Years ago, back in the early days of the Light-Sport Aircraft sector exploding into the world of aviation, of affordable aviation, one of the early entries was SeaMax, from a Brazilian-based company called AirMax.
An old friend in the business and a supremely capable pilot named Carlos Bessa helped SeaMax successfully prove standards compliance to win approval as a Special LSA (#63 of 143 on our SLSA List). Although Chip Erwin’s Mermaid was attracting a lot of attention at the time, SeaMax was an attractive offering.
Another longtime friend in the business, Tom Peghiny — the man behind Flight Design USA but also an astute observer of light aircraft — urged me to go examine the SeaMax. He thought it possessed qualities I would appreciate. He turned out to be spot on.
Subsequently I flew SeaMax for about four hours with Carlos, spread over a few days.
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Rotax iS Lane-Light Problems? HDX to the Rescue!
When Rotax moved their 912 iS Sport project from engineering to production, the big Austrian engine manufacturer elevated their already-immensely-popular 9-series engines to a higher level. Beside fuel injection, the company added electronic engine controls more advanced than any other in their inventory.
If you’ve flown with the iS Sport as I have you know it has terrific performance — torque was increased through an enlarged airbox along with other minor refinements — plus it gives even better fuel consumption. When flying with Aerosports‘ Jeremy Knoll at DeLand 2017, I heard that his trip from Wisconsin to Florida in the TAF Sling yielded fuel consumption rates of 2.7 gallons per hour at cruise. Man! That is some fuel efficient flying and that is part of what Rotax achieved with their iS model. They will use that technology plus more on their coming 135-horsepower 915 iS due on the market next year.
DeLand is Approaching… Video Deluge Brings Attention to Exhibitors You Will See
My video partner must be working around the clock as he prepared a blizzard of videos for release starting November 1st.
As you see in the list below, 20 videos will soon be available. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
Besides giving you info on various aircraft to see at the event, we hope to encourage you to attend DeLand #2. Videos are great and in them we try to ask the questions you would ask and to show you things you’d look for if you attended. Good as videos are, nothing substitutes for you being present to ask and look yourself. I hope you can.
Videoman Dave and I will be on-site all three days of the event. We will likely be a blur in motion dashing from one fetching aircraft vendor to another to gather more article material and video interviews. We also hope to record more Video Pilot Reports, as we did last year.
DeLand Showcase #2 Coming in Early November… What to See
Given a successful Midwest LSA Expo, you could say the “LSA show season” is underway. This is proven by the upcoming DeLand show — the second annual event — followed by the 14th Sebring LSA Expo. Even before DeLand, for those in western U.S. states, is Copperstate (which is not a pure play LSA event but does have a good representation of them).
Why go to DeLand over November 2-3-4 of this year?
Several reasons come to mind. First, Showcase executive Jana Filip — who earned her stripes managing Sebring for several years — said exhibitor sign-up has been strong, meaning you can see many great light aircraft …more on that below. Second, weather in early November in Florida should be marvelous, even as the northern states head toward winter. Third, DeLand is one of those aviation-sports airports featuring one of the world’s most active sky diving operations.
Secret Success of Light-Sport Aircraft
A good friend in aviation journalism and Editor-in-Chief of Plane & Pilot magazine is Robert Goyer. We’ve known each long enough to have stood around years ago at South Lakeland Airpark waiting to fly this or that new ultralight.
In his Going Direct column earlier this month, Robert wrote an editorial about FAA’s Part 23 rewrite project. Using an LSA viewpoint, I wanted to add some commentary to his observations. My goal here is twofold: (1) Show how success with LSA led to good things for other aircraft sectors, and (2) Show how LSA continue to significantly outpace sales of Type Certified Single Engine Piston aircraft.
Robert wrote, “The FAA announced earlier this week that the Part 23 Rewrite has taken effect. This means that the rule, which gives manufacturers leeway to employ what are known as consensus standards to meet airworthiness standards instead of the FAA’s prescriptive rules.
Pipistrel’s Alpha Light Aircraft “Plugs In” at New Charge Station; Fuel by Electrons
Article Updated: 9/18/17 (see below)
Electric airplanes continue to catch the headlines… but don’t impact the market much (yet). That may be changing.
You rarely see advertising for Pipistrel, the Eastern European builder of several very sleek Light-Sport Aircraft. The company feels they generate interesting-enough news that media organizations will cover their accomplishments. As this and other articles prove, perhaps they’re right although most publications depend on advertiser support to allow them to provide coverage.
An example of how Pipistrel seduces the aviation press is with an announcement proclaiming their partnership with ride-sharing giant, Uber …specifically about that tech company’s aerial ambitions. At the recent Uber Elevate Summit in Dallas, Texas, “Uber signed a partnership with Pipistrel aircraft producer for large-scale deployment of electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs).” Pipistrel said initial vehicles [will] be used in a flight demonstration by 2020.
“Pipistrel is the only company in the world that builds and sells electric aircraft today … they are a valued partner in making Uber’s VTOL network a reality,” said Mark Moore, Director of Engineering for Aviation.
