Metal or Fabric… that’s mainly been your choice when you look at LSA that can venture into unimproved landing strips. Composite aircraft with snugly-faired wheels and slippery, shiny exteriors usually stay on civilized airports. You’ve never seen a Cirrus land on a rocky creek bed, have you?
Czech producer TL Ultralight has started down this path and showed a mockup (using images) at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024.
Additionally, recent years have seen several high wing models introduced by LSA manufacturers known for their low-wing designs. High wing aircraft are often considered more versatile on floats or on big tundra tires, though we’ve seen low-wing variations like Bristell’s tundra tire-equipped TDO (Tail Dragger Option).
Thanks to a well-established production facility paired with computer-aided design, importer TL Sport Aircraft will take its all-composite Sirius into backcountry flying.
Summer Celebration
Oshkosh brings out the best in new aircraft.
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Where Is the World Headed with Low-Altitude Airspace Freedom?
With the excitement of EAA’s summer celebration of flight — AirVenture Oshkosh 2024 — slowly beginning to fade from headlines, this might be a good time to broaden our outlook.
AirVenture features aircraft from everywhere and of every conceivable type. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of airplane-examining pleasure and thoroughly covers nearly every aspect of aviation, from foot-launched powered paragliders to multiengine warbirds and everything in between.
Some were searching for the newest innovations, by which such attendees may mean drones, UAVs, multicopters, eVTOLs… whatever you might choose to call them. Finding these machines at KOSH was much less obvious perhaps because the truth is, Yankee pilots remain focused on aircraft they can get in and fly using their own skills.
American Dream
We live in a country of great aviation freedom and lots of wide open spaces. Those of us interested in flying light aircraft for the sheer enjoyment of it can do so in way the rest of the world can barely comprehend.
Flight Review: Riding the Shark!
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is a wise old saw, and my initial impressions of the Shark were all very positive. Some aircraft look like they’re moving even when they’re standing still, and the Shark definitely falls into this category. From the tip of the sharp-looking spinner to the top of the swept-back fin, it’s easily the sexiest-looking microlight I’ve ever seen. Indeed, my first thought is that it looks rather like a scaled-down PC-21.
Walking around the aircraft, I note that the 100-hp Rotax 912S is very tightly cowled, and that access to the engine bay is adequate, but not outstanding, as quite a lot of Camloc fasteners need to be undone to remove the entire cowling for a full engine inspection. There’s a large electrically actuated NACA scoop in the bottom half which supplies air to the oil cooler and radiator, and small intakes in the top half on both sides of the spinner for cooling the cylinders.
Buying Used: Aeronca Champ—A Plane That Deserves Your Respect
The Aeronca Champion might be the Rodney Dangerfield of light aircraft. The plane, which has historically played second fiddle to the Piper Cub, doesn’t get the respect it deserves, according to its fans. “Take all the light planes from that era and look at which offers the best characteristics… I would place the Champ at the top,” argues John Weigel, a Boston area pilot who twice flew a Champ from coast to coast. “I love the Cub,” he says, “but the Champ has no bad qualities. And if I’m taking someone up with me, I’ll take it over other similar planes every time.”
When compared to the Cub, as well as the Luscombe, Taylorcraft and Cessna 120 and 140, among other tailwheelers, the Champ is easier to get into, offers more comfort, has better visibility, more forgiving landing gear and is probably the better training/low-time pilot aircraft. All are good reasons to consider a Champ if you’re looking for a simple, relatively inexpensive and fun to fly aircraft.
If It Flies Like a Duck and Floats Like a Duck, Maybe It IS a Duck
Article Updated July 17, 2024 — After this article was posted, Miguel Rosario reported, “Duck is still in tests. Now we will install a 912 ULS 80-horsepower engine, as requested by future customers.” He continued, “Molds are under construction for production, which we hope to start in three months” (approximately October 1, 2024). He finished, “I will keep you updated on all developments regarding Duck.” —DJ
You probably know Seamax. This longtime, performance-oriented LSA seaplane was one of the first to make a splash in the U.S. light aircraft market way back in December, 2007.
Today, regretfully, the Seamax company is going through some very difficult circumstances as noted in this State of the Seaplane Sector report. We don’t know the end of those stories yet.
Nonetheless, Seamax M-22 designer Miguel Rosario remains active. You can’t keep a good man down but apparently you can keep him on the water.
