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Followers of these exciting pioneering days of electric-powered aircraft will be happy to know the  all-electric Waiex just made its maiden flight at Wittman Field, home of Oshkosh Airventure — and Sonex Aircraft. *** John Monnett, head honcho of Sonex, which built the proof-of-concept version of its Waiex kit aircraft as part of its E-Flight Initiative, took the controls for the flight, tasked primarily with breaking out of ground effect to analyze in-flight system performance. *** After landing, John said, “Whew. It’s different! Lot of power.” *** The program started four years ago, and involves the airplane and Sonex’s development of its own proprietary motor, battery and speed controller — all vital parts of electric propulsion technology.Jeremy Monnett, John’s son and CEO/General Manager of Sonex, said the company will test the aircraft over the next several months and has already begun design work on the fourth version of the motor and twelfth version of the motor controller, which will be integrated into the current Waiex test bed.

Dan Johnson’s periodic LSA market share report (compiled by Jan Fridrich of the Czech LAA) reveals some interesting trends. *** For those who haven’t seen these snapshots of the U.S. LSA market before, Dan focuses on FAA registrations, not sales quotes from manufacturers. While this indicator may lag sales figures, over time it gives a more accurate view of who’s actually delivering airplanes to customers. *** The not-surprising but important highlight has to be Piper’s shot in the arm to overall LSA production. *** The venerable company registered 43 airplanes this year (24% of all registrations!) and will no doubt be stronger in 2011 as sales continue to mount for its sexy PiperSport. *** CubCrafters really surged this year with 37 registrations, a 20% market share, on the strength of its 180hp-powered Carbon Cub SS. My local field has one, and it’s quite a performer.

One of the interesting speculations in a recent Wired magazine article on the E-Spyder electric ultralight being developed by Flight Design USA‘s (and FlightStar Aircraft‘s) Tom Peghiny invokes turning the lemony limited range of current early electric aircraft into the lemonade of broadly-applied commercial use — specifically in flight schools. *** The first production E-Spyder, soon to be sold for around $30K, will have no more than 30 minutes of range. Yuneec’s two-seat E430, now scheduled for 2012 debut, aims for a 2 hour flight endurance. *** But two hours clearly is more than enough for the typical local flight lesson. And with spare — and charged — battery pack modules ready to go to quick-swap out of electrical “fuel tanks”, flight schools could run training ops as easily as their current gas engined counterparts. *** No distracting engine noise and frame vibration; no lean/enrich fuel settings; no starter motors or smelly exhausts to deal with.

During my recent appearance on the Powered Sport Flying (Internet) Radio Show, I said I remained amazed that although the western U.S. has a large share of all pilots and airplanes in the country, no western airshow seems to have taken off the way Sun ‘n Fun or AirVenture has. True enough, no west-of-the-Mississippi event comes close in size to the eastern shows, but my comments weren’t fair to steady work by organizers of Copperstate, an event with a 37-year history (nor to the even-larger and older Arlington show or the Golden West event.) These western shows may not be huge, but they reveal an aviation passion. *** This year’s Copperstate will be held in Casa Grande, Arizona — just south of Phoenix — from Thursday, October 21st through Saturday, October 23rd. The 2009 edition reported “more than 6,500 attendees.” I spoke with new LSA enthusiast Steve Bass, Copperstate Fly-In Vice President and Light Sport & Ultralight Committee Chairman.

Those hardworking Sportair guys at North Little Rock Municipal Airport (KORK) in Arkansas are serving more notice that they intend to stay around for the long haul. *** The purveyor of fine LSA (Sting Sport, Sirius, iCub and SeaRey amphib) is now an official FAA-certificated Repair Station for the general aviation community as well. *** The company has been in the aviation biz for 20 years. Ralph Murphy, former Account Manager for a major avionics shop, just joined the party to head the avionics department, which sells, installs, upgrades, repairs and services avionics, radios, instruments, autopilots and related airframe mods. *** Sportair’s President Bill Canino, an ex-USAF and National Guard pilot who’s flown some of the great military airplanes of the 20th Century …and loves flying around in the iCub (that’s him in the rear seat)… says “We have the facilities, the staff and the experience to keep your avionics in tip-top shape.” *** Aircraft owners can get everything from GPS systems to autopilots to glass cockpits to engine monitors and more sold and serviced.

That title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, since the first day of the Midwest LSA Expo here in Mount Vernon, IL was what you’d call winnnnnndy! *** The big storm front grounded our flight of two Evektor SportStar MAXs two hours east of here Wednesday. That was after our long, headwind-bashing flight from Art Tarola’s Allentown, PA AB Flight center that added two extra hours to the journey (glad it was a MAX — super comfortable airplane to fly and spend time in). *** The heat and humidity (95 degrees) at least had 25 knot winds to help keep it bearable all day, but there was no flying to speak of until the last hour of the day when the wind died down. *** I took the opportunity to jump up and shoot a few landings with Bill Canino in his iCub, which was a hoot.