My moment of truth is fast approaching. Will I succeed or fail to predict the future?
I have been repeating my forecast that FAA will announce a draft of their newest regulation, called an NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rule Making) at EAA’s big summer celebration of flight. I’m not betting the farm, though. I think it’s a fairly safe prediction.
To win an increase in their budget a few years back, FAA agreed to complete a new regulation by December 31, 2023. That new reg is widely known as Mosaic; its full name is Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification. Because FAA has said the agency needs 16 months to read every comment and adjust the final regulation language accordingly, seeing the future is simple math. Go back in time 16 months from the end-of-year deadline in 2023 and you end up at… yep! — AirVenture Oshkosh 2022. We will see if they meet their goal.
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Affordable Aviation — Can You Find a Budget-Meeting Aircraft for 2022?
This website regularly promotes affordable aviation. Can you genuinely find an aircraft you like that is affordable? If so, are the smaller shows — ones I call “sector-specific” — the place to find them?
Those two questions come up all the time on ByDanJohnson.com.
When you read Flying magazine or AOPA Pilot, the odds are low that readers of this website will find something they can afford. Both titles do a high quality job of covering aviation and I am glad they continue (though Flying is scaling back their print magazine to just four times a year). Yet the aircraft these two periodicals cover are almost never something I can afford; you may feel similarly.
The fact is most aviation magazines and the bigger airshows are full of aircraft most of us cannot afford.
DeLand Showcase
Midwest LSA Expo
and Affordability
First the good news. Yes, you can find affordable aircraft (here is a series of examples).
Sun ‘n Fun 2021 / Wrap Up — More Airplane News Will Follow, but How Was this Year’s Event?
Everyone has returned home from the first major airshow in too long (other than the wonderful sector-specific event called Midwest LSA Expo). Well… everyone went home except a substantial group of volunteers who stick around for days or even weeks afterward to clean up and prepare for next season. Thanks to all volunteers for their efforts that make these events possible!
However, while we celebrate Sun ‘n Fun 2021 having a worthy success, aviation is not out of the woods yet.
Just today, I learned that Aero Friedrichshafen has been cancelled for 2021 — after twice changing the dates in the effort to schedule a time that works for vendors and pilots plus assures safety for those attending.
Aero will next be held in 2022. Main organizer Roland Bosch said, “We have to postpone the Summer Edition of Aero 2021. It’s hard, but it is the best solution [given these] circumstances, I think.” Europe remains much more locked down and restricted than the USA — certainly moreso than Florida, which has been open for many months.
When Help Comes to the Rescue… FAST! Magnum Parachutes Could Save Your Life
Aviation preaches safety long and loud. This dedication within the aviation community has made flying safer than driving despite what landlubbers believe is a risky way to travel.
Aviators know better, of course. We work hard at making flying safe. It’s not lucky or some accident of choice. We are all proud of our skill at taking an airplane aloft and returning it safely to terra firma.
Except when we cannot…
Why Parachutes?
Any way you look at it, an airframe parachute adds cost, weight, and bulk.
These systems cost real money (thousands), add “non-functioning” weight (16 to 50 pounds depending on the airplane’s weight and speed), and fill up space you might use otherwise (a BRS system for the Cessna 172 uses a substantial share of the baggage space in that model). All these things — cost, weight, and bulk — are negatives, yet pilots buy these emergency systems regularly.
Airshows in 2021: Better News on the Horizon but Some Early-Event Cancellations
UPDATE 1/14/21 — Regretfully, I must announce that DeLand has cancelled its Flyway to Highway event “due to Covid-19.” —DJ
After a year of great uncertainty, the earliest airshows of 2021 are feeling the pressure. However, by spring, several organizers hope for great improvement. Here’s some review, good news first and then some cancellations.
Flyway to Highway
DeLand, Florida
Lead organizer Jana Filip first rescheduled the November 2020 DeLand Showcase until January, but that got scrubbed by a very cautious city of DeLand. Now, Jana will host Flyway to Highway at the end of this month.
My friends at General Aviation News got the news out early, “DeLand Airport will host a one-day fly-in/drive-in event on January 30, 2021. Co-sponsored by automaker Tesla, anyone who shows up at the DeLand Airport Management Center can take a test drive in a new Tesla.” Quite a few airplane companies will also display.
