A few days ago a couple Super Petrel XPs arrived in Florida. In no time, Roger Helton‘s team had the pair assembled and had earned their Special Airworthiness Certificates, from two different FAA inspectors no less.
Development happens fast in light aviation; Mosaic will further quicken the pace.
Welcome to Light-Sport Aircraft where the swift thrive and those that can’t move fast enough fall behind. LSA is a market full of seasoned competitors. They’ve learned their trade well, surviving and some even gaining during the Covid upset. Any new creation coming to market will be measured against tough standards.
You think the pace of development is fast now? Wait as Mosaic approaches and company after company announces new products to take advantage of the “Christmas in July” list of new privileges FAA offered in the summer release of their Mosaic proposal (view list at bottom). The regulation is currently in review by the agency and according to their own statements, it should go live by second quarter 2025 (2Q25).
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Your Own P-51? (Only Modern?) — Remarkable SW-51 Increases Production
Every pilot loves a P-51 Mustang, right? The World War II fighter with gutsy lines and a thundering engine turning a giant prop consistently ranks as one of the most desirable airplanes of all time.
Don’t even think about affording a real P-51 unless you win the lottery. Warbirds may be the biggest attraction at AirVenture Oshkosh year after year but only a few pilots have sufficiently deep pockets to own and fly one of these historic machines.
SW-51 is breathtakingly priced as well, many readers may think. Nonetheless, SW-51 is an awesome-looking flying machine that some will figure out how to afford.
Even more rare than a Ferrari, SW-51 is a very-limited-production design. The company forecasts a dozen aircraft per year. At that rate and given SW-51’s exquisite detail, I’ll bet they can sell out year after year.
Mount Your Mustang
You can watch a video below from Sun ‘n Fun 2022 that provides additional and fairly recent detail.
Flight of the Phoenix (Motorglider) — Top 50 Video Star Is Back with News
The Top 50 video series has gone over very well and continues with this post about the Phoenix LSA motorglider. If you thought it disappeared and were unhappy about that, have I got good news for you!
I am aware of a very positive development regarding Phoenix that I am working to confirm. As soon as I have fuller details I will update this article but the prospects for LSA motorglider look promising.
In North America, Phoenix Air USA is run by Ed Babovec (email) and he is excited about 2024. …more as it unfolds.
Motorgliders as a subset of all aircraft enjoy some very special privileges that endear them to the recreational flying community. In particular, motorgliders do not require an aviation medical. That alone makes them desirable but long-gliding capabilities make them safer to some pilots and simply more enjoyable to others. Let’s look a little more deeply.
First One in the USA — Flying TL’s Luxurious, Mosaic-Ready Sparker Aircraft
Some pilots can hardly wait for Mosaic. It takes all kinds, of course.
Many aviators want to use Sport Pilot’s no-medical aspect to fly a Cessna or Piper that they can buy inexpensively (or already own). That makes sense. These affordable aircraft are familiar and proven, even if they are products of the 1950s with mostly analog instruments and powerplants that burn 10 to 15 gallons per hour of 100LL.
Another group, owners of modern LSA, wants a little more weight than allowed by current regulation. Still others may want to fly at night or in IFR or to use an economical LSA for some form of aerial work.
Then we have what I’ll call the Mosaic LSA crowd. These are pilots with larger budgets — perhaps they sold a Cirrus or Bonanza and have equity to put toward a new aircraft. These experienced pilots are accustomed to well-equipped aircraft with generous cruise speeds.
True Story about TrueLite — Update on this Much-Anticipated Part 103 Ultralight Entry
Article UPDATED 1/29/24 — See at bottom —DJ
You may have experienced this but I just got sticker shock. A young pilot told me he is facing a $1,000 fee for his Private Pilot check ride. What?! I got my license so long ago I forgot how much I paid but, obviously… “A dollar doesn’t buy what it used to!”
A few sources confirmed $1,000 is a common fee. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying a check ride isn’t worth that much; it’s merely a bigger number than expected, although my young pilot friend still has to come up with that amount of dough. Whew!
When friends and family complain about grocery store prices or the cost of air travel, I shrug and say, “Tell me something that has not gone up by 50 or 100% in the last three years.” No one loves the situation but those are economic facts.
LSA Pilot Review of a Multicopter: Lift Aircraft’s Part 103-Eligible Hexa
Ready or not, new flying machines are headed our way. Correction, they are already here and a wave of similar entries could follow (see earlier reports). The earliest market-ready arrivals qualify under FAR Part 103.
