Good to Go in China Things are happening in China. “So, what’s new,” you say? “We’ve been hearing about China for months.” Things may move slowly in China but this week, Airshow China is happening in the southern city of Zhuhai and my colleague, Jan Fridrich is present. He reports that some LSA are displayed including Triton’s Mermaid and SC3D (based on the SportCruiser), Flight Design’s CTSW, Colyaer’s Freedom, and some other aircraft he is working to identify. Watch for a followup article. Triton is the new China-based factory run by Chip Erwin. ••• LSA leader CubCrafters gained Type Certificate approval in China for their Part 23-certified Top Cub. General Manager Randy Lervold said they have taken no steps with the LSA models but that they expect to pursue that in the future. Meanwhile, though the company announced the sale of two Carbon Cubs in Europe, they are taking a similarly measured approach using Permit to Fly privileges for now.
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SeaRey Passes FAA Audit, Becomes SLSA #129
Consider this an entry to the “They-said-it-couldn’t-be-done” department. As regular readers know, FAA has been conducting audits with LSA producers… tough, top-to-bottom reviews of every detail in the voluminous ASTM standard set. Last April another company had no less than six FAA personnel in their building for three full days, each armed with a laptop and literally hundreds of questions. Passing one of these grueling tests is a fairly major accomplishment. Then consider FAA amped up the task by saying any new model or first LSA from a new company would probably get one of these thorough inspections before they could enter the market. Progressive Aerodyne hosted such an FAA team to examine their first SLSA candidate and — surprise! — they came out with a certificate. No followup is needed.
So the heartiest of congratulations go to Progressive Aerodyne and their SeaRey. Yesterday they were issued their airworthiness certificate after a visit from five FAA personnel from both Washington, DC and the local Orlando, Florida MIDO (Manufacturing Inspection District Office).
Super Drifter 912 Is Back Home
Things can change and yet stay the same. You can comprehend this paradox by considering the tandem 2-seat Drifter. Drifter production is under new management by someone many regard as a “rightful owner.” Yet the basic flying qualities of the Drifter design are basically unchanged.
As 2007 started, Phil Lockwood again has all rights to the Drifter as part of a design, tooling, and inventory deal that rescued the Drifter and 2-seat twin-engine Air Cam from an uncertain future with investor Antonio Leza, who ran the operation for a few years.
Lockwood is associated with the Drifter due to his many years of work with the design. He once worked for Maxair proprietor Denny Franklin who pioneered this enduring shape. In the rough and tumble days of early ultralights, Franklin lost control of Drifter ownership and for a time the design wandered. More correctly, the new owners failed to take the Drifter forward and instead merely exploited its popularity.
Grand LSA News Wrap-Up… Pre-Oshkosh
CESSNA’S DISCOVER FLYING
I met new business leader for the Skycatcher LSA, Tracy Leopold, at Sun ‘n Fun 2012 where she confirmed the Wichita giant’s support for their lightest aircraft, now being assembled in Independence alongside other Cessna models. As summer began, Tracy’s Skycatcher group amped up their game with a program called Discover Flying Challenge. *** After hiring eight university graduate flight instructors — plus a ninth to act as dispatcher — the team took off in all directions and will reunite again at AirVenture 2012. Meanwhile, the youthful team is visiting Cessna Pilot Centers and non-CPC FBOs plus fly-ins and air shows all the while doing what college grads do these days: updating Facebook and Twitter feeds and blogging about their activities. *** “We wanted to do something different, something that would get the attention of the next generation of pilots while at the same time getting the Skycatcher in front of the public,” explained Tracy.
Tecnam Offers Bargain-Priced Echo Classic Light
Major Italian producer Tecnam today announced the launch of the P92 Classic Light microlight. This is the seventh-generation model in Tecnam P92 range of airplanes, which this year celebrated 20 years of production. The company reports that over two decades of service, “P92’s worldwide fleet now stands at nearly 2,000 aircraft with 200,000 flown hours. The P92 Classic Light is the 13th variant and follows on from the launch earlier this year of both the P92 Tail Dragger (video) and P92 SeaSky Hydroplane.
In concert with the international announcement, Tecnam North America confirmed it will launch the new P92 Echo Classic Light priced at $74,999 through to the end of 2012. For those that recall the original promise — of a fully-built LSA for about $60,000 — this price meets that expectation if you only factor in the time value of money, that is, $60,000 in 2003 (the year before SP/LSA) is $75,459 in 2012 dollars.
