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New Year, New Airshows, New Flying Machines — Affordable Aircraft Plus Bigger, Faster Mosaic LSA

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You know what modern-day aviators have that is wonderful? Choice! Lots of choice.
The truth is you have so many choices that this website offers perhaps its most useful function: helping you sift through the many aircraft you could fly. If you find a number of aircraft you like, how can you narrow your choices to find the one that best fits your needs?
Find Your Dream Plane
Maybe you haven’t explored these features but you might find them fun and worthwhile.
Check these one-of-a-kind offerings:

PlaneFinder 2.0 — Answer a few this-or-that questions; system reduces a long list to matching aircraft
SLSA List — Every Light-Sport Aircraft that has won FAA acceptance with links to more info
Part 103 List — For those who want fun flying machines that won’t exceed their budget; loaded with links
Advanced Search — Search through brands, models, or other providers on our extensive database
LSA Market Info — Search the most comprehensive record of all LSA and SP kits in America; sort many ways

Like everything on this website, all these features are free for the using (although email is requested to use PlaneFinder 2.0).

Made for Mosaic? Scissortail Aerosport Imports G750 wth 2+2 Seating

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Are you ready for Mosaic? Let’s be crystal clear. You have almost no time left to comment on FAA’s proposed rule. Mere days remain before the comment window closes. (Comment links at bottom)
However, we won’t see Mosaic LSA for many months yet. …Or, is that wrong? In this article, we look at G750, a 2+2 seat Mosaic LSA candidate.
Mosaic as a completed regulation is still 16 months away, according to FAA’s oft-repeated statements about how long they need after comments have closed. The agency has a lot of work remaining on this proposed regulation.
After a group of maintenance organizations asked for more time, FAA extended the comment period to January 22, 2024. That means you have less than one week left as this article is posted. After that, FAA begins huddling internally to review all comments and make other changes (and hopefully fix a number of weak areas; see other reporting on Mosaic).

Top 50 Video: Back Yard Flyer — One of Most Requested Models Among Affordable Aircraft

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Over many years, one of the most consistently requested aircraft is Back Yard Flyer. Even the name sounds affordable, doesn’t it?
While you can’t get this one any longer, about 20 are flying and some pop up on aviation sale listings. In its day — before Valley Engineering decided to cease building and focus on their Culver (wood) Prop enterprise — Back Yard Flyer attracted wide interest, rising steadily to be one of our Top 50 videos of about 1,000 produced.
Part of the reason for keen interest was an airframe that quickly folded in a unique for easier storage. Built primarily of welded aluminum, the airplane looked tough yet managed to stay within Part 103 tight constraints.
Another reason for strong interest in this simple flying machine was its four-stroke engine, modified from a Generac engine. At the time, 2010 or so, four stroke on genuine Part 103 ultralights was extremely rare.

LSA Pilot Review of a Multicopter: Lift Aircraft’s Part 103-Eligible Hexa

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Ready or not, new flying machines are headed our way. Correction, they are already here and a wave of similar entries could follow (see earlier reports). The earliest market-ready arrivals qualify under FAR Part 103.
I believe this website needs to report these aircraft, so with pleasure, I announce the following to be perhaps the first multicopter pilot report from “one of us.” Scott Severen is a longtime LSA pilot, the importer of Jabiru aircraft, and the newly-elected President of LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. Scott offers his impressions as one of the very first non-company pilots to fly one of these aircraft.
Some call them multicopters (me). Some prefer eVTOL. C’mon, have you said a mouthful like “eVTOL” to any non-pilot? …or even to most pilots? They look at you blankly, “Huh?” Marketers of these aircraft have yet to settle on a catchy word to identify them.

Top 50 Video Review: Lisa Akoya, an Innovative, Sleek LSA Seaplane

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“Lisa Akoya: You’ve Never Seen Anything Like It,” trumpeted the lead image. Ten-year-on translation: “You’ve never seen it.”
Inspired design, cutting edge ideas, elegant sleekness, and unique features set the French LSA seaplane apart and may inspire successive designs but Lisa’s Akoya never made it to market.
No wonder,” exclaimed some! More than a decade back, they approached a retail price of $400,000. After ten years of dollar inflation, that number would be way past $500,000 today.
Remarkable as it may be to those of us with normal incomes, buyers for high-end products seem often to emerge. Cirrus and their steady sales of million-dollar-plus four seaters is proof of that. To appeal to such well-heeled pilots, a company better deliver a beautiful, functional, well-supported aircraft. Doing that expertly at a premium level gets expensive.
Here’s Looking at Lisa
Lisa Akoya dates to the very beginning of Light-Sport Aircraft. In 2004, two aviation enthusiasts, Erick Herzberger and Luc Bernole, established Lisa Airplanes in the heart of the French Alps.

