“Winds are going to be rather sporty,” observed AirCam developer, Phil Lockwood, as he and Robert Meyer and the AirCam team finalized arrangements for another fly-out, this one to Jekyll Island (09J).
The single runway near the resort island had a crosswind forecast for arrival day. When it comes from the east, air tumbles down over a tree line to disturb a smooth approach. The air was indeed “sporty.”
I’m an AirCam enthusiast even though I don’t own one. I earned my multi-engine rating in an AirCam some years ago and I’ll take any opportunity to fly one.
Numbering 300 AirCams
(…that’s 600 Rotax engines!)
Many of you know the story by now. AirCam was first developed to fly National Geographic photographers trying to document nature in Namibia. From what I can tell the entire country appears to be one enormous, dense jungle. Where ya gonna land?
Phil to the rescue.Family Flying Adventure… AirCam Enthusiasts Flock to Gorgeous Jekyll Island, Georgia.
“Winds are going to be rather sporty,” observed AirCam developer, Phil Lockwood, as he and Robert Meyer and the AirCam team finalized arrangements for another fly-out, this one to Jekyll Island (09J).
A family that flies together. Son Ian, dad Phil, and mom Tisha flew to Jekyll Island in a three-seat AirCam. The only challenge? They’re all pilots. Who gets to do the flying? Photo by Ian Lockwood
The single runway near the resort island had a crosswind forecast for arrival day. When it comes from the east, air tumbles down over a tree line to disturb a smooth approach. The air was indeed “sporty.”
I’m an AirCam enthusiast even though I don’t own one. I earned my multi-engine rating in an AirCam some years ago and I’ll take any opportunity to fly one.
Numbering 300 AirCams
(…that’s 600 Rotax engines!)
Many of you know the story by now. AirCam was first developed to fly National Geographic photographers trying to document nature in Namibia. From what I can tell the entire country appears to be one enormous, dense jungle. Where ya gonna land?
Phil to the rescue. After building Drifters for years, Phil had a plan to accomplish what the photographers needed for the beautiful but rather primitive African nation. He designed a potent twin engined airplane that could take off from a tiny field and could position a photographer six feet out in front of the leading edge with an enormous field of unobstructed view.
A three-seat AirCam with full enclosure.
The plan worked perfectly but then a funny thing happened.
Pilots kept saying they wanted one for themselves. Phil and his staff accommodated them and have steadily improved the machine until today, 300 of them fly around the USA and the world. You’ll rarely see a bigger smile than from a pilot who just landed an AirCam.
While some AirCam pilots chose to avoid the bumps at Jekyll on arrival day — flying just a few minutes north to St. Simons airport (SSI) with a runway facing into the wind — all the AirCams were back at Jekyll the next day. Even on that first evening, some of us watched as landing lights switched on when Ian and Robert flew a pair of them back from St. Simons after dark.
AirCam #1 flying in the Congo. See any landing areas? Power came from two Rotax 582s. The aircraft has evolved significantly since.
Since it was late May… since we were in the warm South… and since it’s almost summer, several of the AirCams were mounted atop amphibious floats. Well, why not?
With Twin Rotax 912s (even 915s have been fitted), AirCam can lift off water even with amphibs after a very short, brief water run. Considering an AirCam is capable of taking off from land on one engine (not advised, of course!), jumping off the water with both engines fully spun up is exhilarating.
Leading His Flock
Leading a gaggle of AirCams from Florida, Phil managed the navigation and communications from the middle seat, while son Ian flew up front and wife Tisha spotted traffic from the aft seat. How they decided that seating must be something of a State secret since all three are pilots.
Robert Meyer checked out a pilot who prepared to fly this amphibious AirCam.
The Lockwoods flew in tandem seating — one behind the other — in a Generation Three or “Gen 3” AirCam with the clamshell enclosure (photo). Occupying the aft seat, Tisha reported an abundance of room. AirCam may not look it, but the aircraft is surprisingly spacious.
