Search Results for : MG 21

Charles Thomson sounds wise beyond his 21 years, all the better since he’s just started up a flight training operation at Santa Monica Airport (SMO) in the general aviation-dense L.A. Basin. *** Santa Monica Flyers is its moniker, and transplanted Brit and CFII Charlie seems ideally suited to the task of teaching people to fly…since he could easily have died himself in a recent training accident. *** “Starting a flight school came out of my anger and annoyance at my own student pilot experience. I found it too expensive, and during my Commercial check ride, a throttle linkage on the Cessna 172 broke. We were only 1000 feet up in this old airplane with steam gauges; the airplane’s horrible inside and out anyway, and then it breaks and tries to kill me! We had a bad crash.” *** “I feel that training in a Light Sport aircraft has got to be the future of flight training if general aviation is going anywhere.

The day started at 6 with a drive up to the airport in the fog. I sat with Jim Koepnick and friends, waiting for the fog to lift for our 7 a.m. shoot with the PiperSport. *** Never happened. *** Jim’s the long-time head of EAA’s photo department: if you’ve seen some of the zillions of gorgeous photos filling their publications over the last couple decades or so, you’ve seen his top-notch work. *** Jim and EAA editor Mary Jones were gracious enough to offer me a seat in their Cessna 210 photo ship, and we’ll try again tomorrow morning. *** The sun finally broke out, bringing the wind and puffy scud clouds. *** Piper’s long-time unsung hero Bart Jones, with whom I’ve flown countless photo missions over the years (along with P&P’s veteran Senior Ed. Bill Cox), took me up for a demo flight in the lovely new PiperSport.

Scott Severen of Indus Aviation took me through a bunch of upgrades to its T211 Thorpedo — the first U.S. SLSA to earn ASTM certification. *** Among the numerous enhancements include: *** curved glare shield *** numerous instrument panel changes including a stall warning light and horn *** digital compass *** GA-style circuit breakers *** cabin heater that “actually works!” says Scott. *** removed side panels to give more effective cockpit room *** A locking canopy has been added, as well as lumbar-contoured seats which have three inches more supine inclination, a contoured stick with a palm rest and adjustable headrests. I sat in the Thorpedo and found it very comfortable. *** The IFR-equipped (for training) Thorpedo is meant as a flight school airplane. *** Dang nice paint job too!

Two “Lookie what we can do!” stories – one accomplished, one getting under way this week. *** Avweb reports two chommies (Afrikaans for friends) expect to fly their modified D6 Sling light sport airplane around the world! These adventurous lads modified their South Africa-produced, metal LSA (not ASTM certified in the US) to carry up to 118 gallons in each wing for long legs. Long, as in more than 2,000 nautical miles over water. Holy Lucky Lindy, Batman! And people think I’m nuts flying a hang glider. *** Mike Blyth and James Pitman are the pilots. They hope to launch from Johannesburg this Thursday and make a stop at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. I’ll try to snag a shot of them. Bon voyage, guys! *** To follow the adventure Click here. *** NEXT UP in the Let’s Rock LSA Dept. comes from my next-issue column, Light Sport Chronicles.

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Actually, it’s both…and edible!” *** Fresh but larger in girth from the great American pastime of massive calorie infusions and days of leftovers (turkey sandwich/curried Turkey/cranberry yogurt surprise (don’t ask) etc., let’s see whassup around the old info-hangar. *** Looking to e-gab with other light sport enthusiasts? There are some cool sites around with lots of hands-on topics such as training, maintenance, fun flying and more. Here are a couple I’ve come across that seem well-attended: Sport Pilot Talk and South Africa’s AvCom with a look at Light Sport and GA flying in the southern Hemisphere *** Lots of links here to tons of general LSA sites : Light Sport Aircraft HQ *** Flight training resource guide: Pilot Journey *** Experimental/homebuilt and light sport discussions (Jabiru and Rotax forums here): Wings Forum *** BTW: Sebring’s annual Light Sport Aviation Expo is kicking off Jan.

The Icon A5 made a big splash, you should excuse the pun, at last year’s Oshkosh Airventure. The high-profile marketing campaign posits that there’s a whole generation of high-energy recreational enthusiasts looking to own their own flying motorcycle/jet ski, and they’re putting up some hefty investment capital to back up their vision. *** The company took another major step toward finding out whether that vision has legs when ICON Aircraft founder and CEO Kirk Hawkins made his first flight in the prototype on March 11, 2009, as part of the company’s user trials. The flight took place at Lake Isabella in Kern County, CA, site of 45 earlier test hops. *** “I walked into the test flight completely focused on evaluating the aircraft as a potential customer,” said Hawkins. “As an experienced pilot who’s flown everything from ultralights to fighter jets, I expected my reaction to be, ”˜Yep, it flies just like I expected.