Sun ‘n Fun is coming in less than two months. Surprised? Yes, we are now less than 60 days before the start of this season-opening event. The folks in Lakeland offer so much to do at their April celebration that you can barely jam it all in to a six day visit. No doubt this is why many arrive a few days early … well, that and Florida being the Sunshine State which will be warm and pleasant from April 21-26, 2015. C’mon down. Get away from that snowy winter up north.
One thing you may not have done is visit the Museum on the property. All those new airplanes and products plus a major airshow keep people outside, understandably so. However, for 2015 light aircraft enthusiasts have one more reason to plan some extra time to keep the sunburn to a minimum by spending a few hours inside.
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Ride-On Zlin; New Variation on Theme
Thanks to powerful Cubalike airplanes — those vintage yellow taildraggers types with huge engines up front to make them perform more energetically — 2014 saw increased attention to the Savage Cub S. The Czech company offered their 180-horsepower version of the Cubalike phenomenon albeit at a more affordable price. The leading brand of Cub-like airplanes has pushed prices beyond $200,000, which strikes plenty of people as paying a premium, though most agree the design is handsomely achieved. They continue to sell well so vintage style appears to hold appeal.
Meanwhile, Zlin engineers aren’t sitting still. This company has quite a flock of intriguing models, including Savage Classic, Savage Cruiser, Savage Cub (marketed as iCub in the U.S.), Savage Cub S, and Bobber. All these are now represented in America by SportairUSA, which also imports the TL Ultralight Sting and Sirius as well as selling Searey amphibious kits among a variety of other products of services they’ve assembled.
FK Lightplanes/ScaleWings SW51 Makes Maiden Flight
(This article has been updated in June 2018 to reflect a new manufacturer.)
At Aero 2013, I covered one of the most interesting replica airplanes I have ever seen in many years of scouring airshows for light aircraft of interest. My videographer and I did a video story about this exciting project. The airplane was again displayed at Aero 2014 though not in such a high traffic location but that hardly dampened enthusiasm. No question … FK Lightplanes continued their approach of great showmanship in displaying the most authentically realistic reproduction of a 70% scale P-51 Mustang you can imagine. Most replicas have to approximate some qualities but FK Lightplanes and their design partner, Austria-based ScaleWings AeroTec, made what they are now calling SW51 into something different. It has detail beyond what you can envision without seeing the construction in person.
First named FK51, SW51 reproduces the 100,000 or so rivets and screws that put together an original World War II vintage P-51 Mustang.
Post-Oshkosh 2013 Quick Review
At the big show EAA likes to call the Summer Celebration of Flight, we rove the grounds seeking new airplanes, new engines or propulsion systems, new panel gear, updated models and more. In this very fast tour, we’ll zoom around AirVenture for a glance at some airplanes and components that caught our attention. In subsequent posts we’ll delve a bit more deeply into certain ideas we thought were novel. All photos accompanying this article are courtesy of Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer, producer of the 300+ videos you can find on this website.
Rans showed off their new S-20 Raven. Those who thought designer and company boss Randy Schlitter got stuck on S-19 were wrong (it’s never wise to think he’s done designing). His new Raven combines elements of the S-6 and S-7, namely the side-by-side seating of the S-6, with the welded spaceframe and superwide door of the S-7.
Evektor with Dynon Earns EASA Type Certificate
The very first aircraft ever to receive approval in the USA as a Light-Sport Aircraft is Evektor-Aerotechnik’s SportStar. No challenger can ever take away that title yet the company has continually developed this pioneeering airplane and recently achieved a new level of approval … one that alters the landscape in a way I predict we’ll see more as FAA’s Part 23 rewrite project progresses. “Following several months of certification process EASA has approved glass cockpit Dynon SkyView [as] SportStar RTC,” Evektor announced. RTC stands for Restricted Type Certificate. It is not identical the U.S. Part 23 Type Certificate — representing a somewhat lower level of government oversight — but a company earning this has to jump through many regulatory hoops. “SportStar RTC has become the first EASA certified aircraft approved with the SkyView glass cockpit [by proving] compliance with certification requirements of the EASA CS-LSA regulations. Dynon’s SkyView, recently upgraded to permit touch functionality, is widely known and used on Light-Sport Aircraft.
