Search Results for : Evektor

On the Fourth Bahamas Fly Out in January 2014, a group of four Light-Sport Aircraft and one Cessna 172 made the short hop to Bimini Island of the Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It may only be 50 nautical miles but at a cruising altitude of 3,000-5,500 feet you definitely fly out of sight of land … yes, thousands of miles of ocean and no land to be seen from the cockpit. Do I have your attention yet? Even the ever-dependable Rotax 912 that powered all four LSA seems to run rough shortly after land disappears behind you. A pilot briefing from a Bahamas flying expert gave all pilots the preparation to deal with a problem en route but an actual emergency would be a major dilemma for those on board.
Fortunately no such challenges arose. Experts were also on hand to help pilots file the international flight plans that have become much more complicated since 9/11.

I was mighty busy last week, talking about my blog regarding IFR-IMC on LSA. Whew! Sometimes I had useful discussions. Some of what I got was hate mail; a few took the shoot-the-messenger approach. What’s all the furor about, exactly?
Among my many conversations, I spoke with Sebring Aviation‘s John Hurst. He has led the IFR subcommittee that is working to find consensus. John griped about weak support, even from those who said they’d help and then were curiously absent during meetings. The effort to create a standard that should restore IMC flying to Light-Sport Aircraft will continue.
Meanwhile, why all this heated talk? To my knowledge — and John knew no differently — only three LSA manufacturers actually pursued IFR-equipped aircraft: Tecnam, Evektor, and AMD. Perhaps others sold suitably equipped aircraft but these three promoted the capability.

I reported earlier that it might have been the best AirVenture ever (thanks to the most pleasant weather I can recall in many years). Employing that yardstick, the just-concluded Midwest LSA Expo was equally successful. The fifth annual event in Mt. Vernon, Illinois — described by airport manager and principal organizer Chris Collins as “the little brother to the Sebring LSA Expo” — enjoyed three days of highly accommodating weather. Warm temperatures, mild winds, a solid turnout of LSA vendors, a few attractions such as the Maid in the Shade B-25, the “Red Nose” P-51 Mustang that made several high-speed performances (both offered rides, too), along with riveting demonstrations of John Snider‘s exceptional
Mosquito XET turbine-powered single place helicopter … brought out good crowds with Saturday looking especially strong.
In a closing interview with Collins, he reported Thursday was the best opening day they’ve ever had and that day was just a warm up.

Single Seat Darling — Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had so many new SLSA offerings lately (though don’t look away too long as more are definitely on the way!). Maybe it’s because the new airplane is a single seater. Certainly we have not had many single seater SLSA … well, none so far, but that, too, is going to change with the Snap aerobatic aircraft and the electric-powered Yuneec eSpyder working on SLSA approval as one-place airplanes. It could be the low price tag. No question that a price under $60,000 for a ready-to-fly Special LSA is attractive. However, I’m always amazed at conventional aviation magazines droning on about the “high cost” of LSA when, in fact, we have many aircraft offered at below $100,000, several below $80,000, and a handful for even less the new SD-1 Minisport (and the other low-priced LSA are all two seaters).

Airplane Overload — Imagine a gymnasium, the full court kind where basketball is played. Imagine ten of them placed side by side. Big space, huh? Now imagine all of them filled to capacity with aircraft and airplane gear of every imaginable sort. Presto! You’ve got Aero Friedrichshafen. No wonder we go year after year (I think this was my tenth Aero and, for certain, I’m going again). In this wrap up post, I’ll provide a few more views of this truly excellent event. Good as my reporting hopefully is, however, true-blue aviation enthusiasts owe it to themselves to make the trip to the southern edge of Germany for this outstanding (nearly) all-indoor aviation extravaganza. I can find so many good reasons to like Aero, I’m sure you’d be pleased if you attend.
Final Facts and Videos — Aero Show Director Roland Bosch somehow made time in what must be an awesomely tight schedule to let us tape a video with him and his U.S.

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.