SP/LSA rule… well, except for genuine ultralights of the single place variety. The latter still exist, and yes, you can still buy a ready-to-fly ultralight “vehicle” for which you need no N-number, no medical, and no pilot license. Those 254-pound (max empty weight) aircraft prove America remains the land of the free and I, for one, love to fly them. *** On our way north for AirVenture my wife, Randee, and I made a series of stops. In Alabama — just a mile apart — we hit two fixed wing producers of “ultralights” that qualify as official SLSA.
iPad Comes To The Cockpit!
If you want to have a rocking good time without ever leaving your seat, check out this video clip of an upcoming film titled, “No Second Chances.” Billed as “an Alaskan bush adventure on steroids” if this teaser is any indication, ho shee mama, this ought to be some flick! *** The bigger news, as Dan Johnson covered earlier with some interesting historical perspective, is the announcement by SportairUSA of the Bush iCub. *** Dan points out that the new LSA isn’t another Cub Clone a la the Legend or CubCrafters versions, but an evolution of the Savage Cub, Cruiser and Classic line of light sport airplanes put out by the Czech Republic’s Zlin Aviation since 1999. *** I’d like to get my hands on the Bush version and go do some dirt-whompin’. It’s got a 7-inch extended landing gear, 1.25-inch axles, big fat bush wheels and other mission-specific enhancements.
“We’ve Got a Plane for That!” …iCub
SportairUSA, run by proprietor Bill Canino, has long been an innovator in the LSA business. His company doesn’t build Light-Sport airplanes but Bill has triggered several interesting add-ons: he was one of the first (along with Flight Design USA) to install parachutes on all StingSports; he developed the GreenLine engine monitor system, he offered the Straight & Level button to help those caught unexpectedly in no-visibility conditions; and last year at AirVenture he rolled out the ForeSight enhanced visibility system… and this list is not exhaustive. *** For AirVenture 2010 just six weeks away, he’s got a whole new concept. First is iCub. Previously distributed under the model name Savage (still retained for some models), the sorta-Cub-like taildragger manufactured by the Zlin company of Czech Republic will now be distributed by SportairUSA, adding to their low-wing Sting series and their high-wing Sirius , both built by TL Ultralight in Czech.
Savage Cub-like Taildragger
Seating | 2, tandem |
Empty weight | 673 pounds |
Gross weight | 1m235 pounds |
Wingspan | 30.5 feet |
Wing area | 153.0 square feet |
Wing loading | 8.1 pounds/square foot |
Length | 21 Feet |
Cabin Interior | 30 inches |
Height | 6.7 feet |
Fuel Capacity | 18 gallons |
Baggage area | Aft of seats, max 43 pounds |
Airworthiness | Certified SLSA |
Standard engine | Rotax 912 UL2/ULS2 |
Prop Diameter | Two-blade, wood |
Power | 80-100 hp |
Power loading | 13.2 pounds/horsepower |
As we near the fourth anniversary of the introduction of the first special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) in April 2004, notable successes have been achieved. With approximately 1,000 fixed-wing LSA-plus several hundred flex wings-in the national fleet, and with the entry of Cessna and Cirrus into the LSA marketplace, LSA have clearly become part of the aviation scene. Whatever the soothsayers predict for the future of LSA, one fact has been established: Pretty yellow taildraggers generate a solid following. Combining the sales of American Legend Aircraft’s Legend Cub, CubCrafters’ Sport Cub, and European supplier Zlin’s Savage, nearly one in five S-LSA registered in the FAA’s database are yellow taildraggers. American Legend currently leads in market share, but CubCrafters steadily rose through the ranks during 2007. Well down the list, but with mounting registrations, is the Zlin Savage. Though it more closely resembles the RANS S-7 Courier than the traditional J-3 Cub, the Zlin taildragger has much to offer.
Zlin Savage…Isn’t; Fun, Lower-Cost Cub-like LSA
Given how she flies, I really don’t know why the Zlin developers settled on the name Savage. It simply isn’t “savage” despite being a taildragger that challenges some tricycle-gear-trained pilots. Sure you’ll need training or prior experience to qualify for insurance but it’s no more challenging than Legend Cub, Sport Cub, or Rans’ S-7LS. Savage exhibits very cooperative handling down to low stall speeds (below 40 mph indicated). You can read a sidebar or look for full-length articles to be posted on this website. Coming next for Zlin’s Savage is a bushplane option perhaps to be named the Sport. The new model will include reinforcements to withstand the rigors of bush flying and landings on rougher surfaces. Additional X bracing has been added, the gear extended three inches to allow huge Alaskan Bushwheels (photo), plus you can order a belly pod for camping gear. If you want floats, you should select the left side door option.
Cub Trio Aims to Fill the Sky with LSA
Triplet LSA Cubs entering the market show the popularity of this venerable design. First approved as an SLSA was the Legend Cub which offers many features desired by those who love J-3 Cubs. Shortly after Legend came approval for the Savage Cub and the CubCrafters Sport Cub should follow soon. Watch for my review of all three in EAA’s October 2005 Sport Pilot and Light-Sport Aircraft magazine. One differentiating factor between the three are their choices of engine. Both Legend and CubCrafters use the 100-hp Continental O-200 while Legend plans to offer the 120-hp Jabiru 3300 as well. Savage offers the 100-hp Rotax 912S. All offer electric starting (not on an original Piper J-3) and each has significantly improved performance and comfort.
Zlin Savage Cub
[UPDATED — May 2007: Savage Cub is now represented by Savage Aircraft Sales (www.savageaircraftsales.com) located at 6609 Northeim Road, Manitowoc WI 54220; or call (920)726-5260.] Is the concept of a renewed Cub a phenomenon that developed with the LSA rule? Actually, no. The Savage Cub has been in production since 1997. An Italian design team created the plane and first built the model in Italy. In 1999 production was taken over by Zlin Aviation S.R.O. in the Czech Republic, which has connections to Czech aviation pioneer, Moravan Aeroplanes, maker of the Zlin all-metal GA aircraft. [UPDATED — August 2007: Savage Aircraft Sales of Wisconsin took over from former distributor Bob West who used the name North American Sport Aviation. Savage Aircraft Sales is run by Julie & Keith Hartlaub. Savage earned S-LSA certification just prior to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2005 and is the only one of the three new Cubs to use Rotax powerplants, no surprise given the design’s origin in Europe where Austrian-based Rotax dominates the light aircraft engine market.