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.
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A Seaplane You Can Afford; Aero Adventure Begins a New Chapter for the Aventura Line
Here’s the backdrop of today’s update on the LSA seaplane sector as summer approaches.
According to Law360, an online legal news source, “Light-Sport Aircraft manufacturer Icon Aircraft filed for Chapter 11 protection in Delaware bankruptcy court with more than $170 million in debt and plans for an asset sale and liquidation.” You may have read (here) that Icon got an initial offer of $13.5 million. As an industry contact told me for the earlier report, “That would hardly make a dent in their liabilities.” The person was right, it appears. A proposed new buyer referenced in the earlier article agreed to take on Icon’s debt but the sales must still go through an auction process, I was told.
OK, let’s come back to Earth… or water perhaps …or either. Aero Adventure continues to fly as it has for three decades (though management has changed at least three times over the period).
Simple, Light, Affordable… Why Recreational Flying Can Soar in 2024
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 — Lift Offers Part 103 Hexa for Work; Aero Asia Success Points to 30th Anniversary Event
As I recently wrote about Aerial Work for Mosaic LSA, perhaps it’s fitting to write about Part 103 vehicles doing commercial work.
But isn’t flying for hire prohibited in Part 103? Yes, it is.
However, “public use” aircraft do not have to meet FAA aircraft certification regulations nor operating limitations. “Public use” can include activities like police, fire, rescue, border patrol, and similar typically government functions whether provided by federal, state, or local agencies. In short, government departments at all levels get special privileges.
This means little to pilots unless you are one flying for a government agency. For the producers, however, this can mean potentially lucrative sales. In the case of Part 103 multicopter producers it may represent a means of market entry.
In this article I reference an aircraft covered before called Hexa (earlier article, with more aircraft detail), designed and built by Lift Aircraft in Austin, Texas.
Elephants and Gyroplanes… What on Earth Could They Have in Common? Freedom!
One of the brightest stars in the Mosaic regulatory constellation is allowing LSA to do “aerial work.” In today’s LSA, the only compensated activities Americans can perform are flight instruction and limited towing operations. Any more is prohibited by SP/LSA regulations. Why is this important?
Since 2014, LAMA has explained that light aircraft could be used productively for many work missions, although the Association was careful to stress that it was not advocating for passenger or cargo hauling. Many other aerial working activities were demonstrated to FAA. Agency rule writers agreed and the opportunity is coming with Mosaic.
Admittedly, the community does not yet have all the information needed on what pilot credentials will be required to use Mosaic LSA for aerial work, but as the agency weighs comments and discusses this internally, we hope Flight Standards (which manages such things) will remain as reasonable as the Aircraft Certification group.
In this article I am pleased to observe one credible use of an LSA to do some serious aerial work.
Affordable, Fun, and a High Payload… What’s Not to Love about Powrachute’s AirWolf?
Last summer, when EAA AirVenture Oshkosh exploded with news that FAA released Mosaic, nearly all the attention was on increased weight and speed, and capabilities like retractable gear, controllable props, even multiengine or turbine aircraft. Christmas in July, I called it, so plentiful were FAA’s gifts to pilots and industry.
While all these items will add capability, they also increase prices. Is that what you want? Let me guess not for most readers. This website thrives on affordable aviation. Features that add substantial cost limit affordability.
Mosaic will trigger a bifurcation within the LSA community and it goes something like this: If you like the airplane you have now, you probably will not like the price of a Mosaic LSA. However, if you feel constrained in weight-carrying capacity or speed or if you want multiple engines, then Mosaic may address your wishes.
The great news? You can have it both ways.
AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 Is Done; Here’s an Overview Done On-Air with EAA Radio
It’s all over — EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, the world’s largest-attendance airshow event. It’s a delicious, if somewhat overwhelming, drink out of a firehose for an entire week.
Oshkosh has something for every pilot and more than any one person can see.
I’ll mention this news briefly as I wish to pay respect to fellow pilots. Two crashes on the weekend after we departed resulted in four fatalities reportedly including one passenger. My sincere condolences to the surviving families. Oshkosh has had safe years with no loss of life but when so many airplanes assemble, mathematical odds suggest a crash is going happen despite heroic efforts to make the event as safe as possible.
During the week of Oshkosh, a few days were rather warm. Cooling rains came mostly at night, sparing the airshow but surely soaking campers in tents. The campgrounds were full to the edges and EAA opened multiple other locations to handle the overflow.
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 — Set-up Day Tour to Whet Your Aviation Appetite
Do you know when you’re an airshow junkie, ‘er… enthusiast? Answer: When you actually enjoy observing the set-up process. I’ve made the following observation many times.
The night before opening, with literally hours before the show starts, the place appears in a state of chaos. Pandemonium reigns. Vehicles, crates, equipment of every kind is seemingly strewn about as if by a storm (which did do some damage on Saturday night, ironically most affecting those who started earlier).
Every show I think, “No way can they get this or that exhibit ready in the 10-15 hours before the main gates open to hundreds of thousands of visitors.”
Yet every show on opening day, I find myself saying, “What?! It’s all done!” Did they work all night? Even if staff was willing to work all night, it seemed unlikely to get the job done mere hours earlier. Maybe it’s magic or Santa’s Elves.
Big, Beautiful, Powerful — The Highly Finished Montaer MC01 with Rotax 915iS
Pilots love airplanes (duh!). Pilots also love engines, especially when they are truly powerful. So, perhaps Brazilian manufacturer Montaer made a market-savvy move by moving quickly to incorporate Rotax’s most potent engine, their 915iS producing 141 horsepower in a turbocharged and intercooled package. The result of Bruno de Oliveira‘s design work is MC01 915 as seen in the nearby photos and in more detail in the video below.
Other powerful engines are available, for example, the even-higher-horsepower Titan from Continental Aerospace. These powerplant designs are sharply different because the Rotax uses a smaller displacement and is physically more compact. The 9-series is also significantly less noisy and it boasts the latest technology from an engine builder cranking out thousands of engines a year (when counting the many non-aircraft engines the Austrian company makes).
I wrote that Bruno moved quickly. That’s because this is a new model, first introduced to Americans only last year.
Aero Showcase — Day One: Inaugural Event Starts Well with Sales Logged
I have long recognized that one of the toughest things a group can do is decide to launch and operate a new event. I think this is probably true outside of aviation as well but it’s certainly tough to do with airshows where weather is one of many factors you need to consider.
With that in mind I would say that Day One of Aero Showcase 2022 — the rebadged and revised version of the five-year-old DeLand Sport Aviation Showcase — should be judged a success.
Coming Together
As I arrived on Friday morning, a weekday and therefore a workday for many, I was pleasantly surprised to see nearly every airplane present had a small cluster of people around it. Organizers benefited from a beautiful day in the mid-70s and the outlook for Saturday is equally good. Weather is forecast in the upper-70s with mostly sunny skies and almost no chance of rain.
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