Recovering from the mud soup floods that crippled arrivals a few days ago (so many airplanes typically park on the grass), things began to dry out enough yesterday to bring robust opening day attendance, helped in large part by the beautiful weather. Humidity was manageable, temps were in the mid-80s. *** A great start for EAA (which reportedly draws 45% of its yearly revenue from Airventure), with lots to see and talk about. *** Highlights: *** Yuneec, (which seriously needs to update its website), is the Chinese electric aircraft company that blew open the hangar doors of everybody’s electric flight dreams last year with the debut of the beautiful E-430 all-electric S-LSA. They’ve guarded some tasty secrets since, which came to light yesterday. *** I spent a half hour with Managing Director Clive Coote to get updated, here are some highlights (more details down the road, and in my electric flight article which will run in a P&P issue this fall).
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Best LSA Picks of 2010
More than 20 Top LSA You Can Buy
The light-sport aircraft industry hangs in there, although sales numbers, as with general aviation, still struggle to gain safe altitude in the stormy economic skies. Encouraging item: LSA sales in 2009 represented nearly 25% of all GA piston purchases. Another surprise: Most of the 107 models available for sale here and abroad are still in production with more new models in the pipeline! Nobody’s getting rich (this is aviation, remember?), but most makers believe the turnaround will come. That’s the spirit!
And with the Euro taking heat against the dollar lately as Europe goes through its own econoclysm, U.S. prices for foreign-produced LSA could drop. Many airframe makers lowered prices, but the industry still faces challenges: ongoing dyspepsia imbued by the sluggish recovery; market recognition… many people still aren’t aware of what an LSA is, maybe that’s why 20% of all U.S. sales in the U.S.
FPNA A-22 Capetown Amphibian
Capetown RacingLight-sport floatplane that’s a joy to fly
America has far more lakes than airports. By itself, my home state of Minnesota has more lakes than the entire nation has airports. Given this 50:1 advantage, floatplanes or seaplanes make a lot of sense; there are many places you can land, plus you can reach interesting locations you never considered in a land plane.
Lucky me. I’ve gotten to fly lots of light floatplanes and I get a huge smile on my face every time I launch from water or splash down in a lake. The sensation has no match in landplanes. Once you’ve flown a floatplane, you’ll forever look at flying through a new lens.
Imagine flying a mere wingspan above the water, safely|hopping over small islands and zooming down to the water’s surface on the far side, always landing directly into the wind, taxiing up to a dock or beaching on the sand or stopping to do a little fishing while standing on one float.
Budget Builds (Low Cost Homebuilts)
Yes! You can build and fly a “real” airplane for the cost of a new SUV.
Contrary to popular opinion,
airplanes don’t have to be outrageously
expensive-at least not
all of them. The Sport Pilot/Light-Sport
Aircraft initiative is one program that
promises to lower the cost of ready-to-fly
aircraft. But many of these Special LSAs
and Experimental LSAs will be priced
well more than $40,000 and can run
upwards of $85,000.
One way to get airborne for less
than $40K is to choose an ultralight,
powered parachute or weight-shift
trike. But if you want something more
conventional, more comfortable or
larger, you’re likely to find what you
want in the world of kit aircraft. After
all these years, building an Experimental/
Amateur-Built airplane still qualifies
as one of the least expensive ways
to get a get a great airplane into the air
on a reasonable budget.
Our $40K benchmark is designed
to narrow the field for builders on a
budget-and that benchmark means
a completed, ready-for-flight airplane.
FAA Administrator Congratulates LSA… Again!
I’m counting and that’s three times in a row that still-relatively-new FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has maintained his positive view of Light-Sport Aircraft and the industry which produces them. When he was brand new — just a year ago in Oshkosh — Babbitt complimented the LSA safety record at AirVenture 2009. He repeated these congratulatory remarks in a public speech at Sun ‘n Fun 2010. Now he’s tripled down at AirVenture 2010. Here’s what other reporters heard him say… *** Aviation Week posted this (slightly edited) report by Fred George, “More than 300 EAA members stuffed the ‘Meet the Administrator’ forum at Oshkosh on Thursday July 29th, welcoming FAA administrator Randy Babbitt with unusually strong applause. He said he was ‘so impressed’ with the success of Light Sport Aircraft in the aviation industry, pointing out that… more than 3,500 pilots have earned licenses in LSAs in the past six years.
