From Washington State arrives a fresh, new airplane created from scratch to enter the Special LSA space. You don’t know the company but you may know the people, at least indirectly. Welcome to Vashon and their new Ranger R7!
Ranger R7 is an all-metal, two-place, high-wing, single engine airplane equipped with tricycle landing gear and castering nose wheel. The company says Ranger has been in development for five years and has been flying for more than two.
Vashon Aircraft was founded by John Torode, and the Ranger R7 was designed by Pacific Northwest aeronautical engineer, Ken Krueger. Does the name Torode sound familiar? It should. This is the man behind Dynon Avionics. Other key players are General Manager Scott Taylor and Marketing Manager Amy Bellesheim.
Starting Clean
According to Bellesheim, “Ranger R7 is a clean-sheet design. Ken Krueger, our chief design engineer, comes to us from many years at Van’s where he worked on the RV-12.
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Will Aviation’s Big Money Create Fun Flying Machines …for the Rest of Us?
Let’s be clear. Boeing, Airbus, Google, Amazon, and other immensely deep pockets are not seeking to build fun flying machines for you and me. Well… not initially, at least. And even that statement is somewhat wrong based on the development of the Kitty Hawk Flyer (video below).
Big money doesn’t begin investing hoping to sell 100-200 aircraft per year. Such a performance would be more than acceptable to most manufacturers of Light-Sport Aircraft, light kit aircraft, or ultralights. Indeed, 200 deliveries a year would qualify as a major success for most such builders.
The billionaire class dreams much bigger, probably thinking they can sell many thousands of aircraft or much higher cost aircraft than we recreational aviators want to buy. Most will center on doing transportation or package delivery. Most will not seek to increase your weekend flying fun.
You know what, though? Neither did the Wright Brothers or the other pioneers of flight have recreation in mind.
Sebring 2018 — Day One… “How was the first day?”
For all who could not attend, our title forms a common question. On day one of the fourteenth running of the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, even many onsite asked how the first day went; I’ll bet I heard the question a dozen times.
Short answer: A great start! The airport that hosts the annual event lucked out with a day of gorgeous weather, in the high 70s (25° C). Clear blue skies and modest breezes made for a beautiful beginning. They booked a full display of more than 100 vendors and plenty of shiny aircraft to examine.
Morning hours looked to have reasonably good attendance; the parking lot was on its way to a good fill at 8:30 AM. These shows rarely seem crowded — and that’s not a bad thing if you want to talk to an aircraft designer or take a demo flight — but at times various aircraft were surrounded by visitors.
Holy Batcopter! …to the Rescue? No, But How About to Sebring 2018?
Amazingly, “Holy Batcopter!” was not one of the 368 different “Holy…” exclamations uttered by the Robin character in the 1960s TV series. The iconic Bell 47 chopper — without Robin or Batman — will make an appearance at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in just a couple weeks. The event runs January 24-27 this year.
“Relive the 1960’s era at Sebring’s Aviation Expo with a ride on the original N3079G Batcopter from the Batman TV series,” encouraged promoters of the 14-year-old event.
In 1996, pilot Eugene Nock bought the famous helicopter, which was used in the 1966 “Batman” movie and several TV shows.
“What we have is an icon in the aviation world as well as the collectable toy world,” Nock said. “It is a one-of-a-kind aircraft, absolutely internationally recognized.”
That’s why Nock — an airline transport pilot who has logged more than 14,000 hours — will be flying this vintage flying machine at the upcoming Sebring Expo.
Major Benchmarks for Manufacturers Serving the Light Aircraft Community
Recently, a couple major benchmarks were reached by some of our important brand names. These notable achievements deserve mention given their relationship to the LSA and light aircraft sector that this website serves. One is an airframe builder and the other is a avionics giant.
Van’s Aircraft’s Immensely Popular RV-Series
According to a recent report in General Aviation News, “[When] David Porter took his first flight in his RV-7 on Nov. 24, 2017, he probably didn’t know he was making history. The Martinsburg, West Virginia pilot’s kit-built airplane became the official 10,000th Van’s RV-series aircraft.”