Pipistrel Finalizes a New LSA Trainer
Engineers at Pipistrel must not sleep in too often. This company, which won the NASA efficiency challenge several times — in 2011 taking home a $1.35 million cash prize! — just unveiled a full-size version of a sleek four seat design called the Panthera. Now on the other end of the spectrum comes their Alpha Trainer, a reasonably priced LSA model aimed at the flight instruction market. Their range of models is broad running from powered sailplanes to multiple LSA models.
*** “Pipistrel is proud to announce the successful conclusion of the test flights program and the release of our new aircraft, the Alpha Trainer,” announced the company, which operates production facilities in Slovenia and Italy. Developed as a basic military aircraft trainer at the request of certain countries, Alpha is supplied in nosewheel-only configuration, part of a slate of decisions to hold down the price.
Copperstate 2010 Is Coming Next
During my recent appearance on the Powered Sport Flying (Internet) Radio Show, I said I remained amazed that although the western U.S. has a large share of all pilots and airplanes in the country, no western airshow seems to have taken off the way Sun ‘n Fun or AirVenture has. True enough, no west-of-the-Mississippi event comes close in size to the eastern shows, but my comments weren’t fair to steady work by organizers of Copperstate, an event with a 37-year history (nor to the even-larger and older Arlington show or the Golden West event.) These western shows may not be huge, but they reveal an aviation passion. *** This year’s Copperstate will be held in Casa Grande, Arizona — just south of Phoenix — from Thursday, October 21st through Saturday, October 23rd. The 2009 edition reported “more than 6,500 attendees.” I spoke with new LSA enthusiast Steve Bass, Copperstate Fly-In Vice President and Light Sport & Ultralight Committee Chairman.
Judging Winners Sun ‘n Fun 2010
I once followed judging at shows like AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun. In fact, an aircraft I helped inspire — a modernized primary glider called the SuperFloater — won Outstanding New Design at Sun ‘n Fun 1995. Judges closely examined homebuilts, kit or restored vintage airplanes, and warbirds. If they included factory built aircraft, I was not aware of it. *** So, this year I admitted surprise after learning factory-built Light-Sport Aircraft won awards. *** To honor the hundreds or thousands of hours people put into their winners, I want to highlight some LSA and ultralights that judges liked. The Grand Champion LSA was Wayne Spring’s 2010 Predator powered parachute; Reserve Grand Champ was James Jonannes’ 2009 Arion Lightning LS-1; Grand Champion Ultralight was James Wiebe’s 2010 Belite Superlite; and, Reserve Grand Champ was Danny Dezauche’s 2010 CGS Hawk Ultra.
CubCrafters All-New Sport Cub
Vintage Looks Mated With Modern Materials
Take 25 years of experience
with rebuilding Piper Cubs,
add a new FAA regulation
allowing more flexibility in designing
and producing aircraft, spice the
mixture with many design changes,
and you get CubCrafters’ Sport Cub.
The Yakima, Washington-based company
has created an airplane that retains
the vintage look of a J-3 Cub
but embraces 21st century materials
and technology.
On a warm evening during
the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In
at Lakeland, Florida, I
flew with CubCrafters’
pilot Clay Hammond. He
identified company President
Jim Richmond as the primary
motivator behind the Sport Cub.
Richmond has been rebuilding Cubs
for 25 years, during which time he
conceived many changes he wanted
to try. Taking into consideration his
height-he’s 6 feet 4 inches tall-he
wanted to make all the improvements
he’d envisioned for the venerable
Cub, and he wanted the airplane
to fit him.
A Thoroughly Modern Cub
CubCrafters took on the redesign
of the 50-year-old airplane using
modern materials and engineering
software not available to Piper engineers
when the J-3 was created.
Beaver RX-550
Perhaps the most famous ultralight to come out of Canada is the Beaver. With a reported 2,200 units flying since the early 1980s, this is one of the most successful light aircraft ever. However, due to missteps by companies that previously manufactured the brand, this popular ultralight was nearly lost from the ultralight aviation landscape. Were it not for the Aircraft Sales and Parts (ASAP) company and the Holomis family, you might not have this choice today.
Originally the Beaver RX-550 came from a company called Spectrum Aircraft. A company reorganization left the ultralight in the hands of a company named Beaver RX Enterprises. Both these business names disappeared and today the ASAP brand carries the Beaver into the sky.
In 1993, a couple years after our last report on the Beaver1, the old company closed its doors and effectively stranded thousands of Beaver ultralight owners and all the dealerships that sold them.
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