450 Remos Light Aircraft Delivered in 20 Years
In the late ’90s, an earlier iteration of Remos Aircraft delivered their first aircraft, a G-3 Mirage, originally designed by the very talented Lorenz Kreitmeyer. That was twenty years ago. Recently, the Pasewalk, Germany company delivered serial number 450.
Susanne and Harmut Lang, the new owners of the GXNXT — known as a GXnXES in the United States — took possession at their aircraft after it was flown to Bremgarten in southern Germany by Remos engineer Paul Foltz.
The Lang’s new GXNXT is equipped with the latest avionics by Dynon and Garmin. Upon receipt of the aircraft, Harmut Lang said: “The Remos GXNXT suits our needs perfectly [and] the flight characteristics are amazing and the quality of this aircraft is well known.”
If you are confused by the model name, that could be because attention has been focused on the GXiS model that won European ultralight approval recently. Even more recently, the company made news regarding its new owner, Stemme Aircraft.
LAMA President’s Award Nominations
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After you are registered with MailChimp, you will receive email with instructions allowing you to vote for the 2018 Award. Notice that votes are sent ONLY to Larry Burke, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of LAMA.
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PAST WINNERS OF THE LAMA PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL
2017: Sebastien Heintz (Zenith Aircraft)
2016: Professor Luigi Pascale (Tecnam Aircraft)
2015: Jeremy Monnett (Sonex Aircraft)
2014: Dual Award — Roy Beisswenger (“Powered Sport Aircraft” magazine) & Laura Vaughn (Sun ‘n Fun show)
2013: Bill Canino, (SportAir USA)
2012: Jan Fridrich (Chairman, LAMA Europe)
2011: Jack Pelton (Cessna Aircraft)
2010: Tom Gunnarson (FAA Small Airplane Directorate)
2009: Mary Jones (Experimental Aircraft Association)
2008: Matthias Betsch (Flight Design, Germany)
2007: Eric Tucker (Rotax Aircraft Engines)
2006: Dan Johnson (ByDanJohnson.com)
2005: Earl Lawrence (EAA, now with FAA)
2004: Phil Lockwood (Lockwood Aviation Supply)
2003: Mike Loehle (Loehle Aircraft)
2002: Chuck Slusarczyk (CGS Aircraft)
2001: Chris Heintz (Zenair Aircraft)
2000: Darryl Murphy (Murphy Aircraft)
1999: Bob Gavinsky (Stoddard-Hamilton Aircraft)
1998: Tom Peghiny (Flightstar Aircraft)
1997: Dennis Soder (Kolb Aircraft)
1996: Homer Kolb (Kolb Aircraft)
1995: Phil Reed (Skystar Aircraft)
1994: Lance Neibauer (Lancair Aircraft)
1993: Randy Schlitter (Rans Aircraft)
1992: Dick VanGrunsven (Van’s Aircraft)
LAMA Board Directors:
Dan Johnson — President & Chairman of the Board
Tom Peghiny — Director and President of Flight Design USA
Phil Lockwood — Director and President of Lockwood Aircraft Supply
Christian Mundigler — Director and Vice President of FAAC Incorporated
Phil Solomon — Director and CFO of Heart of Virginia Aviation
Roy Beisswenger — Director and Publisher of “Powered Sport Flying” magazine
Scott Severen — Director and Representative for Jabiru Aircraft in North America
Marc Becker — Manager of Rotax Aircraft Engines
Larry Burke — Chairman Emeritus & Founder
More info: http://www.lama.bz/board-of-directors
Light-Sport Aircraft Market Shares for Fleet and 2016
A dozen years after FAA created aviation’s newest sector, we have a new leader among manufacturers of fully built Light-Sport Aircraft. CubCrafters has been moving upward with several years hitting 50 deliveries. In 2016 the west coast builder finally topped perennial leader Flight Design, which slipped to second place. The CT builder had occupied the #1 position since the beginning of Light-Sport Aircraft. Only four aircraft separate the two brands. Note: this article has been updated twice; see at end. —DJ
In the single-year race, Czech Sport Aircraft won convincingly with almost double the next closest producer. The Czech builder performed well in 2015 but significantly increased last year. Congratulations to both companies.
To explain further, our “whole fleet” market share chart — the one we have published going back to 2006 — keeps track of all Special LSA (SLSA) airplanes in the U.S. fleet. Regretfully, we are unable to properly account for weight shift trikes, powered parachutes, gyroplanes, or motorgliders because the database is too variable.
USA Steadily Gained Light-Sport Aircraft Manufacturer Share
April 2017 logged 12 years of Light-Sport Aircraft. The FAA regulation creating the category was introduced in 2004 but it was at Sun ‘n Fun 2005 that the agency presented Evektor SportStar and the Flight Design CT the first and second Special Airworthiness certificates.
My friend and LAMA associate, Jan Fridrich, gave a presentation at Aero 2017 showing many graphs that examine this new airplane sector and how it has developed over the last decade. This article looks at a portion of his analysis.
In those dozen years, the market has developed interestingly.
In the first vigorous years of growth — filling pent-up demand for a two-seat aircraft pilots could fly without a medical — European light aircraft producers dominated the market (chart). Jan’s home country, the Czech Republic, was one of the most prolific, in the early days leading all other countries. Czech designs remain a key player but the field has shifted.
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