Longest-Running Midwest Event Celebrates 16 Years — GO! FLY! MORE!
Let me be clear — I think the Midwest Aviation Expo is the premiere event I’ve ever attended for pilots to take demonstration flights in several aircraft as they consider a purchase. That’s a major benefit.
Sure, Sun ‘n Fun, Aero Friedrichshafen, and AirVenture Oshkosh are far larger… and that’s the problem. Size does matter but not always the way you think.
At these wonderfully huge events, you have so much to see and so many people to talk to that you cannot get to everyone. When you do end up in the front of a waiting line to talk to a vendor, you may have be quick as many others are waiting and the vendor wants to serve all the customers he or she can. The sheer size of these events also means literally miles of walking on some days. I don’t even want to mention the lines of plastic portapottys baking in the sun.
Gas Pains — The Latest Mayhem Surrounding a High-Octane Avgas Replacement
The ongoing issue of finding a replacement for leaded avgas took an ugly turn recently after Cirrus advised owners that use of anything other than an “approved” fuel would likely invalidate the engine warranty. “Per Continental and Lycoming, only approved fuels may be used for an engine to be covered by warranty. As the GAMI G100UL fuel is a non-approved fuel per Continental and Lycoming, engines known to have run this fuel may not be covered by the OEM engine warranty. For specific details, please refer to the respective Continental and Lycoming engine warranty documents,” Cirrus said in a statement. “While some aspects of the initial Cirrus testing of the GAMI G100UL fuel are encouraging, other areas, including materials compatibility, remain inconclusive.”
At issue is that the GAMI fuel has not been submitted to the ASTM for “approval” but has received FAA approval in the form of a Supplemental Type Certificate that applies to virtually every spark-ignition aviation engine made.
Inside the Transatlantic Crossing of the Risen
We recently reported that the newest version of the sleek, retractable-gear Risen had made a successful transatlantic crossing. From what we could piece together from outside accounts and posts on social media, it went well. But here’s a more first-person look at the crossing, from the perspective of the right seat.
Andrea Venturini accompanied designer Alberto Porto on the epic journey across the pond. Here’s his account.
It all started last December, with a phone call I received from Alberto Porto. At the time, I was in Australia doing a report at the Gliding World Championship for theItalianTeam. Onthephone Alberto, designer and builder of the fastest ultralight in the world (430 kph/232 knots), with the simplicity that always distinguishes him, says: ”Andrea, keep yourself free for next June, I’ll detail everything when you return to Italy.”
You can imagine my curiosity in the meantime. A few weeks later, the mystery was revealed: the Risen Superveloce with the brand new Rotax 916 iS must be brought to Oshkosh, to AirVenture, the largest and the most important aviation fair ‘of the Universe.’ I knew well what Oshkosh meant.
Advanced Degree in Rotax-erie
Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in KITPLANES magazine but since so much of the LSA world depends on Rotax engines, we thought this was worth a read here.
Thirteen years into my two-year SeaRey build, OspRey finally had its engine mounted. But when I signed on the dotted line for my new Rotax 914, and with little more knowledge than how to change the oil in my car, I was nervous about my abilities to maintain this expensive engine. Because of this, back in 2014, I attended a weeklong service and maintenance class at Canadian Rotax distributor Rotech Motor, Ltd. Thanks to an excellent hands-on instructor, who acted like he had all the time in the world and a bagful of instructor tricks to teach us, by the second afternoon I had dropped my skepticism and distrust of the price/power ratio of the Rotax engine and was (almost) ready to go out and get a Rotax tattoo.
Buying Used: Flight Design CTs
If you’ve ever shopped for a used sport plane you’ve probably noticed there are almost always a number of Flight Design CT series LSAs up for sale. This shouldn’t be surprising since Flight Design was an early player in our segment of aviation, and in the past two-plus decades the company has sold more than 400 CTs in the U.S. alone.
The planes have proven popular, in part, due to their speed (for an LSA), having a cabin wider than a Cessna 172 and their generous payloads. This article is an introduction to the various CT models, their flight characteristics, and advice for a pre-buy inspection and ownership.
Development
The first CT was produced in Germany by a company that began with hang gliders and paragliders in the 1980s and ultralights in the early 1990s. Now part of LIFT Air Gmbh, Flight Design has faced financial woes over the years, having gone into receivership, and then challenges caused by the war in Ukraine where the aircraft were being built.
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