Search Results for : searey

SuperStol: Able to leap tall RVs at a single bound. Drawing lots of attention is the Just Aircraft SuperStol LSA kitplane (soon to be an SLSA) that has self-deploying leading edge slats, oleo main gear shock-absorbing struts (with humongous tires), even a shock absorber for the tailwheel. I found out later I was the first flywriter to get some time in the critter. Whether true or not, I felt like a kid on his first flight again: what a fun airplane! True — and amazing — STOL performance befitting a Helio Courier-style plane. My report will be out soon in Plane & Pilot magazine.
It’s the third day at Sun ‘n Fun. Breezy, hottish (high 80s), humid: in other words, classic Florida Spring weather. The attendance seems steady if not overwhelming. I’ve been hanging out a lot in the new Paradise City Light Sport/Ultralight area and grass landing strip in the southeast corner of Lakeland Linder Airport, and enthusiastically report it is vastly improved over previous years.

Once upon a time, in the early days of Light-Sport Aircraft, way back in 2006 and 2007, new LSA models were being introduced at the torrid pace of two, three, even four per month. Aviation had no prior design outpouring to compare. The rate of development had to slow — such a pace is not sustainable — and it did. Yet the young industry continued on to the astonishing sum of 131 models and it ain’t over yet. Meanwhile, though, a new tsunami is building within the LSA sector. I’ve written about a wave a new seaplanes and as summer 2013 approaches, a tour of the many choices may help guide interest of seaplane enthusiasts.
Current Seaplanes (distinguished from float-equipped land planes *) include FAA-accepted SLSA models: Mermaid, SeaMax, SeaRey, and Freedom. At present all are being offered and have some measure of U.S.

Back from a busy, weather-challenging (for photography) trip to the Bahamas, I stopped by to visit Dan Johnson and his soul mate Randee at their Spruce Creek air park digs near Daytona Beach, Florida. If you haven’t had the pleasure, visit Spruce Creek sometime to see how cool an air park can be. Hundreds and hundreds of homes, condos, hangars and “planeports,” even on-site business and a restaurant make this a wonderful aviation destination. It’s my fourth visit over the years and always a pleasure … as it is to visit with Dan and Randee.
This time I got to meet Dan’s partner-in-aviation Brian Boucher, a long time, big-jet professional pilot and one of four owners of the new Flight Design CTLSi I flew for Plane & Pilot magazine up in CT at Tom Peghiny’s US HQ just before it left for Spruce Creek. The opportunity came up for Dan to join the partnership and the numbers made sense, so now the Johnsons are part owners of that lovely fuel-injected CTLSi.

More airplanes made it through the winter weather blanketing much of the midwest and east.
Pipistrel’s much-awaited Alpha Trainer arrived at 8 last night thanks to its much-fatigued pilot Don Sharp who soldiered on through the crud all the way from Indiana.
Highlights? Too many to list, but in the wee hours meself we’ll go the photo/caption route.
Personal fave: Patty Wagstaff’s always-amazing airshow…in the near-dark twilight, followed by the largest demonstration team in aviation, Team AeroDynamix. The 12-aircraft team is made up exclusively of Van’s RV aircraft, including RV-4s and RV-6s, two of the most popular kit planes ever. The complex and highly entertaining show lit up the darkening, overcast skies with great moves and lots of bright lights.
Attendance seemed light today, disappointing especially with all the effort Jana Filip and crew have put in this last year to promote the show and bring in acts like Patty and the RV team.

Last month the southern China city of Zhuhai hosted a large collection of aircraft at Airshow China. We’ve been hearing about this once-closed country in matters of aviation so often, I thought it would be something different to show a collection of photos taken by my LAMA Europe colleague, Jan Fridrich. He works for the Czech Light Aircraft Association and you know his name as the man who does the hard work to gather figures for our regular LSA market surveys.
Another associate of mine, Will Escutia, one of the new owners of Quicksilver Aeronautics, also traveled to China recently. Visiting dealer prospects in the north of the large country Will reported that he sees four main forces driving the opening of aviation in China: (1) airspace below 3,000 meters is opening to civilian aircraft; (2) high interest in flying follows that airspace opening; (3) government is concerned about their economy and aviation is seen as helpful; (4) entrepreneurs are jockeying to take early advantage of the burgeoning market.