Whoa, big boy! When you have huge power available, you need to … well, go have fun! I’ve covered the Super Legend before (article & video), which had the multi-fuel, electronic ignition 115-horsepower Lycoming O-235 installed. Certainly that was and remains a solid powerplant but now the company has added a Titan engine that pulls like a team of stallions. Call it the Super Duper Legend Cub.
As sales of Legend Cubs and similar aircraft have shown, pilot interest in Cubalikes is strong. American Legend recently logged their 10th anniversary; they’ve been around since the LSA sector first arrived on the scene. However, they haven’t simply made the same old airplane in the same old way. Now welcome Super Legend HP.
Before Sun ‘n Fun 2015, the Sulphur Springs, Texas company announced they had added, “a host of new features for our Super Legend, adding functionality, comfort and safety to the lineage of Legend Cub aircraft.
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First Flight of Flight Design’s Four Seat C4
Aero 2015 is open! The halls are full of shiny airplanes displayed with the usual European sense of style and panache. Visitors are backed up at the entry gates awaiting the official opening time. (We sneaky media journalists are allowed in earlier to get photos and begin interviews with vendors.) It is a great event, for Europe and for aviation.
I already have some airplanes in mind for reporting, both brand-new designs and the sort you never see in the USA. I will aim to prepare coverage of some of them and report as soon as time permits. Yet first, I want to talk about a project that is equally exciting.
I refer to the Flight Design project aimed at the general aviation world, that is, of airplanes with more seats than allowed in the LSA space … in addition to more speed, more weight, and other capabilities.
Four Days of Sebring 2015
Sebring is history, which says the aviation year is now underway. On whole it was a good show and a solid start to 2015. Sebring’s weather was overcast and cool to start though even that didn’t seem to dampen buying enthusiasm. About a dozen airplanes were sold plus numerous vendors reported finding many good prospects. By Friday afternoon the skies went to deep blue and the Sunshine State earned its nickname.
“It was a great Saturday,” wrote U.S. Sport Aviation Expo organizers. The 11th annual Expo nearly filled the auto parking lot and the transient aircraft parking area was hopping with activity, officials said.
While I write about the good news of Sebring, I want to pay respect to two fallen aviators. Dennis Day and Jason Spinks of the Aero Adventures company lost their lives in an unfortunate accident during the event. I offer my sincerest regret for this loss to their families and to the DeLand Airport business team.
A Million Minutes (of Video) Every Month
Traffic to this website grew significantly in the last few years, starting a steep upward path in 2012 and in May this year hitting a peak of almost 75,000 Unique Visitors. First, a thank you for your regular visits! Then, a question: why is that so? It’s impossible to say why 60-70,000 people do something each month but a leading candidate reason has to be our embrace of video thanks to our partnerhip with Lightsport and Ultralight Flyer, publishing these days to YouTube under the name SportAviationMagazine.com. It seems clear … people love video! Comments we receive at airshows are now commonly related to video though we hear good things about our effort at covering all the news for Light-Sport Aircraft, light kit aircraft, and ultralights.
Recent Posts — (top left, clockwise) Sampling the AeroGlass heads-up display eyewear when visiting Levil Tech • Garmin‘s new G3X Touch • Flight Design CTLSi comparing Rotax 912ULS and 912iS plus new Dynon gear • New MVP from MVP.aero wowed the crowds at AirVenture 2014
My video partner and I create well over 100 new videos per year and I just uploaded eight new ones (images) with many, many more to follow.
Final Newsbits Before AirVenture 2014 Starts
Garmin has a new smaller version of their very impressive G3X Touch. I examined this at Sun ‘n Fun when it was debuted in the 10-inch screen and came away highly impressed after two reviews on videos. For a billion-dollar company Garmin remains passionately inventive and surprisingly nimble. They keep the heat on now introducing a 7-inch G3X Touch display, described as “a high-resolution infrared touchscreen display designed for experimental amateur-built and Light-Sport Aircraft to compliments their existing 10.6-inch G3X Touch system.” Pilots and homebuilders concerned about instrument panel height and width constraints should be pleased to have the 7-inch option. All G3X Touch displays support Connext that allows wireless flight plan transfer between the company’s Garmin Pilot app on an iOS or select Android mobile device. “A well-equipped 7-inch G3X Touch system, which includes SVX, video input, a built-in WAAS GPS receiver, ADAHRS, magnetometer, OAT probe, interactive mapping and more, starts at $4,599,” said Garmin officials.