Simple, Light, Affordable… Why Recreational Flying Can Soar in 2024

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Simple, light, and affordable is not a throwaway line. Each word is pivotal.
Like many of you, I have enjoyed the advancing development of the LSA space, leading to Mosaic LSA in about 15 months. Additional operational capabilities plus features like autopilot, synthetic vision, and powerful, compact engines… all these can build a very exciting airplane.
With Mosaic, the list gets even longer: more weight, more seats, more powerful engines, plus retract, adjustable props, even aerial work for entrepreneurs (see full list). Wonderful, I agree. Some pilots have asked for more and industry with FAA have been working to achieve these potentials.
Yet this is a path to ever-more complex (and expensive) aircraft. Have you been waiting for Mosaic LSA? If yes, your wishes may be answered in 15 months. If not, please continue reading.
Simple, Light, Affordable — All three words are key. Much depends on your aviation goals.

News Wrap — A60 Junkers Takes Maiden Flight, Icon Launches Higher, Rotax Record Year

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As the end of the year approaches and as excitement builds for 2024, I have some news items of interest to the light aircraft community.
Right before Christmas, read about the maiden flight of Junkers side-by-side A60, a year-end recap provided by Icon Aircraft, and year highlights from leading engine producer Rotax Aircraft Engines. Let’s get started…
Junkers A60 Flies!
Earlier this year, Junkers garnered lots of attention with their highly distinctive A50 Junior, an LSA with tandem seating and a look you won’t forget. Not everyone loves tandem, though, so here comes A6o, the side-by-side sibling of Junior.
We saw Junkers Aircraft‘s’ A50 Junior at Sun ‘n Fun 2023, where it made a splashy debut and flew for the first time in front of American pilots off the grass strip in Paradise City (the airshow within an airshow at Sun ‘n Fun). While most who examined it closely admired the detailed workmanship that went into it, not everyone desires tandem seating.

AVI’s Affordable, Foldable, Composite Part 103 Ultralight Aircraft Gets a Fresh New Look

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Aeromarine LSA’s Chip Erwin is one but certainly not the only busy fellow in the modern Part 103 aircraft space. AVI’s Radu Berceanu is another a man on the move. Chip works in metal. Radu works in composite. You know Chip better (he’s adept at PR) but you probably know Radu’s designs. Readers have responded enthusiastically to articles and videos about Swan.
In an earlier article I promised a video look.  Now that the flying season is easing into the holidays, I have more time to spend editing videos. What takes a few minutes to shoot takes hours to edit but I’m pleased to let you hear from Radu himself. His English is quite good and you get a lot of views of the new & improved Swan, now called Swan LE.
Fresh Swan Retake
The article from April this year had additional detail for Swan LE and mentions Dracula, the subject of a future video and article.

“…and a Darkness Descended…” Solar Eclipse Spectacular for Pilots at Mt. Vernon (KMVN)

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You know Mt. Vernon, or you should. For 15 years, I’ve reported from, recorded videos at, and given talks at the Midwest LSA Expo, which is held at the Mt. Vernon, Illinois municipal airport, about an hour’s drive east of St. Louis.
Normally at Mt. Vernon, “It’s all about the airplanes!” It will again be so come September 5-7, 2024 — more on that below.
However, in April 2024, here comes something different and special for pilots at Mt. Vernon.
Going Dark
Out went the Message — “Calling all Midwest LSA Expo Attendees, AirVenture Cup/Air Race Classic Racers, KR/Ercoupe/Fly-Baby Builders/Flyers, Bonnie Aviator Club Members, CAA Members, and all Area Aviators!”
What?! Is KMVN manager Chris Collins simply asking very early for pilots to attend September’s LSA Expo. Nope! The announcement continued…
Mother Nature will provide an airshow at KMVN not to be seen again until 2044!
“Join us at KMVN at approximately 2:00 pm on Monday, April 8, 2024 to experience a 4-minute solar eclipse.

Humble Triangle — Innovative Glider Control Mechanism Has a Nearly Unknown History

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When Wilbur and Orville set out to fly their first airplane 120 years ago, aeronautical knowledge was rare and precious. Pioneers like Lilienthal preceded the Wright Brothers but the Ohio bike shop owners still had to figure out almost everything. They did so without funding, university degrees, or government help. Today, nearly every aviator celebrates their December 1903 achievement.
Aviation is a many-varied activity, though, and not all aircraft followed the same development path. Especially after World War II and the arrival of kit-built aircraft, American aviators began exploring in many directions.
Around the time NASA was pushing hard to land on the moon, a growing group of enthusiasts were jumping off mountains in pursuit of flight. Hang gliding soared into sky in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Enthusiasts grew to more than 100,000 active hang glider pilots globally, flying in nearly every country on Earth, perhaps as the most affordable of all aircraft.

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