You can see market numbers for the last quarter in this article — or review all LSA and Sport Pilot kit market info in this dedicated area. Get results for every American light aircraft on Tableau Public.
If you read the recent article closely, you saw that not only are single seat aircraft enjoying good sales but Part 103 ultralights may be going stronger than in many years …possibly the best ever. I wish we could report 103 ultralight market shares but as they do not have to register with (and get an N-number from) FAA, we have no third-party way to evaluate the numbers accurately.
Add the U.S. experience of the last year or three to overseas sales activity and I think most aviators around the world might be amazed at the strength of this market. Certainly, this is an under-reported category.
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No Detail Overlooked — Beautifully Machined Gyroplane from Gyro Technic of Minnesota
On the last day of the last airshow of the year — unbelievable as that sounds — I examined a superbly-finished gyroplane that Powered Sport Flying‘s Vickie Betts saw at the Mentone PRA fly-in earlier this year. She was impressed. She was not alone.
Another designer of very striking hardware is Larry Mednick of Evolution Trikes. (An interview with him revealed that in this very strange year, his company is having their best year ever.)
Larry encouraged me to go check out Gyro Technic as he enthusiastically described parts and components on the gyroplane that he found “exceptional.” If the guy behind the elegant Revo weight shift trike thinks an airplane from a competitor is worth a look, I was certainly going to take his advice.
He was correct. The components of this gyro are highly CAD engineered but also exhibit an artistic flare.
Merlin Lite… New, All-Metal, Fully-Enclosed, “Deluxe” Part 103 Ultralight
Are you looking for an affordably-priced airplane? On this website, you can find many choices of aircraft that qualify, with something to fit the budget of almost any pilot.
Using the Search bar at the top of the page, you can look for any text anywhere on this website. Have you tried it? More on this below…*
In this article, let me introduce a new aircraft to you …and, no, this is not Merlin PSA.
Merlin Lite Delight
Among affordable aircraft, Part 103 ultralights have a solid position, both as fixed wing aircraft or alternatives like weight shift, powered parachutes, and gyroplanes.
However, such “alternative aircraft” may not be what you had in mind. Many are open cockpit and pilots trained in a Cessna or Piper can feel uneasy being out in the open (even if behind a pod and windscreen). Also, weight shift trikes, powered parachutes, or gyroplanes handle differently from stick (or yoke) and rudder.
Staring At Goat — Wild Sky’s Brutus Off-Field, Outback Weight Shift Trike Light-Sport Aircraft
If you flew better than 9,000 hours solely to give trike instruction, you would tend to develop ideas about how an aircraft can better fit the type of flying lessons you want to give. That’s exactly what Wild Sky owner Denny Reed reports.
Denny has an enviable position to some. Imagine any fixed wing instructor saying, “I wish the aircraft would do some operations differently for my teaching. I can’t find one that exactly matches what I seek, so, you know what? I’ll just design what I want.”
Yeah, sure. Most of us never have that chance. Instead, we learn to adapt to the aircraft. As an example, what if you wanted the throttle in a different place, or any number of possible changes.
In a long career that has included talking to CFIs from around the world, I have never met a fixed wing flight instructor who set about making the airplane he truly wanted.
Kit Aircraft Are Up; New Sales Are Off — Recreational Aviation Copes with Covid
Our fastest-with-the-mostest partner tracks the health and performance of the light aircraft industry and is once again punctual. Datastician Steve Beste has proven his capabilities to collect the registration data quickly, accurately, and with an insider’s viewpoint. Steve is a trike pilot, so he is “one of us.” In his former life he was a database expert in the tech field explaining his great facility with these systems.
Here we are reporting facts for the period of April, May, and June 2020. Given the spectacular upheaval around the world, I’m happy to see the recreational aircraft industry holding its own fairly well. Reporting for the companies making larger, heavier aircraft, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association also reported sales are down. I cannot imagine anyone is surprised.