Using the Whole Runway
Back to Phil’s “sporty” air. His forecast was no understatement. My flight from Spruce Creek near Daytona Beach, Florida to Jekyll took only about an hour. We flew over the ocean (within an easy glide distance from shore) where it was was smooth and effortless. Yet once we arrived near Jekyll and dropped down to pattern altitude the mechanical turbulence from air spilling over the tree-filled island added lots of bumps to the air.
“It’s doesn’t feel that bad,” I told Randee. “I think a landing is doable.”
Once we descended below 300 feet, that gusty air made final approach feel like a roller coaster ride. Woo-hoo!
I decided to keep my speed up and leave the flaps retracted to facilitate an abort if it proved too rough. I was prepared to use the majority of the long, paved runway… and I did. Yet we got down. We flew in a Van’s RV-12 to which I have access and, like all RVs, the handling is superb. I was sure I would not run out of control authority.
With quite a few hours logged in AirCam, I think it could have handled the winds, but such a decision is about pilot skill and experience, not the aircraft or its controls. Phil made a prudent decision to lead his formation four more miles to St. Simons. Not only was the runway better wind-oriented but the airport area is more open with few nearby obstructions.
As the weekend unfolded, the winds died down and Jekyll proved as fetching a place as ever. I tell you what: these AirCam people know where to take their powerful birds for a good time. Learn lots more about AirCam — maybe you can join the next outing.
In this video, LSA expert John Hurst describes his experience flying an AirCam with two 912iS fuel-injected engines from Sebring, Florida to Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
“Winds are going to be rather sporty,” observed AirCam developer, Phil Lockwood, as he and Robert Meyer and the AirCam team finalized arrangements for another fly-out, this one to Jekyll Island (09J).
The single runway near the resort island had a crosswind forecast for arrival day. When it comes from the east, air tumbles down over a tree line to disturb a smooth approach. The air was indeed “sporty.”
I’m an AirCam enthusiast even though I don’t own one. I earned my multi-engine rating in an AirCam some years ago and I’ll take any opportunity to fly one.
Numbering 300 AirCams
(…that’s 600 Rotax engines!)
Many of you know the story by now. AirCam was first developed to fly National Geographic photographers trying to document nature in Namibia. From what I can tell the entire country appears to be one enormous, dense jungle. Where ya gonna land?
Phil to the rescue.
Summer is fast approaching and for much of the northern hemisphere, that means seaplane flying. For all pilots, covid fear is dissipating and summer skies beckon.
A new enterprise bought all rights and assests from bankruptcy estate of Atol Avion Oy, which filed for bankruptcy on February 2, 2021.
Aurora, a two-seat amphibian, has been under development for nine years. Scandinavian Seaplanes forecasts serial production will start by the end of Q2 2022. A core team familiar with Atol Avion has been hired to work for company and this will enable the official transfer of the nearly finished type certification project with EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency, the Union’s counterpart to FAA).
The Polish company’s top-of-the-line 
Get factory 
Here’s the simple response: light aircraft with modern (read: powerful and efficient) engines tend to perform admirably well in high elevations, higher heat, and high humidity. If you fly almost any of these aircraft in high density conditions you already know they perform sprightly.
“I was very impressed with the performance of the CTLS GT with the Rotax 914 Turbo,” said Flight Design test pilot Nico Stambula. “CTLS GT Turbo climbs like a rocket and easily reaches 140 knots at altitude.” Stambula added that the 914 intercooled engine maintains consistent temperatures. In addition, this is a very smooth flying package.”
Someone was bound to ask why engineers didn’t use the newest 141-horsepower Rotax 915 iS, so I queried the company on this question.
Don’t feel too conspicuous. It’s happening to me, too, along with nearly everyone else. [
ScaleWings reported, “Aircraft serial number #001 took off at 11:37 am into a light cloudy sky.” The all-important first flight went without problems.
The ScaleWings SW-51 Mustang is a true-to-scale high performance replica modeled precisely upon the original North American P-51 Mustang aircraft dimension but fully built from carbon fiber.
