ByDanJohnson.com

As you can surely tell by all the images, and by the lead picture, this story is only about airplanes in the sense that it covers one of the most productive people in light aviation. I refer to my longtime associate, Videoman Dave, as I enjoyed calling him.

At the end of October 2023, his daughter Nicole emailed me to say that Dave passed peacefully in his sleep following a two-year battle with plasma cell leukemia, a very rare form of cancer with limited treatment options. Many of you have asked about him at airshows this year and I reported what I knew. Dave was not one to complain about his situation so when we spoke, we mostly kept our conversation on airplanes.

In a newer rig and standing in position where I often rode along with Dave is Chris Collins of the Midwest LSA Expo. Dave fabricated the “Dan trailer.”

Nonetheless, the facts became increasingly obvious. All you had to do was check his YouTube channel. At the end, more than 11 months passed since his last entry. Earlier, I had never known him to go more than a week without posting, year after year after year.

A Champion of
Affordable Aviation

Dave was a consistent and unrelenting champion of light aviation and recreational flying. He was as energetic and highly motivated as anyone I ever met in this business. Indeed, when we worked at shows, the pace was furious. In a week at Oshkosh or Sun ‘n Fun we would shoot 30 or 40 videos. You can think about that effort on-site, but what you don’t know is that Dave would return to Canada and spend weeks on end making our interviews and raw footage into finished videos that pilots loved.

Among Dave’s many accomplishments was creating and manufacturing the L’il Buzzard. One marvels that he found time to do all this. (Click the image to go to his YouTube channel, where you can explore all his work.)

Dave’s video channel contains more than 1,500 videos that have been viewed tens of millions of times. Personally, I worked with Dave on around 1,000 videos, interviewing virtually everyone in the light aircraft business, many of them multiple times. Dave was indefatigable. Before I would arrive at the show, he had already been busy shooting static shots and compiling aircraft we should go around and evaluate. All I had to do was hang tightly on the back of his powered scooter while he whizzed us around airshows using a special little trailer system he had fabricated to haul me around along with his camera gear.

Friendly Curmudgeon

The thousands who met Dave came to know him as extremely knowledgeable, but he loved to put on a kind of curmudgeon act. He could sound like a rough-and-tumble character until you saw him around somebody’s grandchild. Young sons and daughters warmed up to Dave quickly and he became a big ole teddy bear, an ocean apart from his rough-hewn side.

While he didn’t like having his picture taken, Dave was always happy to give a ride to someone in need.

When Dave would push someone to allow us to shoot video or some other action, people would ocassionally give him a WTF look. I usually laughed and said, “Do you think it’s hard to put up with him for 15 minutes? Think about how I feel after a week of 10-hour days!” Dave would look at me and scowl, but that was just the curmudgeon showing. He loved to interact with people and once you got to know him, you knew he was as genuine as anyone could possibly be.

Dave goes aloft with AirCam creator Phil Lockwood to catch some aerial photos for his video productions.

“Flying was his life and passion and what he lived for,” expressed Dave’s daughter, Nicole. “I believe he first started flying in the year I was born, around 1977.

Nicole knew how people reacted to Dave. “You could love him or hate him. He was the strongest, most stubborn man I have ever met and he was a great role model and teacher. I was so proud to call him Dad.”

Story Telling…
“Dave the Expert”

One of my favorite stories about Dave occurred when we were video recording in Germany at the Aero Friedrichshafen airshow. We visited the Rotax booth where they had a semi-circular ring of all of their aircraft engines. Dave thought it would be an educational idea to have Rotax Aircraft Engines Manager, Marc Becker, give us a few words about each engine. Then, we’d pause briefly, move to the next engine, repeat, and so on, covering the entire Rotax line.

Dave seemed amazed when a couple fellows insisted on taking photos with him at Aero Friedrichshafen in Germany. He developed a worldwide following. Many recognized his voice because in the early days he asked questions from behind the camera.

We began with a vintage 912 engine. After Marc made a few remarks Dave stopped him, saying, “That’s not right.” It doesn’t matter what the fact was. Marc was a little taken aback, he being the official factory spokesman after all. He didn’t know what he was up against. Dave probably knew more about Rotax engines than anyone, even inside Rotax.

Dave was insistent about the factoid, so Marc paused and said, “Let me go ask one of the engineers.” He disappeared for a few moments and reemerged to take his place by the engine once again. Before we restarted recording, Marc said, “You were right, Dave.”

