Pre-Christmas Roundabout

Ramping up to the big day when that jolly red-flightsuited Sport Pilot in his original LSA -a two-place, roof-landing, 8 RP (reindeer power) flivver – will fly all those XC legs to good little pilot’s chimneys, herewith some stocking stuffer newsies and tidbits to help wind down 2009. *** Kennedy Aircraft Service & Repair serves up a blog with tasty tidbiti about the SeaRey amphibian which is (forgive me) making a splash on the water-fly-sport scene. *** An interesting info site called The FAA Buzz (not affiliated with FAA) has a blurb about Virginia Aviation, provider of FAA-approved E-LSA inspection courses. V.A. is now cleared by the fedgov to conduct an LSA repairman’s course (LSRM) on weight shift control aircraft. *** Speaking of bugs-in-teeth flight, Precision Windsports has a quick-read page on the relative merits of E-LSA vs. Amateur-Built kits. Browse around the site, they’ve got lots of good trike info and pix (as seen here). *** —trike photo courtesy Precision Windsports *** Public awareness of the Icon A5 watersport amphib is beginning to find its way into the web and blogosphere. Some fun and cogent reader comments here and a blog item with video here. *** Care to brush up on The Rule? Read Roger Tunsley’s basic primer on learning to fly under FAA’s Sport Pilot rule. *** LSA in the NEWS dept: Gaudy British tabloid The Sun reports on the exploits of Martin Bromage, who’ll fly his QuikR trike 12,000 miles to Australia. His goal: to raise £150,000, almost $300,000, for injured UK soldiers, through the Help The Heroes charity. The Sun is sponsoring the trip. Godspeed, Martin! *** Talk about tasty tidbits, if you’re a web-video freak, (and who isn’t at least part-time?), Lightsport Aircraft Videos is the place to slake your thirst for short, tasty intros to the galaxy of LSA and other sport aircraft out there. Our favorite guru Dan Johnson does topnotch duty as your friendly LSA video host on several segments. *** Speaking of Dan, head over to his SPLOG for other breaking stories, including Rotax‘s increase in TBO (Time Before Overhaul) of its LSA-ubiquitous 912 engine to 2,000 hours, raising it to the same endurance league with general aviation powerplants. (The spec includes 80 and 100 hp versions and the 914 mill too). *** This should further help dispel the “gotta have a spam can engine” safety bias that still pops up now and then against the tried and proven Rotax brand. *** Speaking of brands, also on Dan’s Splog is an item about the folding of EAA’s Sport Pilot magazine into EAA’s Sport Aviation. A new e-letter/online newsletter called Light Plane World will take up the slack. We wish its new editor Dan Grunloh all the best in the new year. *** And a special thanks! to Mary Jones for all her good work running Sport Pilot and other pubs over at EAA for 25 years. *** Snack time, more later!