Long, Winding Approval Tale — SLSA #128
A most remarkable thing happened recently. No, I don’t mean the sudden resignation of EAA president Rod Hightower. I refer to a recent (September 27, 2012) approval of a brand new Special LSA. Why is that noteworthy, especially as it is #128 on our SLSA List? Everyone in the business of LSA and most other alert readers have followed the long, winding, still-evolving path of FAA approvals in the fall of 2012. Specifically, FAA has released an order that says any new model from an existing LSA supplier or any LSA from a new company must be blessed by FAA headquarters in Washington DC. The Aircraft Certification branch must be informed first and an inspection judged necessary cannot be done by a DAR (Designated Airworthiness Representative… the people who have approved all other nearly 3,000 LSA in America). Under the new dictate, any new-model approval must be done by an FAA Air Safety Investigator.
LSA Not Durable Enough…? Nonsense! Here’s Proof
Again, I heard a common refrain. This time was at the recently concluded AOPA Summit 2012 in Palm Springs, California. I was speaking with some GA fellows, the kind — like so many — that know well of Light-Sport Aircraft but have opinions about them based on speculation or heresay. This time it was the familiar, “LSA are nice little airplanes, but they are too lightly built to hold up to the duty of a traditional flight school environment.” I’ve heard this statement so many times I’ve lost count.
Right before the above conversation, I had been visiting with my editor/publisher friend Ben Sclair of GA News fame and Kitfox Aircraft co-owner John McBean. Ben and I were admiring a handsome tundra tire-equipped, taildragging Kitfox that looked immaculate — as John’s airplanes usually do. Truly, it looked almost new. It was not. I told the GA “experts” in the opening conversation that they needed to go look at this particular Kitfox to see how well a LSA can endure flight training.
Flying the Airplanes of Sebring 2012… (Part 2)
LSA America builds the Czech-designed Allegro in America as one of the first companies (but not the last, I suspect) to cross the Atlantic. Ironically, this results in an aircraft less expensive than other LSA that come from Eastern European countries where we once thought low wages and high aviation skills would upset U.S. airplane manufacturing. Funny how life works out, and in only six or seven years. *** Doug and Betty Hempstead, who used to import Allegro from Fantasy Air, took a long and winding road to American production finally teaming up with another developer in Roseburg, Oregon. When the other company shut down the Hempsteads had to start all over again. Finally they succeeded in bringing the Allegro to U.S. manufacturing under the company name LSA America. The North Carolina company was visible at Sebring 2012 where I took an opportunity to fly a Made-in-the-USA Allegro.
Van’s Announces Fully Built (SLSA) RV-12
Honestly, I didn’t expect much LSA news at AOPA’s Summit in Palm Springs, California this week. Despite several LSA on display (Kitfox, Evektor, Flight Design, Arion, Jabiru, SportCruiser, Skycatcher, and CubCrafters), the AOPA event is not a common place for Light-Sport announcements. Certainly I didn’t expect the world’s largest * supplier of kit aircraft to offer a fully built Special LSA.
Van’s Aircraft, Inc.. reported, [We are] pleased to announce a new program to build completed, fly-away, RV-12s.” The Aurora, Oregon company detailed a working agreement with Synergy Air to manufacture the airplanes in the U.S.A. Synergy Air is a well-established company providing instructional seminars, videos, and builder assistance to complete kit airplanes, located at the Eugene, Oregon airport.
Van’s noted, “Nearly 200 kit-built RV-12s have been completed and flown as ELSA and EAB aircraft, accumulating thousands of hours in the hands of typical pilots.” Under LSA rules, the company famous for their line of RV models had to fully build one RV-12 in order to sell ELSA kits.
LSA Seaplane Invasion …Can It Happen?
What’s going on out in the marketplace? More than any time since the launch of Light-Sport Aircraft in 2004, I have not observed such a frenzy of activity for a particular niche, this time for LSA seaplanes. Next season, in 2013, we could see no less than nine entries; three brand new and that count does not include any LSA equipped with floats, possibly adding several more. Yet some major potholes appear in the runway… or perhaps that should be waves sloshing over the bow.
One entry is a return of a LSA seaplane previously seen in the USA as the Freedom S100 (SLSA List #44) yet can it reenter the market without a full FAA audit? See Update at end. A new agency directive with the catchy name 8130.2G CHG 1 may require a FAA visit to Spain but who knows when that might occur, given the likelihood of an FAA budget cut through the political process known as sequestration, part of the so-called “fiscal cliff” the mainstream media drones on about endlessly.
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