Whew! After ten days in the hot sun, I’m glad Oshkosh is over…but what an event for Light-Sport Aviation. The whole story includes a last few days of whirlwind development climaxing in many new introductions. Folks from Gobosh* brought the all-metal low wing G-700S, an Americanized revision of the AT-3 from Poland. Aero Ltd’s AT-3 was created by Tomasz Antoniewski and a team of engineers known for the Wilga among other designs; it earned JAR-VLA certification in Europe (1999). *** Tim Baldwin and Dave Graham, once associated with the Symphony, won SLSA airworthiness for the G-700S just days before AirVenture 2007 opened. Both men also have business backgrounds in other fields, experience allowing the new company to make an grand entry with a refined product. G-700S comes well equipped for $107,000 to $124,000 and includes a 2-year/400-hour warranty. Financing is available. * “Gobosh” is a acronym borrowed from the go-go technology industry meaning Go Big Or Stay Home.
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LSA Registrations Pass the 1,000 Mark!
After 26 months and a few days, LSA now exceed 1,000 aircraft in the U.S. certified aircraft fleet. That sum represents an annual sales rate of nearly 500 aircraft per year. Since June 1st, another 49 fixed wing aircraft have been added, an annual rate of almost 600 aircraft. *** Of 1,030 registered as of July 1st, 81% or 833 are airplanes, 153 (15%) are weight shift control “trikes,” and 44 (4%) are powered parachutes. No gyros, gliders, or light-than-air have been certified or registered at this time. As always, be aware that FAA registrations may not precisely equal total customer deliveries. *** Our top three leaders — Flight Design, American Legend, and Evektor — held their positions. Tecnam again gained a notch, now occupying the #4 position. Jabiru USA and Remos also moved upward (at least in percentage) and Czech Aircraft Works elbowed into the Top Twelve.
Light-Sport FAA Registrations Continue to Rise
Based on FAA data* from early May, 92 new SLSA registrations brought total SLSA to 930 aircraft, up 11% in one month and up 46% since January 2007. *** For sellers in the market, it has become more crowded. Eighteen months ago the LSA community had certified 16 new models; now, we’re at 50. More choice is great for consumers but it’s challenging for sellers as many choices can slow the purchase decision and new players eat away at market leader shares. *** Despite that observation, the big sellers remain on top. Flight Design retains its leadership position, as does U.S. builder, American Legend (chart). Evektor (#3) and TL Ultralight (#4) held their positions while Tecnam and Fantasy Air moved up one. Some shuffling occurred below the Top Five with U.S. producers AMD and CubCrafters generating more registrations.
StingSport, a Carbon Fiber LSA
A fully loaded, top-of-the-range aircraft
Eastern European aircraft are expected to factor massively in the coming wave of light-sport aircraft (LSA) available to Americans. Several designs have already begun to attract interest as we get closer to approval of the ASTM International consensus standards that will govern the design, construction, and maintenance of these machines. One airplane that generated significant interest at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh for the last three years is the TL-2000 Sting.
Common to designs we’re seeing from Eastern Europe, the TL-2000 Sting from TL Ultralight in the Czech Republic is a sleek, composite aircraft with impressive performance and handling. The Sting series evolved from an earlier TL Ultralight design called the TL-96, and both aircraft cater to the European ultralight market, which has allowed the manufacture of LSA-category aircraft under European microlight regulations. Now, the TL-2000 and TL-96 are being reworked to meet LSA requirements. The planes have been renamed the StingSport and StarSport respectively to designate the aircraft that will be LSA-compliant.
Zlin Savage Cub
[UPDATED — May 2007: Savage Cub is now represented by Savage Aircraft Sales (www.savageaircraftsales.com) located at 6609 Northeim Road, Manitowoc WI 54220; or call (920)726-5260.]
Is the concept of a renewed Cub a phenomenon that developed with
the LSA rule? Actually, no. The Savage Cub has been in production since
1997. An Italian design team created the plane and first built the model
in Italy. In 1999 production was taken over by Zlin Aviation S.R.O. in
the Czech Republic, which has connections to Czech aviation pioneer,
Moravan Aeroplanes, maker of the Zlin all-metal GA aircraft.
[UPDATED — August 2007: Savage Aircraft Sales of Wisconsin took over from former distributor Bob West who used the name North American Sport Aviation. Savage Aircraft Sales is run by Julie & Keith Hartlaub.
Savage earned S-LSA certification just prior to
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2005 and is the only one of the three new Cubs to use Rotax
powerplants, no surprise given the design’s origin in Europe where
Austrian-based Rotax dominates the light aircraft engine market.
Tecnam Sierra — The Italian Job
Before Cessna announced its
light-sport aircraft (LSA) prototype,
the Wichita, Kansas-based
aircraft manufacturer investigated the
airplanes produced by Costruzioni
Aeronautiche Tecnam, aka Tecnam.