Try and Fly TriFly — Kolb’s Wonderful Single Seat Light Aircraft Goes Both Ways
Some pilots are wary of taildraggers. This is hardly surprising since only tricycle-gear aircraft have been used in primary flight instruction dating back into the 1970s. Most pilot have no experience with taildraggers but nearly all have heard of the dreaded ground-loop tendency such gear configuration can allow.
Indeed, when investigating insurance for a taildragger, you will have to prove you have some experience or get training from a suitably-experienced instructor — and you won’t find many able to help you.
How about if an aircraft went both ways? What if an affordable aircraft allowed you to fly with tricycle gear but permitted you to practice your taildragger technique yet still use the nosewheel’s self-straightening capability if you start to get a little “sideways” (literally or figuratively)?
Kolb Aircraft has an answer.
Kolb TriFly
Producers of Part 103 aircraft, such as Kolb Aircraft report consistently strong business for the last few years.
A Special Light-Sport Aircraft Seaplane for the Rest of Us: Aventura SLSA 912
If you pay any attention to LSA seaplanes, you should already know about Aventura. Certainly, pilots seeking a recreational waterbird that won’t ruin their budget likely already know the company, Aero Adventure. This Florida producer has seaplane kit aircraft that can get airborne for less than $60,000.
Yes, you read that right and that figure includes everything needed although you may elect added-cost options such as glass avionics or a specialized paint job. While some models of LSA seaplanes appeal to the wealthy class at prices approaching $400,000, Aero Adventure makes …seaplanes for the rest of us.
Two years ago, Aero Adventure was focused on their S-17 model featuring the 117-horsepower AeroMomentum engine. You could buy a factory-built version of this on a very limited basis as the company periodically put their airshow model up for sale as a used aircraft. For 2020, however, the DeLand, Florida company is throwing the door open much more widely.
Shock Report: As Oshkosh 2020 Folds Its Tents, We Look to Fall Aviation Trade Shows
Can you believe it? No, I am not writing about Oshkosh cancelling their big summer celebration of flight. (If you somehow missed that aviation news Earthquake, now you know.)
Instead, I want to take you back in time, way back to January …a whole four months ago. What a different world we lived in then. Coronavirus was not on the minds of many Americans — nor, at that time, even on the minds of Chinese citizens, though leaders might have had some inkling.
In January 2020, the aviation community, certainly the Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit aircraft sector, was stunned by the permanent cancellation of the Sebring Expo after 15 years of operation. (Here is more about why they made that decision.)
Yes, that was only weeks ago, though it seems more distant given the momentous events of the last two months.
With no Sebring to cover, Videoman Dave and I again headed out West to the Copperstate show in the first week of February.
Start the Countdown: Four Years Will Bring Huge Changes to Light-Sport Aircraft
As we kick off a new year and a new decade, it feels like the starter’s timer has just been clicked into action. The next four years should prove to be highly interesting — and for all of aviation, not only Light-Sport Aircraft, Sport Pilot kit aircraft, and ultralights. Change can be difficult, but it’s coming. For the most part, I feel this is heading in a great direction even if some may struggle with elements of the new rule.
Earlier, an often-shared report discussed the changes FAA plans as part of a “deregulation” of Light-Sport Aircraft. Below, you can see a video that stimulated numerous comments.
An updated report is still being prepared from a late-fall 2019 discussion with FAA rule writers. That will be sent to LAMA members first with specific details. Other industry pros will get a simpler update so all the makers of our great aircraft can be prepared when the rule is issued no more than four years from now.
DeLand Showcase 2019 — Ending the Airshow Year for Light-Sport Aircraft and SP Kit Aircraft
In about one week, it all ends. Before then, DeLand Showcase 2019 is set to begin! As this is the last airshow of the year, it’s also fair to say the season ends when DeLand show concludes. This year is the fourth annual event.
Since the Sebring show bid a final farewell last spring, DeLand will be the last light aircraft show until Arizona’s Copperstate/Buckeye Air Fair in February, followed two months later by Sun ‘n Fun. If you live in the eastern half of the USA, DeLand and Sun ‘n Fun are separated by five months. Yikes! You can learn more about Copperstate/Buckeye in this video with the Vice Mayor.
Next week on November 14-15-16, welcome to sunny, warm Florida.
Come to DeLand
I hope many of you who frequent this website will be heading to DeLand for the event starting next Thursday.
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