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.
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Canadian-Designed Czech-Built Skylark
A Doubly International LSA
SportsPlanes.com imports several
light-sport aircraft (LSA)
that have found ready buyers.
After researching through
several designs, SportsPlanes’ owner
Josh Foss originally settled on the
Comco Ikarus C42 and Breezer and
the U.S.-built American Flyer for its
fleet. Most recently, the company
added the Czech-built Dova Skylark
to its offerings.
However, the real story of this company
is not Josh Foss’ care in the selection
of what airplanes to sell. What
may be more important to the marketplace
is the network his company
has built to bring service and support
to SportsPlanes.com’s customers.
Currently, 15 SportsPlanes centers are
operating, with the goal to establish
25 centers nationwide.
Investigating the Skylark
My opportunity to fly the Skylark
came while attending the U.S. Sport
Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, in
January. I flew with Darrell Hamilton,
the SportsPlanes representative
for Florida.
Darrell retired from Northwest
Airlines four years ago. He most recently
crewed the fly-by-wire Airbus
A320, which needs only small control
movements.
The Sport Hornet
Is It the First Ultralight SLSA?
Among fixed-wing airplanes, the Sport Hornet from Higher Class Aviation
may be the first ultralight-type airplane to achieve special light-sport
aircraft (S-LSA) status. Several weight-shift trikes and a few powered
parachutes also have made the jump, making declarations of meeting the
ASTM industry consensus standards.
As company owner Robert Gaither and his team made the Hornet ready for the
LSA market, the airplane was put through a series of changes resulting in the
name Sport Hornet.
From Hornet to Super Hornet to Sport Hornet
Jim Millett, of U.S. Light Aircraft,
designed the original Hornet thinking
he could improve upon the Quad
City Ultralight’s Challenger. His was
a ground-up different design that had
only the look of a Challenger. Much
of what Jim created remains on the
Sport Hornet of today, but much has
also changed, sometimes to meet
S-LSA requirements and sometimes
because it was the right thing to do.
Lightplane Offerings From Canada
The Beaver and Chinook ultralight-like aircraft are arguably two of the bestknown
lightweight designs coming from Canada. Aircraft Sales and Parts, more
commonly known as ASAP, is the company that rescued and now manufactures
and sells these designs, along with a powered parachute from its sister company,
Summit Powered Parachutes. The tale of ASAP’s involvement with the Chinook
and Beaver offers insight into ultralight progress – Canadian style.
A History Lesson
Perhaps the most famous ultralight
to come out of Canada is the Beaver.
With a reported 2,200 flying units
since the early 1980s, it’s a successful
design. However, due to corporate
missteps by the companies that
owned the brand, the Beaver series
was nearly lost. Originally, the Beaver
models were manufactured by
Spectrum Aircraft Inc. Reorganization
left the ultralight in the hands
of a company called Beaver RX Enterprises.
In 1993, that company closed
its doors and stranded thousands of
Beaver aircraft owners, along with
all the dealerships that sold and serviced
them.
A Sport Bike of the Air
First weight-shift S-LSA sets the bar high
In street vernacular, the term
“crotch rocket” refers to a lean,
lightweight, high-performance
motorcycle. Sometimes called sport
bikes, these machines have become
radically snazzy in modern years by
the addition of rakish body panels.
Sport bikes accelerate like a rocket.
They corner tightly, and they turn
heads wherever they go.
The first weight-shift trike to earn
special light-sport aircraft (S-LSA) approval,
the Air Creation Tanarg might
be compared to just such a vehicle. In
fact, that’s precisely how its French
manufacturer describes its newest
machine.
Yet, while sport bikes are touchy
and have less margin for error than
other motorcycles, Air Creation’s flying
sport bike is highly stable with predictable
handling. Compare Tanarg’s
performance to other trikes, and it
comes out as a top-of-the-line entry.
The name Tanarg comes from the
highest mountain range in the Ardeche
region of southern France, not
far from the Air Creation factory.
Surprising Value in an Unsurprising Design
On September 1, 2004, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released the long-anticipated Sport Pilot and Light-Sport Aircraft regulations, a new aviation segment called light sport aircraft (LSA) was created. Some saw LSA as a bridge between ultralights and general aviation aircraft, but are LSA so different from ultralights? The answer is a mixed yes and no.