Cessna’s interest was likely stimulated
by Tecnam’s 50-year history of
aircraft manufacturing. The company
traces its roots to 1950 and the P48B
Astore. You may also be familiar with
its twin-engine Partenavia series of
aircraft that emerged in the 1970s.
The Pascale brothers founded
Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam
just after World War II, but the company
was reorganized in 1986. Based
today in Casoria, Italy, Tecnam is a
large operation with 36,000 square
feet of facilities near the Naples Capodichino
airport.
A second facility is located
in Capua, where the final assembly
line is adjacent to
an airport where flight tests
are conducted. “Professor”
Luigi Pascale, the 82-yearold
patriarch of Tecnam,
remains the guiding light
of the company. He reportedly
still does all first flights of Tecnam
airplanes. The company’s design approach
is backed with the latest Catia
V5 software, wind tunnel tests, and
close associations with Italian aero
institutes and universities.
FK Lightplanes’ Feature-Laden Fk9 Mk IV
This airplane began life under
B&F Technik Vertriebs GmbH,
a name derived from partners
Dirk Breitkreuz and Peter Funk, who
started the commercial enterprise.
Now, Funk operates the company on
his own and has adopted the worldlier
and less cumbersome name Fk-
Leichtflugzeuge, its English translation
being Fk-Lightplanes. U.S.
distributor Tony Anderson named
his enterprise Fk-Lightplanes USA.
Based in Pembroke Pines, Florida,
Fk-Lightplanes USA calls North Perry
Airport home.
The Funk name is storied in European
light aircraft development,
with more than a dozen original designs
to its credit. Fk-Lightplanes today
produces three airplanes, each
quite different from the other: our
subject airplane this month-the
high-wing Fk9, the low-wing Fk14
Polaris, and a folding-wing biplane
called the Fk12 Comet. I’ve had the
pleasure of flying all three models,
but I think the Fk9 may prove most
popular with American LSA enthusiasts.
Though designed and refined in
Speyer, Germany, the Fk9 and its siblings
are now fabricated in Poland by
workers with decades of experience
building Soviet fighters and transports.
New Look for Xair Import; Xair H
UPDATE 2008: The following article preceded the arrival of the X-Air LS offered by X-Air LSA, certified in 2008 as a Special Light-Sport Aircraft under ASTM standards. The article below appears unchanged from the original, but the airframe is essentially identical. So, while panel changes were made along with a few minor updates, flying qualities reported in the following article should largely match that of the new LSA version.
It was Tax Day, April 15, and I prepared to fly an Xair H (N#929XH) owned by importer Bill Magrini of Light Wing Aircraft. It seemed an appropriate day to forget about what I owed the Internal Revenue Service and to enjoy some ultralight flying. Fortunately, the Xair H didn’t disappoint.
The Xair H isn’t the designer or fabricator’s name for the new plane. When I first saw the then-prototype design at a French airshow in ’02, the new model was named Hanuman, which means little to American pilots.
Jay Kurtz and His RV-9 ELSA!
Jay Kurtz is the owner of South Lakeland airport (X49), where vendors often conduct customer demonstration flights a mere four miles away from Sun ‘n Fun. A longtime participant in ultralight aviation, Jay’s built RANS models, Capella designs, and a “regular” RV-9A. But it’s his second RV-9 that really has him revved up; this one is can be flown by a Sport Pilot! Not possible? Too fast and too heavy? Wrong! Jay’s RV-9 ELSA weighs 906 pounds empty and is headed to 875 pounds with planned weight savings. Powered by a 108-hp Lycoming O-235, speed is prop controlled to reach 134 mph at max continuous power. *** With the required 10 hours now flown off Jay can use the ELSA like any other Light-Sport Aircraft. And he reports the weight reductions to stay under 1,320 pounds gross transformed the ‘9 ELSA. “I approach at 60 mph, 20 slower than the RV-9A!” Jay also raved about handling and slow speed flight characteristics.
Sky Ranger Defines a New Niche
Listening to the aviation media drumbeat about Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft, you could be excused for thinking ultralights had “vanished” and that it now takes $55,000 to $95,000 to buy a light recreational aircraft. Fortunately, this just isn’t so.
We’re beginning to identify the emergence of a middle ground and the Sky Ranger is positioned in this space. According to my Sky Ranger check pilot Ryan Gross, our test plane could be supplied by Sky Ranger Aircraft Company for $40,000 in ready-to-fly form. While this is significantly more than the Sky Ranger 503 kit I flew four years ago, it is about half the cost of the average new 3-axis light-sport aircraft (LSA), though some models, like the Fantasy Air Allegro 2000, are only $15,000 more than the Sky Ranger.
Regardless of how the Sky Ranger Aircraft Company may elect to supply fully-built aircraft versus kits, the design of this airplane was optimized to be a quick and easily-built kit.
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