Have you missed the great debate raging over the impending demise of 100LL? Many leading groups — including AOPA and apparently EAA plus others such as the Green 100 Octane Coalition — have endorsed a one-size-fits-all solution. *** But, hey! One size does not fit all. Light-Sport owners are aware their aircraft can operate just fine on 91 octane (premium) ethanol-free gasoline. The same can be said for 70%-80% of all piston-engine aircraft in the U.S. Indeed, more than 60,000 Autogas STCs have been granted from EAA and Petersen Aviation but such added approvals aren’t needed by LSA powered by Rotax or Jabiru. *** Leading aviation alphabet groups show little support for the installation of ethanol-free Mogas pumps at GA airfields. One wonders why? Several benefits follow increased use of E-zero (E0) Mogas: * It’s ideal for the vast majority of American aircraft including virtually all new LSA designs; * It would lead to an immediate reduction in the use of leaded fuels and its impact on the environment; and, * Switching from 100LL to Mogas would dramatically reduce the cost of flying for sport aviators and to flight schools adding LSA to their fleets.
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Paris Green Air Show
A couple days ago I promised to follow up on the Paris Green Air Show so here we go. *** The show is held (2010 is the 2nd year) at the Musee Air + Despace, at Le Bourget airport, the field where Charles Lindbergh landed the Spirit of St. Louis and where the huge Paris Air Show takes place every other year (next up in 2011). *** It’s mission statement is implicit from the phrase on the evocative splash drawing: “L’aviation du futur”. It took a bit of digging and some web translations to find out more about the show that Gizmag first posted about the other day. *** The explosion of imaginative designs and concepts at the show is staggering: very much like the first years of aviation after 1903. Dirigibles large and small, including man-powered balloons; aircraft engines with zero CO2 emissions; aircraft powered by electric, solar and hydrogen fuel cell engines; noise and pollution reducing sustainable development concepts for airports, runways and aircraft “villages.” All in all, quite a hoot; I’d love to go to the next one.
Flying Car Weight Bump; Electric Motorglider!
After taking a few days off to boat around Lake George, NY and shoot the Red Bull Air Race in New York City, it’s time to catch up on what’s been happening. *** The Transition “Roadable Aircraft” (I can’t help but prefer the chummier “flying car”) just got a weight exemption nod from FAA for an additional 110 pounds of MTOW (max takeoff weight). That nudges the vehicle up to 1,430 pounds. *** Terrafugia‘s request for the bump is meant to provide “…the structure and equipment necessary for compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) which are not found in other Light Sport Aircraft.” *** They’re talking about things such as airbags, energy absorbing crumple zone and protective safety cage. *** Interestingly, Transition’s maker Terrafugia initially asked for an MTOW of 1,474 pounds. FAA in effect said “You can have what we gave the amphib makers, but no more.” *** This evokes the ultralight days, when the original 150 lb.
Predator Powered Parachute… & Immersion Training
Another one managed to slip by my radar. I follow LSA closer than most yet I can barely keep track of all the approvals. No wonder I frequently get calls asking me to unravel the puzzle of LSA makes and models. *** Better late than never, welcome the Predator powered parachute to our SLSA List of 108 models from 72 still-active companies (at least five have left the business). Scott Hughes is the original designer & creator of the Predator. *** New CEO Fredrick Scheffel wrote, “On April 22, 2009, SkyTrails LSA (Predator Powered Parachute LLC) purchased the rights to manufacture the Predator along with the tooling & inventory from Hughes Aero.” SkyTrails LSA moved into the hangar facilities where Hughes Aero had been building the Predator for the past four years. Scheffel further noted, “SkyTrails Ranch, Inc., is a long standing name in powered parachute training, sales, and service that [has now] expanded into powered parachute manufacturing.” *** National powered parachute expert, Roy Beisswenger confirmed the Predator as a Special LSA, “SkyTrails LSA is manufacturing ELSA & SLSA aircraft at the airport in Wharton, Texas.” *** Learning to fly a powered parachute can be challenging.
Arion Lightning LS-1: Smokin Lightning
An all-American speedster that flies as fast as the law allows
The first one I saw was gorgeous, even bare of paint accents. That Arion Lightning prototype looked undeniably smooth and, well, fast as lightning. Pilots are inspired by lovely flying machines, and on the factory ramp in Shelbyville, Tenn., was one of the most fetching examples of an LSA I had ever seen.
Arion Aircraft’s Lightning LS-1 (www.flylightning.net) isn’t new. Indeed, in three years, the company has sold 80 kits, and 40 already are flying. Now comes a ready-to-fly airplane, an all-American flying machine that’s able to hit the LSA max speed of 120 knots (138 mph). The Lightning’s smokin’ fast speed, however, is just one measurement of its appeal.