Yes, many aircraft look different in that the extra weight they may possess allows them to have full composite fuselages, a panel full of instruments even including fancy glass cockpit hardware, plus they can be delivered ready to fly even as 2-seaters. That’s different than our ultralight trainers or our amateur-built recreational aircraft that resemble those trainers. Prices for these light sport aircraft have pushed them beyond the budgets of many pilots.
On the other hand, these aircraft needn’t be all that different from ultralights. The new rule doesn’t require that they weigh the maximum 1,320 pounds.
Spiffy New Thorpedo…IndUS Aviation’s LP Series
IndUS marketing geniuses called their program “Refresh ’08,” but perhaps it ought to be “Renew ’08?” The changes on which IndUS staffers have long labored gave the proven design its smartest look yet. Here’s a neat trick for what may be the oldest SLSA design in the fleet, what with Serial Number One T-211 turning 61 in 2007 (“and it’s still flying all over the place”). *** In January 2007, IndUS announced a partnership with LoPresti, the Speed Merchant people who helped Piper and several other GA brands extract more performance from their airplanes without airframe modifications. IndUS left the partnership but a clever team at the Dallas company took up the innovation effort and produced impressive results. *** The Thorpedo shown at Sebring 2008 sported a snazzy new engine cowl treatment, light-emitting wing tips including built-in landing lights, and streamlined gear leg fairings.
ZJ Viera Part 103 Composite Excites Sebring Crowd
Alert: This article is dated and some links may no longer lead to the desired destination. —DJ 0121
Maybe you’ve heard: “You can’t build a three axis airplane that can safely remain under the 254-pound weight limit.”
Some allege: “You can’t buy a three axis Part 103 ultralight that actually meets the rule.”
I’ve said this many times… WRONG!
You have a few choices for Part 103 airplanes that perform well and they aren’t all trikes or powered parachutes (though several qualifying candidates do come from these segments). I’ll soon post fresh articles on the Kolb FireFly and Phantom X-1. Each can meet Part 103.
Now, we have what may be the first all-new Part 103 ultralight in many years. ZJ Viera was designed in Europe by Marek Ivanov, CEO of Interplane Aircraft (photo). At Sebring 2008, plenty of attendees spent time examining the two examples present; one was the original monowheel (which I tend to prefer) and a tri-gear variation.
Year-End Market Shares; LSA Grows 98% in 2007
Light-Sport Aircraft ended a successful year in 2007 with sales up 98%, registering 565 new fixed wing airplanes for the calendar year for a total of 1,118 airplanes. Including weight shift, powered parachutes, and gliders (no gyro or lighter-than-air yet), total registrations for the year hit 720, up 120% over the previous year close and totaling 1,395 LSA nationwide. For comparison, the general aviation industry produced as many single-engine (SE) piston airplanes each quarter as the LSA industry did all year, and GA is expected to ship more than 2,200 SE pistons for 2007. Can LSA match that performance in the next two or three years? My forecast says, “Yes!” I estimated 600 for 2007 (we hit 92% of that target). I’ve forecast 1,000 units in 2008 and doubling that again in another year or two. If I’m right, LSA may someday meet or exceed all other SE piston sales in the USA.
Dynamic Spins Into SLSA; Unveiling at Sebring
SEBRING 2008 UPDATE — Sport Aircraft Works, importer and marketer of the fast-selling SportCruiser, will announce an LSA version of their Dynamic WT9. Previously, the retractable speedster (174 mph max cruise) was only available as a kit but the Slovak designer decided to pursue American SLSA certification at 550 kg (1,212 pounds). [UPDATE: Dynamic won SLSA approval on January 8th.] *** As part of their effort to meet the standards, the Aerospool Dynamic underwent spin testing by company test pilot, Jozef Chupek. “He finished this task without any undesirable control behavior,” reported the company. Testing was done in a variety of CG load and control input configurations. “All testing situations were recoverable using normal spin recovery procedures,” Aerospool added. “Spin test flights were flown with our standard aircraft; we didn’t make any special modifications [other than] safety elements such as spin recovery parachute and ejectable cockpit.” Testing was observed by members of the Slovak Civil Aviation Authority.
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