Oshkosh A-Poppin’
Posting from the road: I’m in Illinois covering a major DC-3 75th Anniversary event for Plane & Pilot for the next couple days, then on up to Oshkosh Airventure for the show all next week. I’ll be posting LSA news from the road but before I head out into the super-humid, super hot thunderstormy day, here’s a couple things to look for if you’re Oshkosh bound: *** LAMA Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association headed by Pres. Dan Johnson expects a robust event schedule for Airventure so I’ll bring you updates whenever possible. *** Some tidbits for what’s to come: *** <> The LSA Mall is full again this year even with the sluggish economy. Here’s who signed up: *** <> Flight Design (CTLS) *** <> Remos (GX) *** <> Piper (PiperSport) *** <> Arion (Lightning LS-1) *** <> Rainbow Aviation / 3Xtrim (Navigator) *** <> Breezer Aircraft (Breezer II) *** <> Pipistrel (Virus) *** <> Hansen Air Group / FK Lightplanes (FK-9 ELA) *** <> Tecnam (P-92 Echo Super) *** <> Evektor (Sportstar) *** <> Jabiru, with two models (J-230 and J-170) *** <> X-Air (LS) *** <> Progressive Aerodyne (SeaRey) *** <> IndUS Aviation’s Thorpedo *** <> Renegade Aircraft (Falcon) *** LAMA also signals a surprise announcement from IndUS at the show. *** Aviators Hot Line, the sponsor of the LSA Mall, has a new “Aviators Helping Aviators” promotion to help LAMA members.
Oshkosh Day 3
<> Jan Fridrich , head of Europe’s LAMA, just sent me some intriguing stats from his comprehensive data crunching of S-LSA (or overseas equivalents) official registrations up to now. *** Europe continues to lead overall numbers with just under 1850 total. The U.S. tally is now over 1200. *** Sales have been light for the majority of the 70+ suppliers but there has been some shifting of position in the ranks. The top ten U.S. sellers to date are: *** Flight Design (CTLS, MC) 316 *** American Legend (Piper Cub models) 156 *** CubCrafters (Piper Cub models) 136 *** Tecnam (P2008, several others) 133 *** Czech Sport Aircraft (SportCruiser) 126 *** Remos (Remos GX) 121 *** Jabiru (J-230, -250 etc.) 96 *** Evektor (SportStar Max) 91 *** TL Ultralight (Sting S4, Sirius) 73 *** AMD (Zodiac models) 72 *** You may be interested in how the numbers fall for country of origin of all 3-axis S-LSA registered aircraft: The U.S.
Breezer Aircraft and the New Breezer II
Close to Perfect
It usually takes more than one
try to get something right. To
get close to a perfect aircraft
usually takes many iterations, but
Breezer Aircraft has come very close
to producing a wonderful light sport
aircraft with their Breezer II.
We’ve seen the Breezer before when
the U.S. importer brought the thennew
model to AirVenture Oshkosh
’05. I flew it that year and recently
got the chance to fly the Breezer II.
While many of the good qualities
found in the earlier model were
retained, some nice improvements
have been made. But it isn’t the airplane
that is the real story. As experienced
airplane buyers know, it is
often the company behind the airplane
that is the main story.
Breezer’s Brief Design History
The design history is brief because the Breezer
is a new aircraft, not seen before ’05 except during
its early development. That older, original Breezer
was produced under agreement by Comco-Ikarus,
the same folks that make one of Germany’s bestselling
ultralights (a different class than American
ultralights), the C-42.
The Mid-Year View
I had some fun today talking with Jim Sweeney, guest host of Roy Beisswenger’s Ultraflight Radio Show. *** Our first topic was the state of the LSA industry. I first picked my pal Dan Johnson’s satellite-view brain of the LSA Big Picture to glean we’re looking at an industry that is weathering the economic storm and ready for an upswing. *** Once the economy really ramps up, many observers feel LSA, which remain an incredible bargain compared to new GA airplanes, should pick up smartly. Let’s toast that happy day! *** Meanwhile, Tom Peghiny of Flight Design USA tells me sales are picking up, particularly from his dealer network who are selling their inventory aircraft and ordering replacements. *** We’ll post fresh market stats from Jan Fridrich after Oshkosh AirVenture on FAA registrations through mid-year but in general it’s good to remember that companies are doing whatever it takes to survive in this prevailing market psychology of uncertainty.
FAA To Change ASTM Certification?
News began filtering out today that FAA informed LAMA (Light Aircraft Manufacturers Assoc.) that it is strongly considering imposing new mandates on how S-LSA designs are approved. *** LAMA chairdude Dan Johnson sent a strong message to LAMA members that FAA may require LSA makers to pass compliance audits managed by a team of FAA inspectors, rather than the manufacturer-certified voluntary nature of the certification program as it now exists, where airframe builders can pay for an audit through LAMA, but are not required to do so. *** Earl Lawrence of EAA talked in depth about this development on the Ultraflight radio program Tuesday July 13th; check their archives to hear the full interview. I appeared on the radio show later in the program to talk about the state of the industry and what’s coming with electric LSA. *** I also got more info from Dan on what this portends for the S-LSA industry as a whole.
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