Van’s labeled David’s first flight as “official” because more than 10,000 RV-series kit aircraft are definitely known to be flying, but the company recognizes it may not know about all of them.
President of his local EAA Chapter (# 1071), David spent three and a half years building his RV-7 from a standard kit.
Jabiru Australia by US Sport Planes
US Sport Planes offers the all-composite, well-proven Jabiru line, one of the most popular Light-Sport Aircraft in America and the world. Under new leadership in Texas, the fast, handsome, and especially roomy Jabiru models are supported with exceptional service.
The Triumph of LSA — Helping the Entire World of Aviation (that’s no exaggeration!)
[from a talk given at DeLand Showcase 2017…]
After more than 13 years of LSA, I believe the industry can stand tall and proud…
Even with more than 140 attractive, innovative, and roomy LSA of every description, much of what makes LSA a strong and worthy addition to aviation is less obvious to many.
Sure, pilots love the nuts and bolts and hearing about performance or flight characteristics of our favorite aircraft but what has really brought LSA to the forefront of aviation… worldwide?
I’m lucky. I’ve had a front row seat to what I consider to be the greatest modern story in aviation.
Since the 1970s, I watched hang gliders evolve into ultralights and ultralights transform into LSA. Then I watched as a worldwide fleet launched into the skies over the past 15-20 years. This has been humbling to experience and a source of constant delight …as well as a source of material for thousands of articles and hundreds of video.
Tecnam’s Shapely P2008 Is Now a Canadian Advanced Ultralight Aircraft
America’s neighbor to the north is USA’s largest trading partner …yes, bigger than China, or any other single country. It may be hard to accept that exchanges with a nation of 36 million population exceeds China by almost a third, despite that Asian nation’s 1.37 billion persons and its export-promoting government. Nonetheless, it’s true.
Canada is also the #2 nation bringing regular reader to this website. Gotta love those Canadians.
Armed with those facts, I was intrigued to see the announcement from the big Italian company, “Tecnam P2008 now available in Canada.”
A few days back, Tecnam announced that Transport Canada, their equivalent to FAA, confirmed that the P2008 has been added to the Eligible to Be Registered Advanced Ultralight Listing (although the Tecnam model has not been added to their website list at this writing).
“P2008 aircraft may be registered in Canada as of this date,” wrote Civil Aviation Safety Inspector, Craig Davis of Transport Canada on August 14, 2017.
Breezer Aircraft Debuted New “Sport” Model Light-Sport Aircraft
In a eNewsletter to what they call “Breezerians,” the German company with the same name as their model reported a festive debut to their newest model called Breezer Sport.
At their home field and despite weather problems for arrivals coming from the south, the airport got “overloaded” with traffic.
The Breezer event was “not too hot, not too cold, great clouds for such an event, and little wind,” reported Wolfgang Nitschmann. “In short, a dream; even the catering was excellent.”
Among a collection of airplanes, rare and contemporary, Wolfgang and team unveiled their new Breezer Sport, joining other models called LSA Elegance and LSA Attraction. All Breezer models are available as B400 or B600 editions, the former being those conforming to Europe’s Ultralight Class, limited to 472.5 KG (with a parachute system, as is mandatory in Germany). The latter are the 600 kilogram Light-Sport Aircraft models.
Here’s our earlier looks at Breezer when first announced in the U.S.
Midwest Light-Sport Aircraft Expo 2017 Opens Today
Article updated…
Stuck as I am in Florida preparing for the onslaught of Hurricane Irma… with great regret, I am missing for the first time the Midwest LSA Expo in Mount Vernon, Illinois (about an hour east of St. Louis).
Yet the good news is that some airplanes for which I expected to do Video Pilot Reports will still be in attendance even if I am not. My ever-present videographer Dave Loveman is also onsite, coming all the way from Canada, so those cross country flying efforts will not be in vain.
Traveling from Arizona is Ed Ricks and the Paradise. Flying even a bit further from California is the Aeropilot L600. Those of you able to attend Midwest LSA Expo 2017 this year can examine those aircraft and a ramp full of other top brands that have so faithfully attended this event (see the layout and exhibitors here).
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