If I was reporting numbers for the restaurant, bar, hotel, airline, theater, sports, or concert industries it would be an ugly bloodbath. This report is far less glum and beaten-down than those enterprises.
Full-2019 Market Share Report for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kit Aircraft
We have a new year upon us. With our new reporting capabilities for LSA and SP kit market shares, we can now quickly report results from 2019.
A huge thanks to our supreme “datastician,” Steve Beste for making such swift and accurate reporting possible. I assure you that I’ve looked high and low for every year LSA have existed to find no comparable information.
As always, be advised that our data comes from FAA’s aircraft registration database. That means it is impartial — hopefully meaning reliable and dependable — but it also means some massaging of the information is needed to be completely accurate. (See this article for more detail on the effort involved; it is not trivial.) Steve’s valuable ability to manipulate database resources combines with his knowledge of light aircraft to make an unbeatable combination.
As much as any data allows — and as the saying goes… “you can take this info to the bank.” It’s solid!
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.
The Changing Face of Light-Sport Aircraft — Speed and Safety Behind Single Lever Control
In mid-October, FAA provided another update to the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. It speaks to bigger — and faster — flying machines ahead for Light-Sport Aircraft. Let’s look at one aspect of the regulation-in-progress.
First, a caveat: While FAA is communicating some of the ideas they are planning for LSA this is an effort of rule writing likely to see more changes.
What LAMA reports to its members and what we provide here is not certain …although it remains well supported at the top of FAA. Even higher in the federal hierarchy, the Department of Transportation recently gave a go-ahead to continue their work. Not all currently planned ideas may survive either the internal debate nor the public comment period.
Single Lever Control
In-Flight Adjustable Prop
This phrase, Single Lever Control, communicates two things: (1) that the system on the airplane seen in the video adjusts the prop to optimal pitch for the phase of flight, and (2) that the system does so based on the pilot’s movement of the throttle combined with its own information about parameters of the aircraft at that time.
What’s Happening in Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot Kits? Here’s Our 3Q19 Update.
This website seeks to offer a reliable source of market information for Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit aircraft as a service to the light aircraft sector.
If you follow light aviation intently as many readers do, knowing what aircraft and subgroups (within LSA and SP kits*) are thriving or stumbling can be of great interest. Thanks to our fantastic “datastician,” Steve Beste, we know more now than we’ve ever known about aviation’s recreational aircraft segment. You simply cannot find this information anywhere else.
With Steve’s superb help, following are a few stories within the numbers. If you don’t care about market shares and just want to hear about aircraft, we won’t keep you waiting long. However, for many, these figures are quite valuable and this is the only place you will find them. Let’s dive in…
2019 Is a Good Year (so far)
We’re only three quarters through the year but extrapolating from the first three quarters and assuming a steady pace (which is not a guarantee, of course), we see that all of 2019 should result in 724 new aircraft registrations in the light aircraft sector defined (by us) as Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kit-built aircraft.
Revving Ever Higher — Evolution Trikes’ RevX Fills a Gap for Ultralight Aircraft Enthusiasts
Evolution Trikes celebrated their 10th anniversary at Sun ‘n Fun 2019. That show and this company have enjoyed a long relationship, one meaningful enough that the two principals, Larry Mednick and Amy Saunders, exchanged their wedding vows at Sun ‘n Fun 2018 with show boss John “Lites” Leenhouts conducting the ceremony. Now, that’s commitment (to each other and to the big spring airshow).
Larry Mednick is a happily married man now but he remains a restless designer, always striving for a new variation on the exquisite theme he started with Revo ten years ago.
Since the ultra-deluxe Revo was introduced a decade back it has set a new benchmark for being the best-equipped, most-customized construction, with carefully-designed wings. The weight shift market enjoys several quality brands (though we did lose P&M earlier this year) and some are more affordable but none more sophisticated then Revo.
However, that level of engineering and manufacturing costs money and all the many Revo features and appointments add to its expense.
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