Wherever it goes, the Lightning gathers admiring glances. That’s no surprise, as it’s an amalgam of the former Esqual from Spain with touches of Van’s RVs, the Aerospool Dynamic, various Lancair models and the also-Spanish Toxo LSA-each as shapely as a fashion model.
Noteworthy LSA Project Shuts Down
I’ve had my head buried in pilot reports, image processing and P&P’s 2010 LSA Buyer’s Guide. Guides in particular never seem like they’ll be such a mind-numbing chore yet every time the same number of eyeball-jittering, typing finger-stiffening days roll by. Look for it in the Oshkosh issue, late June I think. *** There are 107 registered LSA models on the books. I couldn’t write about all of them so went with the top-selling 20, realizing even then some great airplanes get left out, so I factored in another couple dozen or so that stand a good chance of garnering market share in the future. *** Most if not all The Magnificent 107 remain in some state of production – a minor miracle given our sluggish economy. Even more new designs approach ASTM certification this year. Clearly it’s going to be a big pie — with a lot of small slices — for a long time to come.
U.S. Aviation — SuperFloater
Winner of the Outstanding New Design award in its public debut at Sun ‘n Fun ’95, the SuperFloater was a well-received by many who flew with the ultralight glider. The light weight unpowered machine is a 20-years-later redesign of an aircraft created by Larry Hall and Klaus Hill in the mid-’70s. The SuperFloater was completely redone at the request of U.S. Aviation, who sensed the new market for the easy-flying glider – aging hang glider pilots, as well as ultralight pilots looking for a change of pace from power in flight.
The ’95 SuperFloater has a beefed-up airframe for more frequent duty and tow launching. The high-dihedral wings were flat and flattened and the span extended for additional performance. Full-span ailerons replaced rudder and elevator-only controls. The ultralight sale plane is now supplied as a ready-to-fly, test-flown aircraft.
The SuperFloater can be towed aloft by almost any ultralight with an excess of power.
ICONographic Marketing
I thought I’d share a couple interesting videos recently posted on the Icon Aircraft website. There’s a multimedia gallery of high-profile, appealing eye candy, including YouTube videos chronicling various aspects of the ongoing test program for the company’s A5 amphibian S-LSA. *** Two I found particularly interesting: a stall sequence and a potpourri of recent flight test ops. *** First, the stall sequence shows the classic tufted airflow indicators taped to the wing to demonstrate inflight stall progression from the root outward. *** Watch the tufts near the root begin to wiggle and change direction first, demonstrating loss of lift. Then see the stall move outward from the root and along the trailing edge. To my eye, it seems like the middle of the wing completely stalls before the root. I’d like to know about the aerodynamic significance of that, and why the wing doesn’t stall more classically at the root first.
New Purpose-built LSA
Another LSA (and another from Czech Republic!) is about to land on our shores. It’ll be featured in my Cool Stuff overview story in the June issue of P&P, but here’s a sneak preview of the cute little low wing, and why I think it could be a winner for potential owners. *** It’s called Corbi Air Alto 100. *** Two veterans of the sport aircraft biz – Dan Coffey and Ron Corbi – have extensive backgrounds in sport aircraft maintenance and marketing. They saw through direct experience that many LSA had weak points that came out after extensive use in the field: insufficiently sturdy nosegear, cheap foreign tires (that were also a problem to reorder quickly). *** So they went to an established Czech manufacturer (Direct Fly) and asked them if they’d be willing to update their four-year-popular Euro bird with American components for ASTM-certification as an S-LSA for the states. *** Coffey’s and Corbi’s approach might be called “pre-emptive” maintenance – they intend to design out the very things that tend to fail in LSA. *** “Our focus with the Alto is to enhance the ‘maintainability’ of the airplane,” Coffey told me in a lengthy chat at Sun ‘n Fun.
New SeaRey: Popular Amphib Goes LSA
Let’s be honest. We’re into flying because we enjoy the experience,
right? Flying light, sporting aircraft is not about flying to work
or transporting goods or people. And if enjoyment is the main
flying goal, then seaplanes are a big part of that pleasure.
Of the LSA-qualified seaplanes covered this year (FPNA Cape Town A-
22 and Airmax SeaMax), the SeaRey is more familiar to readers of Light
Sport and Ultralight Flying magazine and more affordable. The SeaRey
is familiar because of its past in this community. It’s built and it flies as
you’d expect, more so than some $135,000 carbon fiber speedster. It also
costs a great deal less and it’s available as a kit to save even more
dough.
Make no mistake. The SeaRey
LSX (the Experimental-LSA kit
version) and the SeaRey Sport
(the fully-built version in latter
stages of certification) are
advanced light planes, by which I
mean SeaRey has developed significantly
from its simpler 2-
stroke-powered early models.
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