Dave’s equipment changed at almost every show. He always sought better production quality and enjoyed using the latest gear.

We moved onto the next engine, where exactly the same thing happened. Marc talked. Dave stopped him, again correcting a point. Marc wondered but this time went quickly to ask another engineer. He came back out and again repeated, “You were right about that, too, Dave.”

We moved to the third engine and it happened once again. Yet this time, Marc merely asked, “What should I be saying here, Dave?” He had learned like so many others. When it came to Rotax engines, few knew them better than Dave. We all laughed about this and the effort made yet another of Dave’s popular videos.

A Man for All Airplanes

The Rotax story is one of many. A version of the above interaction happened at stop after stop after stop. Dave was incredibly knowledgeable about aircraft and engines in the affordable aviation space. Expert after expert came to realize that Dave knew what he was talking about. The man was a walking encyclopedia of all things in light aircraft.

Amy Mednick (then Saunders) posed with Dave and Dan in front of an Evolution Trikes Revo at the Copperstate event in Arizona.

Together we made quite a team. I would hazard a guess that we’ve flown 600-700 different airplane models between us, a record I don’t think any other video team can match.

It may be a very long time before another Dave Loveman comes along, however, the resources that he assembled over a lengthy, productive career have benefited the light aircraft industry and those gains will be with us for all time.

“I never remember a time when he did not have his Tilley hat on,” remembered Nicole, “as he prepared to work on his videos from an airshow or a Rotax engine rebuild.”

Rest in peace, Videoman Dave. He will be missed but for as long as YouTube videos last, he will not be forgotten. He leaves an amazing body of work.

Here’s my tip of the Tilley hat we both wore. Tail winds, old friend!

Dave is survived by his wife Debra, whom Dave met when she was 17 going through nursing school; they remained together until his death. They have two children, Nicole Loveman (Peter Malloy) and David Loveman (Alison Loveman). As Nicole described, “Dave had four grand children that he loved more than anything in this world” — Paige Malloy and Paityn Malloy (Nicole & Peter), plus Dylan Loveman and Devyn Loveman (David and Alison)

Compress Post ...

I don’t know about you, but I can guess that Mosaic Fatigue is setting in to a lot of quarters. Some pilots have done an extraordinary job of digging into this 318-page document to distill essential parts that need to be addressed. Many pilots get exhausted just looking at the NPRM. …Me, too.

I look forward to more reporting on aircraft. Nonetheless…

Mosaic has given us an inside look at how FAA works. Many improvements resulted when industry worked in harmony with government officials. Nonetheless, careful study found areas of concern in the NPRM. Recent articles in other publications hit essentially the same points as I did in my talk (slide). Those points were partly my thinking, but I also relied on other experts to whom I had posed a variety of questions.

Still, some of the best commentary has come from non-experts, regular pilots who were concerned about a certain part of the NPRM and explored it thoroughly. With this in mind, I was keen to hear from my audiences at the Midwest LSA Expo 2023.

What follows represents my distillation of a number of questions that were asked in a lengthy Q&A session following the two presentations. Several conversations developed between people in the audience, and therefore asking you to listen to all of that would not be engaging. I attempted to faithfully reproduce those questions below.

Your Questions❓
or Comments❗️

Aircraft Descriptions

❓ If my LSA has been restricted to 1,320 pounds to meet current regulation, will a pathway exist to use a higher weight if the aircraft has been appropriately tested? The answer depends. If your aircraft is Experimental Amateur Built, you are the manufacturer and can change what you want. So if you want to fly on drivers license medical at a higher weight — so long as you clean stall at 54 knots or less — you can do so. On a Special LSA, the manufacturer will have to redeclare that they meet all applicable ASTM standards at the higher weight and could then start supplying aircraft with higher gross weights. However, that does not mean they will go backwards compatible and make all earlier aircraft so capable. A manufacturer would have no idea how the aircraft had been maintained or operated and they may not want to take on the added risk.

I asked several experts to help me as I studied Mosaic. One was LAMA Board Member, Phil Solomon from whose info I made this slide.

❗️ Some producers may not make aircraft specific to the U.S. market. — I agree but many CAAs, especially in smaller countries, mirror FAA regulations closely. Since the U.S. aviation market remains the largest in the world, many producers cannot ignore American rules.