I believe this website needs to report these aircraft, so with pleasure, I announce the following to be perhaps the first multicopter pilot report from “one of us.” Scott Severen is a longtime LSA pilot, the importer of Jabiru aircraft, and the newly-elected President of LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Scott offers his impressions as one of the very first non-company pilots to fly one of these aircraft.
Some call them multicopters (me). Some prefer eVTOL. C’mon, have you said a mouthful like “eVTOL” to any non-pilot? …or even to most pilots? They look at you blankly, “Huh?” Marketers of these aircraft have yet to settle on a catchy word to identify them.
Top 50 Video Review: Lisa Akoya, an Innovative, Sleek LSA Seaplane
“Lisa Akoya: You’ve Never Seen Anything Like It,” trumpeted the lead image. Ten-year-on translation: “You’ve never seen it.”
Inspired design, cutting edge ideas, elegant sleekness, and unique features set the French LSA seaplane apart and may inspire successive designs but Lisa’s Akoya never made it to market.
No wonder,” exclaimed some! More than a decade back, they approached a retail price of $400,000. After ten years of dollar inflation, that number would be way past $500,000 today.
Remarkable as it may be to those of us with normal incomes, buyers for high-end products seem often to emerge. Cirrus and their steady sales of million-dollar-plus four seaters is proof of that. To appeal to such well-heeled pilots, a company better deliver a beautiful, functional, well-supported aircraft. Doing that expertly at a premium level gets expensive.
Here’s Looking at Lisa
Lisa Akoya dates to the very beginning of Light-Sport Aircraft. In 2004, two aviation enthusiasts, Erick Herzberger and Luc Bernole, established Lisa Airplanes in the heart of the French Alps.
Simple, Light, Affordable… Why Recreational Flying Can Soar in 2024
Simple, light, and affordable is not a throwaway line. Each word is pivotal.
Like many of you, I have enjoyed the advancing development of the LSA space, leading to Mosaic LSA in about 15 months. Additional operational capabilities plus features like autopilot, synthetic vision, and powerful, compact engines… all these can build a very exciting airplane.
With Mosaic, the list gets even longer: more weight, more seats, more powerful engines, plus retract, adjustable props, even aerial work for entrepreneurs (see full list). Wonderful, I agree. Some pilots have asked for more and industry with FAA have been working to achieve these potentials.
Yet this is a path to ever-more complex (and expensive) aircraft. Have you been waiting for Mosaic LSA? If yes, your wishes may be answered in 15 months. If not, please continue reading.
Simple, Light, Affordable — All three words are key. Much depends on your aviation goals.
AVI’s Affordable, Foldable, Composite Part 103 Ultralight Aircraft Gets a Fresh New Look
Aeromarine LSA’s Chip Erwin is one but certainly not the only busy fellow in the modern Part 103 aircraft space. AVI’s Radu Berceanu is another a man on the move. Chip works in metal. Radu works in composite. You know Chip better (he’s adept at PR) but you probably know Radu’s designs. Readers have responded enthusiastically to articles and videos about Swan.
In an earlier article I promised a video look. Now that the flying season is easing into the holidays, I have more time to spend editing videos. What takes a few minutes to shoot takes hours to edit but I’m pleased to let you hear from Radu himself. His English is quite good and you get a lot of views of the new & improved Swan, now called Swan LE.
Fresh Swan Retake
The article from April this year had additional detail for Swan LE and mentions Dracula, the subject of a future video and article.
Humble Triangle — Innovative Glider Control Mechanism Has a Nearly Unknown History
When Wilbur and Orville set out to fly their first airplane 120 years ago, aeronautical knowledge was rare and precious. Pioneers like Lilienthal preceded the Wright Brothers but the Ohio bike shop owners still had to figure out almost everything. They did so without funding, university degrees, or government help. Today, nearly every aviator celebrates their December 1903 achievement.
Aviation is a many-varied activity, though, and not all aircraft followed the same development path. Especially after World War II and the arrival of kit-built aircraft, American aviators began exploring in many directions.
Around the time NASA was pushing hard to land on the moon, a growing group of enthusiasts were jumping off mountains in pursuit of flight. Hang gliding soared into sky in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Enthusiasts grew to more than 100,000 active hang glider pilots globally, flying in nearly every country on Earth, perhaps as the most affordable of all aircraft.
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