With first flight in its logbook, ScaleWings said, “We will produce and deliver 5 aircraft in 2021 and 12 aircraft in 2022.”
“SW-51 Mustang costs less than 10% to acquire, less than 1% to maintain and it burns less than 15% of the fuel of an original North American P-51 Mustang aircraft. That’s a big savings but this is not an inexpensive kit.
Look out, Icon A5! Here comes Wave and it should be quite exciting.
In one image you notice the Rotax 915iS hiding inside its shapely engine nacelle.
First flight is ahead — though this is one of those nailing-jello-to-a-wall stories. First flight is something a designer never wishes to rush. Yet after all the time spent working on this design, the desire to see Wave go aloft must be tremendous — not even considering what pressure those waiting for the design may be exerting.
Wave also planned to use a novel arrangement of main gear — called “CrossOver” gear — such that it could handle the expected duties without needing to be retracted. Until the company gets first flight in their logbook, they’re concentrating on the essentials so it’s too early for confirmation of specific features.
Here in early summer 2021, new information was discovered that shines additional light on what is ahead.
LAMA, represented by myself and Roy Beisswenger, had numerous fruitful discussions with FAA. We went to many meetings and made several trips to FAA headquarters in Washington, DC. In most of these meetings we found FAA people interested to advance LSA in the aviation world and interested to hear what changes we wanted. LAMA was satisfied with those discussions and, indeed, FAA incorporated into the proposal every LAMA request. All LAMA’s “asks” are captioned in 
Lots of other avenues are available. For example, EAA has an endowment from the late-aviation philanthropist James Ray that allows the Oshkosh organization to give scholarships for around 100 pilots per year. LAMA is working with EAA right now to add more scholarships; these will be specific to Sport Pilot and must occur in Light-Sport Aircraft. EAA chapters around the country can participate.
Setting up the LSA Mall takes some extra hands, so LAMA has used various great volunteers over the years. One young fellow joined us a few years back. His name is Jatniel Acevedo and he is the subject of this article, but not because he’s a volunteer, helpful as that has been.
We continue with further coverage from the first major airshow in almost two years… THANKS to 
Counting all types, the “alternative aircraft” sector may account for a quarter or more of all LSA sales. Alternative aircraft have attributes that drive customer inquiries: better affordability and unique flying qualities.
Powrachute Powerhouse
Those older American gyroplanes — think: Bensen Gyrocopter — were nearly all single seaters. Maybe that was best then, when stability was different than today. Then I discovered the VX1 at the Midwest LSA Expo. Hmmm, a modern gyroplane with all the present-day knowledge but in single seat form. Intriguing. It doesn’t look like other modern gyros and the video below will explain.
Levil Aviation greatly empowered the role of tablets in the cockpit today by pioneering the first iPad-compatible wireless avionics suite in 2009. Today’s 
Duc Prop Success Story
Of course, he is a sales and service outlet for Duc Hélices. Manufacturing occurs in Frontenas, France. According to Gaetan, the French enterprise is humming at its still-new 
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Then, he described a plan to go slowly at a return to manufacturing the vintage aircraft as a Special, fully-built LSA. Another bravo, including for taking the time to get it right. Readers should understand getting semi-tractor trailer loads of inventory, tooling, jigs and more will take some time to get set up properly.
Early LSA enthusiasts knew this aircraft as the Jhilivan (or Kappa) KP-5. It was 
Once up on the wing, you can simply stand on the floor in front of the seat and sit down. Unlike its predecessor from Kappa, Skyleader 600 has both seats side-by-side; KP-5 had a slimmer cockpit width and staggered the right seat aft a few inches to give more room and a wider view. While the current configuration is more commonplace and will probably please more buyers, I rather liked the staggered seating; it gave the pilot in command great visibility out both sides.
Evolution Aircraft enjoyed a banner year in 2020, despite all the covid anxiety.