❓ Will FAA allow a Sport Pilot, perhaps by endorsement, to carry more than one passenger? — This represents a good place to urge your comment. If you believe a Sport Pilot, with added training and an endorsement, should be allowed to fly on a drivers license, say so.

❓ What weight limit is applied to Mosaic LSA? — No weight limit is specified. Instead aircraft size is well governed by specifying clean stall at 54 knots. That is VS1 not VS0, clean, not flaps out. The purpose is to limit aircraft size and does not relate to slow flight or landing speeds.

TL Sport Aircraft‘s Sparker seen in “clean” form where stall cannot exceed 54 knots in FAA’s proposal. What do you think?

❓ Why the 54 knot clean stall? Why not with flaps? — Understand that FAA’s point about 54 knot clean stall is to provide a means of limiting the aircraft size. It works well for that but this and can be easily defended by the pilot (show FAA the POH) and verified by FAA (by examining the POH). It’s a simple solution.

❓ I fly a Beech Sundowner, a 172-like aircraft. The POH states a 62 knot clean stall. If I add vortex generators to it and lower the stall speed to 54 knots, will it qualify even though the POH will still say 62? — Since Sundowner is a Part 23 certified aircraft, it would require an STC to add anything to the airframe. At that time, a modification could be added to the POH but FAA officials in various places will not initially know how to handle this. The problem is how do you know it stalls at 54 or less, how do you defend it? The cost to demonstrate convincing evidence that stall is now lower than the POH states may be excessive.

JMB strives for speed. They are already flying this turbine-powered VL3.

❗️ You referred in one slide to “high performance.” That term and “complex” are already defined in Part 61. If it has an adjustable prop, a 200 horsepower engine, and flaps, it is “high performance.” If it is retractable, it is “complex”, although it may not also be “high performance” (ex: a C-172 RG is complex but not high performance). — FAA perceived a gap between LSA and Part 23 certified aircraft; they evidently see pilot certification similarly in discussing endorsements. While Mosaic LSA gain many capabilities, Sport Pilots remain bound by other rules. It was not clarified how a Sport Pilot qualifies for “high performance” operations. We hope endorsements will suffice; they’ve worked well for 19 years of SP/LSA.

❓ Will aircraft from other countries that have met other certification systems be accepted under Mosaic? — The commenter refers to a government arrangement called “reciprocity” where one country accepts the methods of other countries. It comes as part of the Bilateral Safety Agreement. While FAA will accept such approvals, they are still likely to assure an aircraft still meets every line item in ASTM standards for Mosaic LSA.

Sport Pilot Privileges

❓ If I already have retractable experience or night experience, can I use that as a Sport Pilot under Mosaic? — You will have to get an endorsement, it appears, but any instructor who sees a lot of related recent experience in a logbook and flies with you for verification may be willing to endorse your logbook accordingly in short order. If you are not current with those skills, that person may recommend added training.

For many pilots, a primary interest in night flight is to complete a flight with a landing slightly after dark.

❓ Is the reason for the medical requirement to fly at night related to color blindness? — FAA did bring that up at Oshkosh 2023 saying that when the states give you a drivers license, they don’t adequately test for this. Personally, I find the argument weak to require pilots to pursue a medical over the relatively remote possibility that they might one day need a red/green light from the control tower.

❓ Couldn’t I just go to a doctor and only have my vision checked for color blindness? — That would make a worthy comment and would appear to address FAA’s stated concern.

❓ Will the opportunity to fly IFR be available to Sport Pilots without a medical? — Given FAA’s attachment to medicals, that seems unlikely. However, the same response about the weak relationship between medical possession and aviation safety remains.

FAA continues to hold tight to their belief that possession of a medical makes flying safer, despite little evidence to support that assertion. Using a driver license in lieu of an aviation medical for Sport Pilots has proven very workable.

❓ As pilots age, insurance companies want more frequent medical visits (even if FAA may not). Will the insurance companies accept drivers license medical on Mosaic LSA? — That’s a worthy question but not one about Mosaic. Insurance companies are private and can require any evidence of medical fitness their contracts specify. They have accepted LSA use on drivers license medical and as I keep saying, no one has presented compelling evidence that possession of an aviation medical assures the flight is safer. What insurance companies do in the future is more a matter of the reinsurance market than FAA regulation. At present, any pilot over 75 years of age will find challenges getting insurance, regardless of that person’s health.

