Shows like Sebring and Midwest LSA Expo are known for being great places to demo fly a Light-Sport or light kit you may be considering to buy. They earned that reputation because it is typically much easier to fly at those lower-key, less crowded events than at giant shows like AirVenture. However, some companies make demo flying a mission at Oshkosh and this article covers three that delivered an exceptional number of demo flights.
Icon reported doing around 150 demonstration flights in the first public outing of the long-awaited LSA seaplane. Writers for aviation’s largest magazines got their private crack at the new bird beforehand … since returning from Oshkosh, I’ve seen A5 on the covers of Flying, AOPA Pilot, Sport Aviation, and Plane & Pilot. That’s an enormous splash. I can’t recall any single aircraft capturing all four titles in the same month, quite a credit to Team Icon for deftly executing such a major marketing push.
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Searey Now Completely Ready to Enter China
Icon recently won FAA acceptance as the California company demonstrated meeting ASTM standards for their A5 seaplane and made a big show out of delivering the first airplane to EAA Young Eagles … the same move, by the way, as Cessna did with their Skycatcher. We expect Icon’s future to work out better as they begin to fulfill more than 1,300 orders.
However, another LSA seaplane is demonstrably ahead in the government approval race.
“Led by consultants from SilverLight Aviation, Progressive Aerodyne of Tavares, Florida recently received Production Certificate approval from China’s CAAC.” According to SilverLight spokesman Abid Farooqui, “This makes Searey the first U.S.-made LSA to achieve this distinction and have both Type Design Approval as well as a Production Certificate for its Searey LSA airplane.” Searey’s earlier Type Design approval and recent Production Certificate were gained under the supervision and guidance of SilverLight, which is based in Zephyrhills.
Gutsy-Looking SkyRunner Turned Heads at AirVenture
To many eyes, Icon stole the show at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015. Many other newsworthy announcements were made — several of which I reported on this website — yet Icon’s splashy marketing probably drew the most eyes, just as it does on Facebook. However, thanks to fellow journalist Roy Beisswenger, I was introduced to the high-energy gang at SkyRunner.
I don’t know if “radical” fits the marketing designs of SkyRunner LLC, but their take on the flying ATV or dune buggy takes the genre to a whole new realm. I find myself searching for the right words to describe SkyRunner. Imagine I-Tec’s Maverick but with an attitude. Then wrap your mind around two powerful engines to make this baby go. Maverick looked vaguely like a mild-mannered road car where SkyRunner abandons that image for a Ninja motorcycle look crossed with the baddest four-wheeler ATV you ever saw.
Another LSA Seaplane … Another Flying Car
Some ideas appear irrepressible. One is LSA seaplanes. An entire flock of these are coming including a couple new ones I just discovered (and I’m one of those people constantly sniffing about for new light aircraft). The Oxai is the first such Chinese entry I’ve found but they are serious enough to bring ASTM expert Adam Morrison to China for a special one-company-only seminar about the industry consensus standards used to gain government agency acceptance of this new class of airplanes. A principal of consulting firm Streamline Designs, Adam is one of the industry’s leading experts and presents a training class on behalf of ASTM.
More on the Oxai M2 LSA seaplane later. For now, I want to write about a flying car … or maybe I should say “flying hotrod.” Recently I described the stylish Aeromobil from Slovakia. Now consider the gutsy-looking, off-road-capable SkyRunner from merry old England.
Day Two: LAMA Award and New Rotax Engine
Here is more news from AirVenture 2015, coming from Tuesday, Day Two.
The Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association gave a press conference to a full house. LAMA enjoyed a terrific opening day in its mission of advocacy for Light-Sport, light kit, and ultralight aircraft. Partnered with the U.S. Ultralight Association (USUA), LAMA participated in two very productive meetings, one with EAA’s advocacy experts and another with several key FAA personnel. USUA’s Roy Beisswenger and I hope for good things to follow but felt highly energized that we moved closer to some goals we believe can truly help the light aircraft industry and its pilots.
That was the “business” portion of LAMA’s press conference, but we kept it brief as we had a more meaningful message to deliver.
LAMA has presented its President’s Award for 24 years running to an outstanding individual whose work benefitted the light aircraft sector. Announcing this year’s recipient was one of those bittersweet moments.