Just today, I learned that 
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—The 
—The much-beloved Rotax 503 will not be returning to the market. The Austrian company discontinued the popular two-stroke engine years ago, meaning many who still want one must search among used engines. The good news: many have only a few hundred (or less) hours on them; a good used engine is both a bargain and a worthy powerplant for your light aircraft kit. Now, though, a very similar engine is coming from Russia, of all places. It’s called the 
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Before longtime proprietor John Williams began producing his own design, he manufactured components and sub-asssemblies for another hot ultralight of the day, 
To make harder-working wings, John did something rather unusual at the time. He built a cantilevered wing with conventional aluminum structure. The result: that single place aircraft worked great with a 20-foot wing span. When I flew it, the wings seemed so short that I felt I could reach out with my arms and almost touch the tips.
Titan went further on their website. “Combined with Titan Aircraft’s renowned reputation for high quality products, superior aircraft performance, and outstanding customer support, Tornado is sure to provide the pilot and kit builder a very pleasurable experience and a fantastic resale value.”
“Our kit has an estimated build time of 150-300 hours and includes all required materials, components, and fasteners,” said John. Kits do not include engine, propeller, and instruments leaving that to customer preferences. “Our completion rate is around 90% because the build is fairly quick and easy — and because customers are motivated to get flying,” John added.
The Tornado SS comes with a longer & taller fuselage, a 33% larger back door, a full-sized rear seat, and has four more inches of headroom over a standard Tornado II. Most use the 
Montaer’s MC01 starts with 4130 molybdenum steel tube “to provide greater safety to the crew.” MC01 is skinned with an aluminum fuselage and wings. These materials are popular with American pilots who are aware they can achieve repairs almost anywhere.
MC01 has dual control yokes with a steerable nose wheel and dual toe brakes. Although many Sport Pilots say they prefer — or at least have adjusted to — joystick control, many pilots find control yokes preferable. No joystick option is presently available.
Elevator trim controls are provided on both yokes. At the base of the instrument panel pilots will find all circuit breakers and other switches. Throughout this design, you see a layout that most pilots will find familiar and comfortable. All these common controls may help pilots quickly adapt to flying Light-Sport.
Although 
The subjects of today’s post from Lakeland, Florida, VL3 from JMB Aircraft plus Tarragon Aircraft — along with a handful of other designs (see this 
Of course, such high-tech construction also pushes up the price. Neither of these airplanes are in the range of what I’d call “affordable” for readers of this website. In fact Tarragon is carving out a space near the very top of where LSA are priced. In their booth, I heard staff quote numbers north of $300,000. It’s a breathtaking aircraft with a breathtaking price to match.
On a beautiful evening, almost 200 light aircraft businesspeople attended the DeLand Showcase annual reception. Smiles were plentiful as these vendors enjoyed a return to normalcy and an airshow routine that fuels their enterprise so they can better serve their pilot customers.
G1 certainly resembles the CH-750 but it has its own design history. I interviewed the developer in Europe some years ago but G1 now has representation in North America. A Canadian representative could not get to Sun ‘n Fun so some American associates were able to convince authorities to let them transport this aircraft so you can examine it. Videoman Dave has 
Can aviation lead us back toward normal? Globally, governments have ordered their citizens to stay at home and all the rest, as you’ve heard ad naseum. Some places — Florida, as a sunshining example — is more open than others but much of civilization remains restricted. 
Yet no one can dispute that C42 — once rebadged as Cyclone for American buyers — has for many years been THE success story in Germany. This southern German company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.
Now in its “C” model configuration, C42 is one of the most successful European microlights (a category between Part 103 ultralights and LSA, but closer to the latter). Comco Ikarus has evolved the machine into a fine airplane.
Aft of the cockpit there’s a frangible cover which the BRS rocket fires through, and a very large quickly removable panel on the port side, through which the fuel quantity can be seen and a lot of the interior structure visually inspected. The rear baggage bay can hold up to 100 pounds, weight and balance allowing.
