Search Results for : MG 21

For my next column for Plane & Pilot magazine, and to grow a dialogue here on the blog (diablogue?), I’m putting out a call to all Light-Sport pilots across the country (and around the world!) for your input on some topics we all think about and kick around with our flying pals. Think of it as a kind of open ended survey.
I’d appreciate your take on one, some or all of the questions below: whatever you’ve got time for. You can contribute here, on my Facebook page, or send your thoughts direct to a special email I’ve created at this special email address.
I’ll read and compile everything you send and will include your names unless you’d rather remain anonymous. The more concise your answers the better but if it takes more words to share your POV, please feel free to go for it and I’ll do my best to cherry pick the best insights and info.

As fall colors begin to pop their chromatic yumminess on New England, it’s time to do some shotgun Light Sport factoid gathering.
Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo Model Airplane Contest: Pandering shamelessly to the inner kid in all of us, as well as the kids we bring to the event, the LSA event this coming January 17-20 will hold a model airplane contest. Count me in! Five categories – age 6 and under, 7-10, 11-14, 15-18 and Adult give everybody a chance to walk away with a prize. Can I sign up in the 11-14 category or are these biological age groups?
Just back from a car trip down to the friendly crew at New Garden Flying Field southwest of Philadelphia, where Airport Manager Jonathan Martin made me welcome so I could finish up the photo side of my story on the Pipistrel Alpha Trainer which runs in the next issue of Plane & Pilot magazine.

One of the most storied companies in the entire light airplane space is Quicksilver. Their iconic models have populated the skies more than any other recreational aircraft brand… yes, more than Van’s (7,000+), Rans (4,500+), and Challenger (2,500+) combined! In fact, in 2002 and 2003, Quicksilver by itself outsold Cessna, Piper, and Beechcraft combined! Now, that’s a performance any aircraft company would love to match.
Recently this company, which has what our nation’s president might call “a good narrative,” acquired new ownership, the fourth such transition in the five decades it’s been in existence. Quicksilver Manufacturing became Quicksilver Aeronautics. Thanks to increased energy and fresh directions from Will Escutia and Dan Perez, the California company is attracting new retail businesses to become part of Team Quicksilver. One of the newest is Flying & Living LLC, located in Queretaro, Mexico. Here’s another reason for envy from other producers.

This has been a tough semi-decade for people in the Light Sport industry with big ideas. And for people everywhere with this kind of thinking: ”Hey, let’s throw a few million bucks at this mega-concept and see if it changes the world!” *** Cessna’s Skycatcher endured a couple non-recoverable spins and parachute deployments in its intensive test program en route to earning SLSA certification. The process delayed deliveries by a couple years and no doubt the setbacks cost the aviation giant an uncomfortable percentage of its initial 1,000 pre-orders (Cessna has never divulged just how many orders it lost). *** Not long after the LSA category was made official in 2004, Icon Aircraft writ its name in stars across the promotional universe with one after another high-profile, flashy presentations at major air shows. Its beautiful, all-composite A5 amphibian also garnered a lot of pre-order support from a new customer base dazzled by the A5’s heavily-pitched fun-in-sun, jet-ski-like utility and ease of operation.

Vertical Power has a cool line of electronic circuit breakers that make it easy to monitor the status of your electrical system.  *** With so many LSA going to glass cockpits, having general and specific information about the state of your electrics displayed right on your EFIS screen is crucial to safe flight. *** The company’s VP-X Sport and VP-X Pro modules now work with many popular EFIS display panels. Most recent to jump on board is the popular Dynon SkyView 7″ and 10″ EFIS display panel systems, which Dynon’s Robert Hamilton expects to be fully integrated by the end of this year. *** Both VP-X units will also display with other popular panels from AFS, GRT, MGL and Garmin G3X.   *** The concept is simple and powerful: to allow monitoring of the overall health of electrical systems, view and control the status of individual circuits, and respond to circuit faults.

Top General Aviation manufacturer *** Cirrus Aircraft, which makes the Cirrus line of four-seat, all-composite aircraft, just announced it’s partnering with another composite company, one that’s had its share of delays in getting to market: Icon Aircraft. *** The Icon A5, a sleek, highly-promoted amphibian SLSA, has gathered several hundred orders although the company, formed in 2005, is still in development testing. Its latest production estimate is another year off. *** Cirrus said it expects to add up to 60 jobs at its Grand Forks, N.D., plant as it manufactures a large portion of the A5. *** ICON says it sought the partnership with Cirrus “because of its reputation for quality composite airframes in its SR-20 and SR-22 planes.” *** For its part, Cirrus, which originally planned to rebadge and market a sleek, European-built SLSA of its own back in the beginning of the Light Sport era (2004), says the partnership will give it a horse in the new category.

Edit: There was some confusion after I first posted this a few days before Oshkosh, so I hope this addendum clears things up: *** First Piper, now Cessna…wow, didn’t see this coming. I’m referring to Piper leaving the LSA field after dropping the PiperSport a couple years back. Similarly, Cessna will no longer list the Skycatcher in the LSA category, but…and here’s where there was some misunderstanding, although I do say this in the text below…the aircraft will continue to be produced at its current specs and will still be legal to fly by Sport Pilots. *** —– *** Even though I’m not arriving in Oshkosh until Friday, this newsflash hot off the wire can’t wait. I just picked this up from the Wichita Eagle. In brief, it says: *** Cessna just announced they’ll move the C-162 Skycatcher into the Primary Aircraft category. It will no longer be a Light Sport Aircraft .

Pipistrel in particular seems to be riding the crest of ever-growing reputation. It’s new Alpha Trainer, which I’m scheduled to fly tomorrow morning, lucky me (I’m the first US journalist I think to have the privilege), is already selling and selling well, with at least a couple checks changing hands at the show earlier in the week and another sold by Rand Vollmer, the Southeast Pipistrel go-to guy, today, the $83,000 ($89,000 with shipping from Slovenia and U.S. set up and other costs factored in) is staged to make a big play for individuals and flight schools who are ready for an aircraft that is truly cheap to fly (2 gph in training takeoff/landing circuits, 3-3.5 gph at 107 knot cruise…and all this on an 80 hp Rotax 912!) and representative of a progressive, brilliant design team that promises more exciting developments in years to come. *** Exciting as in the Panthera 4-seat Ferrari-like cruiser that is currently in development for 2013 delivery as a certificated airplane in Europe…2015-6 in the U.S *** Pipistrel is a bold, imaginative company of forward thinkers like company founder Ivo Boscarol, award-winning engineers like project leader Tine Tomazic and savvy marketers like U.S.