My LAMA Europe counterpart and friend, Jan Fridrich, took another trip to China in October as he attended Xi’an, said to be the largest General Aviation exhibition in the country. While the show was large with expansive, expensive exhibit stands, airplanes were sparser than events such as Aero Friedrichshafen. Like a few American events (thinking of AOPA’s just concluded Summit and NBAA’s giant show), Xi’an’s convention hall housed indoor displays while the “static” display of more airplanes was at an airport. U.S. organizers usually try to colocate these two displays. In contrast, Jan reported, “The static exhibition was at the airport in Pucheng, which is about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Xi’an! Practically speaking, it was only accessible by bus and only during one official day and the journey takes 2.5 hours … Without Chinese friends it is very complicated to get anywhere.” Jan added that viewers at the airport were unable to get within 60 feet of airplanes.
Search Results for : Flight Design
Not finding exactly what you expected? Try our advanced search option.
Select a manufacturer to go straight to all our content about that manufacturer.
Select an aircraft model to go straight to all our content about that model.
Skycatcher: To Be or to Be, Not
A story posted by Daniel McCoy, a reporter for the Wichita Business Journal, claims the star-crossed Cessna 162 Skycatcher will likely not enjoy the longevity and success of other notable Cessna icons such as the C-172 and C-150/152. Skycatcher was one of the first SLSA out of the gate for the new category created by FAA in 2004. But troubles with manufacturing and two highly publicized airframe parachute deployments during flight testing, including an airframe redesign after the first one, contributed to the dark cloud that seemed to follow the once-bright promise of Cessna’s entry. The market-perceived lackluster specifications sheet and barebones/industrial interior finish relative to many other LSA entries also contributed to the steady attrition in the once-1000-plus order sheet for the Skycatcher.
The news came yesterday at the NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) confab in Las Vegas. Company CEO Scott Ernest made the remark that Skycatcher had difficulty attracting market share and had lost a sizable percentage of its multi-year back orders.
Skycatcher: To Be or to Be, Not
*** A story posted by Daniel McCoy, a reporter for the Wichita Business Journal, claims the star-crossed Cessna 162 Skycatcher will likely not enjoy the longevity and success of other notable Cessna icons such as the C-172 and C-150/152. *** The Skycatcher was one of the first SLSA out of the gate for the new category created by FAA in 2004. But troubles with manufacturing and two highly publicized airframe parachute deployments during flight testing, including an airframe redesign after the first one, contributed to the dark cloud that seemed to follow the once-bright promise of Cessna’s entry. *** The market-perceived lackluster specifications sheet and barebones/industrial interior finish relative to many other LSA entries also contributed to the steady attrition in the once-1000-plus order sheet for the Skycatcher. *** The news came yesterday at the NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) confab in Las Vegas. Company CEO Scott Ernest made the remark that Skycatcher had difficulty attracting market share and had lost a sizable percentage of its multi-year back orders.
Best Midwest LSA Expo Yet? … Yes, Sir!
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.
Oshkosh 2013 Elements, Part 3: Slide-Out Panel
Elements are basic components of nature. As in our first two parts, I see Oshkosh Elements as worthy ideas other than airframes or engines. One such is World Aircraft Company‘s roller-bearing pull-out drawer instrument panel. Now, if you are like me and don’t spend a lot of time around your airplane with a wrench or soldering iron in your hands, you might not see why this is important. For panels with a collection of round instruments, maybe it isn’t as fetching an idea. Yet I’m willing to guess that nearly every mechanic who reads this or hears of World’s innovation is going to say, “Yes! Why hasn’t this been done before and why aren’t all instrument panels done this way?”
Early this year, I watched while two avionics mechanics maneuvered around the instrument panel in a Flight Design CTLSi. Their task was to install ADS-B hardware to coordinate with the dual-screen Dynon SkyView that fills left and right bays of the instrument panel.
Freakish Oshkosh Weather Continues!
Yes, Airventure fans, it’s been fair, mild, low humidity, refreshing, beautiful weather…all descriptors none of us is used to using in the same sentence with the words Oshkosh and summer. *** It’s been a delight not to drop with exhaustion at the end of a long day slogging around the miles of paths and thousands of exhibits, planes and aviation sundry. *** Here’s some more cool stuff from my travels across the great cement/grass/asphalt immensity known simply as “Oshkosh.”
Sophisticated LSA or “Mere Ultralight?”
I recently flew with a friend who has some interest in learning to fly. After we got out of a Flight Design CTLSi equipped with dual Dynon 10-inch SkyView screens flanking a Garmin 796 — in all, an awesome amount of beautifully presented information — my friend sighed and made a statement that he could probably never do what I’d just done. We’d gone aloft and I pointed out to him the marvels of synthetic vision, ADS-B traffic and weather, direct-to navigation that would take us straight home and so much more. No wonder he felt completely overwhelmed. I didn’t see it as overwhelming, of course. I delighted in all that easily accessed info and loved showing my friend just a few of the features available. However, on later reflection, I remembered the serious study that even an experienced pilot like myself had put into learning those magnificent digital instruments.
Summer’s Coming; Cool It, Fellow Pilots!
Across the northern U.S. states and across much of Europe it was a lousy, cold, snowy winter. It seemed everyone I spoke to at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany complained about the crappy winter and their laments mirrored those from America’s northlands. However, the weather appears to be going directly from winter to summer. It was warm in Slovenia when we visited Pipistrel and it’s now getting hot across much of the USA. That’s great, perhaps, as it foretells an active flying season. However, as the weather warms, it can get mighty hot in the cockpit and not only because you’re on short final on a gusty day in a responsive LSA.
US Aviation previewed their integration of the AMT FlyCool air conditioning system in the Flight Design CTLS at Sun ‘n Fun 2013. The Dallas-area, Texas company partnered with FlyCool to develop an installation for the Flight Design CTLS.
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.
LSA Industry On Life Support…ummm…Nah.
In a recent article from Flying Magazine, an editor volunteered his opinion that the Light Sport industry is on life support. There are so many good arguments to refute such a sky-is-falling assessment, it kind of makes you wonder why a respected journalist would go out of his way to attract a lot of heat in the first place … but that’s another story.
Dan Johnson makes a ton of solid rebuttal remarks in this article and in a video he did with UltralightFlyer.com — check those out.
Meanwhile, here’s a magnificent retort to the LSA-is-dead silliness: Airtime Aviation out of Tulsa, OK. Owners Tom Gutmann and his son Tom Jr. just delivered their Number 100 Flight Design airplane, a new CTLSi with a fuel injected Rotax 912 iS engine.
At Sebring I saw a bunch of installations of the new engine: it’s really catching on.
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- …
- 148
- Next Page »