4 things to See at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2015
The “Big Show” is just days away, so of course, journalists and readers are asking what will be present? The question is worthwhile, but often the most interesting discoveries are not foretold either to maintain secrecy or due to the last minute scramble to make a new project showable. Here are four products attendees may want to investigate. Watch for more previews.
“What a journey so far, wrote Jordan Denitz, spokesman for The Airplane Factory USA! Globetrotters Mike Blyth with Patrick Huang of The Airplane Factory Asia have completed their first three legs on their way around the world in a Sling powered by the Rotax 912iS. Starting in Johannesburg, South Africa, they traveled to Namibia, Ghana, and Cape Verde.
On Monday they were taking a well deserved rest after 37 hours and more than 4,000 nautical miles logged so far. “They are gearing up for the biggest hop yet, crossing the Atlantic,” added Jordan.
South Africans Arrive Before AirVenture 2015 Opens
It’s almost time! — The tents are in place. Most of the displays are built. Airplanes are already parked by the thousands in EAA voluminous parking areas. The campground and every hotel room for miles is packed full. While the usual pandemonium reigns the night before opening, it is a familiar scene that somehow, almost magically resolves into a ready-to-go show on opening day only hours away, tomorrow, Monday July 20th, the earliest start to AirVenture Oshkosh in years.
Today, I got a text — thank some tech guru for inventing text, which always seems to get through quickly even when phone calls do not, with hundreds of thousands of attendees all using their smartphones at the same time.
The text from The Airplane Factory USA‘s Matt Liknaitzky read, “Mike [Blythe] and Patrick [Huang] are arriving in the Sling 912 iS … if ya wanna see them.” We did, so we dashed north to the North Aircraft Display Area space.
Sleeker Is Better In Electric-Propelled Aircraft
If you’ve been following exciting developments like the Airbus/Pipistrel/Cri-Cri English Channel crossing, or for that matter any of the electric airplane developments, you should know that the ideal electric-powered aircraft today are the very lightest weight machines.
However, another quality is just as important while we wait for scientists to significantly amp up the energy density of batteries. That quality is sleekness and I’ve been watching a Norwegian project from Equator Aircraft. Airplanes don’t get much sleeker than this.
If it needed to be even more intriguing, consider that this project comes from a team that has also been involved with seaplanes, so how about a two-seat electric seaplane? OK, it isn’t ready yet but this is one I will continue to follow closely. Following is some detail on this fascinating entry that again suggests the tip of the spear in LSA design seems intently focused on seaplanes.
Equator’ Aircraft P2 Excursion (abbreviated EQP2) is envisioned as a performance hybrid amphibian aircraft.
Riding the Wave … Vickers’ Wave, That Is
As I’ve written a few times, I see a dichotomy in LSA designs. Landplanes appear to have entered a “mature” phase, where changes are incremental, evolutionary rather than revolutionary, if you will. I see nothing wrong with that. To the contrary, it speaks to an industry that knows where it is going and how to achieve design goals. Electric propulsion is still stirring things considerably (witness several recent articles here and elsewhere) but electric motors can work on landplanes or seaplanes.
To my view, it appears the lead in the most innovative design is being done in LSA seaplanes. Perhaps this was triggered by Icon and their A5. The California entry is handsome and well enough marketed to collect many orders. While finally coming to market A5 has been a decade in preparation. This left the door open for more highly innovative entries
Meanwhile existing designs such as Searey and Super Petrel have been much refined and have demonstrated meeting ASTM standards with Searey also achieving Chinese Type Design Approval.
MVP.aero’s “Omniplane” Tour
You have to love the English language (or maybe hate it for the same reason): New words keep arriving in conversations. Team MVP used the term “triphibian” to mean a Light-Sport Aircraft seaplane entry that could land on runways, waterways, or snow. Of course, many amphibious seaplanes could make a similar claim so perhaps it took something even better. Enter “Omniplane.” Is this the plane that can do it all?
In May of 2015, MVP.aero went on tour, hitting the west coast area known as Silicon Valley, then traveling over 2,000 miles to Daytona Beach, Florida … as luck would have it, right to my home airport of Spruce Creek (technically in Port Orange, Florida). The airplane was trucked across the country as today it is only a well-traveled mockup while the company raises funds to complete engineering and enter production.
Silicon Valley and Spruce Creek are excellent places to seek investors that understand the magic.
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