❓ Have any parts of Sport Pilot Flight Instructor been changed? — That is not an area on which I am as well informed but, yes, I saw several references to SPIs. I urge you to use the USUA/LAMA Study Guide and use its Search capability to look up that part more fully yourself. Then, please comment

These are among the topics on which I will personally be commenting. I remain unsure if exceeding 54 knots is necessary.

❓ Are you still saying that, assuming no change in the 90-day comment window, this will not go live until the end of 2024 or early 2025? — Yes, although an extension may be granted to a group of maintenance companies in which case the rule will be pushed back at least an additional 90 days.

❓ If multi-engine is being allowed, how do you qualify for that? — This is another of those clues that this NPRM seems a bit rushed to market. FAA Aircraft Certification will permit multiple engines/motors, but the Flight Standards group did not address pilot qualifications. A conventionally-acquired multi-engine rating is far less applicable today because designs includes multiple electric motors, advanced computer controls, and many other technical capabilities FAA never confronted.

❓ What do you mean by “equal work” for powered parachutes or weight shift? — This refers to NPRM language that effectively discriminates against those aircraft types. They cannot take advantage of the opportunity to use LSA for aerial work because a Commercial Pilot certificate is required and none is available for those aircraft types. They should have equal opportunity to perform aerial work; they may be perfectly suited to some tasks.

Sling High Wing from The Airplane Factory is a roomy four seater in tricycle or taildragger form. It is already in production.

❓ How fixed is FAA on one passenger only? Could the agency be convinced otherwise? — First, the restriction is on the pilot not the aircraft. A Private Pilot with a medical could use a four-seat mLSA with four people on board, assuming weight and balance allows. Regarding FAA’s flexibility on this, given their tight cling to medicals even though the evidence for them is weak, I suspect convincing them to let Sport Pilots fly three passengers is a long shot… but you can certainly comment if you have reasons to believe they are wrong.

❓ What was the YouTube address for the Mosaic Masterclass videos? — Go to YouTube and search “@EasyFlight.” Here’s a direct link. Some may find it easier to consume Mosaic through a series of videos.

Maintenance

❓ Could you take two seats out of a six-seat legacy GA airplane, so it only has four, assuming it has a clean stall of 54 knots or less? — This is a “What if”-type question that can go on too long but essentially if the aircraft has four seats and a clean stall of 54 knots, it can qualify to be flown by a pilot using Sport Pilot privileges although only with two persons on board. In order to modify a Part 23-certified aircraft, however, you’d have to get a STC and your local FSDO or MIDO will not be up to speed on Mosaic initially, so they may not understand the request.

Rainbow Aviation Services is a premiere provider of mechanic training. They found several problems with Mosaic. See links below.

❓ Can a second owner of a LSA take a course to do maintenance on that aircraft? — This can happen today but some questions have been raised under Mosaic. Rainbow Aviation expressed reason for concern on this. They are more expert on maintenance and I deferred to their knowledge. Go here to see their Mosaic videos.

❗️ It appears it will be more restrictive, will take more effort to get LSRM credentials. Any such action will reduce mechanics, already in short supply. Existing A&Ps don’t have enough experience or training on Rotax or Jabiru. — You appear to understand correctly. This is an area where I defer to those with greater knowledge so I have been recommending the Rainbow Aviation YouTube channel as they have been outspoken on this.

Are We About
Done with Mosaic?

Yes! Of course, I will continue to report Mosaic developments and news but now it is time for me to formulate my own comments to FAA. I hope you found all the Mosaic information useful. I hope you will comment.

In the next month or so, ByDanJohnson.com will become AfordableAviation.com. Other than a name change it will still look and read exactly the same.

However, now I will enthusiastically return to airplane reporting. You like it and I like it. Let’s go fly!

ARTICLE LINKS:

• All prior Mosaic articles on this website
• Rainbow Aviation Services YouTube channel, information on their views about Mosaic on LSA maintenance
• Rainbow Aviation’s information website, if you prefer to read rather than watch a video
• USUA/LAMA MOSAIC NPRM Study Guide, download a PDF document with bookmarks and helpful organization
• Article on using the Study Guide
• Roy Beisswenger’s Mosaic Masterclass series of videos (watch instead of read), on YouTube
• Make a comment, direct link to FAA’s comment page — only 27 days left to comment
• Read what other commenters have said, FAA comment page (512 comments have been made at posting)

While many questions arose about what a Sport Pilot can do, the airplane side of Mosaic justifies this “Christmas in July” slide.

Compress Post ...