Tecnam Announces Astore and Ups Its U.S. Game
By their reported numbers Tecnam lays claim to be the largest producer of very light aircraft. I use that term versus Light-Sport Aircraft as the Italian manufacturer is not the leading LSA seller yet their sales figures support the company being the world’s largest for LSA-type aircraft. For at least the last couple years, Tecnam has reported sales numbers in the 200 per year range. I have no way to independently verify that volume but it’s clear they are a success story. Tecnam’s website states, “With over 3,500 Tecnam airplanes operating around the world today, Tecnam customers and operators are supported by a global network of over 60 dealers and 100 Tecnam Service Centers.” They boast a wide range models, including Eaglet, P2008, the aerobatic Snap, the newly introduced (to Americans) Astore, and their Twin. In addition to the Astore unveiling Tecnam announced a major news development and several noteworthy initiatives for the U.S.
LSA Alive & Well: Slings in Stock; Evektor Sales
The Great Recession was the pits … for nearly all industries and most employees or small business owners. That’s hardly newsworthy. However, the recovery from the recession — that government economists insist ended years ago — has been a long time coming. For too many out-of-work pilots, that recession lingers with us yet. Fortunately, the aviation economy appears to be improving. Although registrations didn’t show it for 2013, the year provided more sales for sellers if not more airplanes for their customers. Now, the hope is that airplanes will emerge from factories faster and the general health of the industry will improve, which is good for seller and buyer alike. A couple companies have proof that things are looking up and I’d like to tell you a little about them.
First is South Africa’s The Airplane Factory (TAF) and their rep’, TAF USA, led by Matt Litnaitzky and associate Ryan Ruel.
Garmin Team X on a LSA Development Tear
Next month, in April 2013, the Light-Sport Aircraft industry celebrates an anniversary. It will be the eighth year since the first Special LSA approval was granted by an FAA Designated Airworthiness Representative in 2005. Evektor‘s Sportstar was first, followed hours later by the Flight Design CT and then an amazing outpouring of innovation now stretching to 131 SLSA models approved. That’s better than four brand new aircraft every quarter for 32 straight quarters; worldwide aviation’s never seen anything like it. Most of the early brand names in the industry were new, at least to Americans. Yet along the way, some famous aviation names joined the party.
We’ve seen entries from Piper, Cirrus, Cessna, Lycoming, Sensenich, and Wipaire Floats plus the major member organizations embraced Light-Sport in their own way. One multibillion dollar company to serve the sport and recreation community has been Garmin.
VP-X Electronic Circuit Breaker meets EFIS
Vertical Power has a cool line of electronic circuit breakers that make it easy to monitor the status of your electrical system. *** With so many LSA going to glass cockpits, having general and specific information about the state of your electrics displayed right on your EFIS screen is crucial to safe flight. *** The company’s VP-X Sport and VP-X Pro modules now work with many popular EFIS display panels. Most recent to jump on board is the popular Dynon SkyView 7″ and 10″ EFIS display panel systems, which Dynon’s Robert Hamilton expects to be fully integrated by the end of this year. *** Both VP-X units will also display with other popular panels from AFS, GRT, MGL and Garmin G3X. *** The concept is simple and powerful: to allow monitoring of the overall health of electrical systems, view and control the status of individual circuits, and respond to circuit faults.
Rocky Mountain LSA Expo 2012 Wrap-Up
Roving reporter Dave wraps up coverage of the Rocky Mountain LSA Expo event. —DJ ||||
“Cessna is one of the most recognized names in the aviation industry. Last year it lead the LSA market for new registrations. So I was surprised to hear again and again, ‘Look, there’s a Skycatcher; this is the first time I’ve ever seen one.’ Honestly, I heard that phrase or one very similar to it at least 30 times!
*** “Flights, Inc., was at the Rocky Mountain Light Sport Aircraft Expo for the first time. They operate one of the largest Part 141 flight schools in Colorado, teaching with Cessna 172s and 182s, Piper Seminoles, and now, the Cessna Skycatcher. ‘The Skycatcher is the only light sport aircraft built by a mainline aircraft manufacturer,’ reported the big flight school. ‘It is also one of the few light sport aircraft powered by a Continental 0-200 engine.’ They elaborated, ‘This gives Skycatcher a better power-to-weight ratio than a 172, with the 100 horsepower calculating to 13.2 pounds per horsepower.’ Flights Inc., added that this gives the Skycatcher excellent short field landing and take off performance and, remember, we’re talking about a mile-high location with soaring density altitude.
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