Less obvious changes include a significant revision of the wing structure with more use of carbon fiber. C42C’s cockpit roof has been completely redesigned and the doors are now hung on redesigned hinges.
After fastening my four-point harness, I raised the throttle into its correct position and familiarized myself with the cockpit. Throttles on both sides fold flat to aid ingress and egress.
A central column braces the instrument panel and carries push/pull plungers for the choke; cabin heat and carb heat; a transceiver and transponder; and a toggle switch for the intercom. C42C’s fuel selector is located at the base of the central column by the pilot’s right leg; easy to see and reach. Large map pockets are built into the doors.
With my solo loaded weight about 200 pounds below gross, a paved runway, and a brisk headwind, I anticipated a stellar take off and climb characteristics and I was not disappointed! The prop was pitched for cruise but you’d never guess. I reached 1,000 feet above the runway before the airfield boundary.
Moving onto an examination of the stick-free stability around all three axes reveals the directional stability is definitely soft to the left and neutral to the right, while spiral stability is slightly positive from the right and neutral to the left. The longitudinal stability is quite strong; a 10-knot displacement from a trimmed speed of 70 knots resulting in a long wavelength low amplitude phugoid that damped itself out after three lazy oscillations. Importantly, C42C is not divergent around any axes.
Comco Ikarus reports a glide angle of 11:1 (a Cessna 150 is about 9.5:1), while minimum sink rate is around 400 feet per minute.
Consider this. Even today, in 2021, you can buy a complete Aventura kit for something north of $50,000. While that will be a basic machine and while you’ll spend hours building it — an activity many find highly satisfying — you must put that pricing in perspective.
Indeed, the most basic kit Aventura can cost little more than fifty grand — for the whole aircraft, engine, boat hull, everything — where floats alone for a Cessna 172, for example, may cost the same.
All that monitoring and mandatory activity costs money and will be reflected in Aventura SLSA’s selling price. However, I’m willing to bet you lunch at my favorite restaurant that this will still be the most reasonably priced aircraft among seaplanes. Care to take the bet?
Bulgarian designer Tony Ilieff is on a mission to find new representatives for his handsome light aircraft after concluding earlier representation in Canada. Built carefully — that is, without lots of weighty options — Solo can fit the Part 103 category. Given accelerating interest in Part 103 aircraft in recent years, I’d bet someone will step up for this opportunity.
While candidate Bernie Sanders criticized stores selling numerous brands of deodorant, choice serves highly-individualized interests. We don’t all want the same things.
As noted, this company, in very different form and with a military mission, started almost 100 years ago in 1912 as the Bulgarian State Aircraft Workshops. In 1925 the company started producing airplanes under a name employing the letters DAR.
Solo UL gives the owner somewhat higher weight — 260 kilograms or 572 pounds gross — that can allow more options. Solo has been designed be a bit heavier than a typical Part 103 entry, but you’ll need an inspection and N-numbers, a pilot certificate, and you’ll have to build it from a kit. Buyers, however, are often attracted to genuine Part 103 models that can be bought ready-to-fly.
Interest in Part 103 ultralights has been heating up according to my best information. As I seek to ask every single one of the 58 producers of Part 103-compliant aircraft about their recent sales successes I expect to learn more. Information flowing from Tony is start of what I expect and hope will be many more examples.
Solo from Aeroplanes DAR is a single-seat, single-engine, high-wing ultra-light airplane. All Solo models are constructed with mixed materials involving aluminum wings and composite airframe. During development Aeroplanes DAR introduced new technologies and unique practices.
“We made several modifications through the years; the Solo we produce now is the fifth generation.”
As reported earlier, prices are good enough that the Canadian dealer offered Solo for only $18,900 — though that is no guarantee prices will remain as they were. However, this figure shows Solo to be affordable to many buyers.
On Solo UL, a Thor 250 DS produces 36.5 horsepower through a two-blade wooden prop. For those interested to earn a bit of extra weight, a Galaxy GRS 260 emergency parachute fits this light aircraft well.