image courtesy Pipistrel
photo courtesy Dan Johnson
photo courtesy Dynon Avionics
photo courtesy Sebring Expo
Flight Design CTLE photo courtesy Flight Design
|||| News travels fast these days: Just ask Herman Cain. New tech net scraper Gizmag just ran a blurb on the Pipistrel Alpha that I covered earlier. Gizmag’s focus is on Alpha’s low cost, which as they note is less than €60,000 (currently about $80,000). *** Now consider this: if the euro continues to go through its troubles and drops further against the dollar, imagine a quality SLSA, like the Alpha promises to be (it’s based on a years-proven design — the Vinus/Sinus — with hundreds now delivered), priced at, perhaps, $70,000. For all of us who’ve decried the high costs of LSA, might this be the price point/airplane that would help break the LSA sales logjam? |||| Dynon plans Hands-On SkyView Training at Sebring. Who among us hasn’t sat for the first time in a new LSA and felt brain overload when confronted with an unfamiliar EFIS display? *** One of my initial — and most stressful — challenges during my Sport Pilot training was figuring out where to look and how to work those info-jammed screens while also getting to know the airplane. Helping out with that comes a promising and much needed program, to debut at next month’s Sebring Light Sport Expo. (That’s right, kids, Sebring is just around the corner… more on that below). *** Dynon Avionics will offer free courses on how to wrangle the SkyView, its runaway hit EFIS display. *** The 3.5-hour classes will be held all four mornings and the first three afternoons at Sebring. Working SkyViews will be set up so people can get some real hands-on tutoring without having to RTFM (Read The Freakin’ Manual, which apparently only 1.4% of the U.S. population can abide). *** Class size will be limited to the first 15 people who sign up. The classes will be held at the nearby (like, walking distance from the show) Chateau Elan Hotel and Conference Center. *** Kirk Kleinholz, CFII and SkyView expert, will handle the professorial duties. This first set of classes will be free: ongoing classes will have a fee, so get in there, pilots, and sign up! |||| Sebring Expo Looms! Yes chilluns, the big winter LSA show is truly stepping it up this year, with a much-ballyhooed new presence and a much bigger feel, judging by the number of promo emails I’ve gotten for months now. Rather than rehash the 2012 offerings, just go Sebring’s website. *** Alright, just a couple teasers, I can’t resist (and I can’t wait to get down there myself!): ••• “Exotic” vacation packages will be auctioned ••• Registered exhibitors include Flight Design, which will bring its CTLE law enforcement special ••• NASA Green Flight Challenge winner Pipistrel will bring several models (alas, not the winning electric one-off Taurus Electro G4) and, ••• the EAA Piper Cub J3 Sweepstakes contest airplane is expected to be on display. Y’all get your tickets now, hear? ••• EAA’s new head man Rod Hightower will give a presentation at the annual LAMA Dinner. ••• Tons of events, factory and general demo flights and lots more to look forward. *** Did I say I can’t wait? Now if only winter would truly arrive in the northeast (it’s 58 degrees again today!) I’ll have even more motivation to jet southward — not that Sebring leaves any need for that — this is simply the biggest all-LSA event in the country.
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