The Heart of America Sport Aviation Classic is history. Weather and first year challenges conspired to keep the event from achieving its true potential, which illustrates the task of creating a “new Sebring” LSA Expo. These small venues have outsize appeal because they are much more intimate than the big airshows with their tens or hundreds of thousands of attendees. You can talk at length with aircraft sellers and taking a demo flight is… well, it’s practically the whole point. So we did.
We were able to perform a full video pilot report on the CubCrafters Carbon Cub SS. Update 10/9/12; video appears below — The west coast company’s popular model with a potent 180-horsepower engine leaps off the runway with such enthusiasm it can appear a visual trick. Both my videographer and I had a chance to fly with CubCrafters dealer and Rare Aircraft vintage aircraft restoration partner, Ben Redman.
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LSA Seaplane Companies Cluster in Central Florida
Icon Aircraft receives a high percentage of the attention paid to LSA seaplanes. They’ve worked hard on marketing and been quite successful; their Facebook page has nearly 300,000 “Likes!” Yet, as I’ve written, this is a growing subset within the LSA industry with several interesting designs already flying plus new ones to come that are really going to widen people’s eyes. However, some of that remains in the future while we have present-day success stories. If you want a seaplane you can afford and you want it soon, you have several choices, for example: Progressive Aerodyne’s SeaRey and the hot little SeaMax, both of which are SLSA approved, plus Edra Aeronautica’s Super Petrel LS, and in the world of light kits, don’t forget another longtime player, Aero Adventure. The latter Florida company recently reported news.
“Here We Come Tavares,” exclaimed a recent newsletter from Aero Adventure!
Oshkosh 2013 Elements, Part 3: Slide-Out Panel
Elements are basic components of nature. As in our first two parts, I see Oshkosh Elements as worthy ideas other than airframes or engines. One such is World Aircraft Company‘s roller-bearing pull-out drawer instrument panel. Now, if you are like me and don’t spend a lot of time around your airplane with a wrench or soldering iron in your hands, you might not see why this is important. For panels with a collection of round instruments, maybe it isn’t as fetching an idea. Yet I’m willing to guess that nearly every mechanic who reads this or hears of World’s innovation is going to say, “Yes! Why hasn’t this been done before and why aren’t all instrument panels done this way?”
Early this year, I watched while two avionics mechanics maneuvered around the instrument panel in a Flight Design CTLSi. Their task was to install ADS-B hardware to coordinate with the dual-screen Dynon SkyView that fills left and right bays of the instrument panel.
SD-1 Minisport: the First SLSA Single Seater?
We looked at this airplane at AirVenture Oshkosh 2012 (video). At that time the Orem, Utah team presented their wood and composite airplane as a kit. In a year a lot changed and now SkyCraft is pushing ahead with plans for a Special LSA that will be delivered fully built for the modest price of $54,850. CEO Tyler Ives says the company is ready to declare compliance to ASTM standards and after they get a chance to prove that to FAA, the SD-1 Minisport might become the very first single seat Special Light-Sport Aircraft, a distinction that once earned will last forever. The only other candidate presently known is the Tecnam Snap aerobatic LSA. Given that Tecnam has achieved more LSA models than any other company, you should never count them out so the race is on to be the first-ever single seat SLSA.
Sophisticated LSA or “Mere Ultralight?”
I recently flew with a friend who has some interest in learning to fly. After we got out of a Flight Design CTLSi equipped with dual Dynon 10-inch SkyView screens flanking a Garmin 796 — in all, an awesome amount of beautifully presented information — my friend sighed and made a statement that he could probably never do what I’d just done. We’d gone aloft and I pointed out to him the marvels of synthetic vision, ADS-B traffic and weather, direct-to navigation that would take us straight home and so much more. No wonder he felt completely overwhelmed. I didn’t see it as overwhelming, of course. I delighted in all that easily accessed info and loved showing my friend just a few of the features available. However, on later reflection, I remembered the serious study that even an experienced pilot like myself had put into learning those magnificent digital instruments.
End of May 2013 LSA News Wrap
Single Seat Darling — Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had so many new SLSA offerings lately (though don’t look away too long as more are definitely on the way!). Maybe it’s because the new airplane is a single seater. Certainly we have not had many single seater SLSA … well, none so far, but that, too, is going to change with the Snap aerobatic aircraft and the electric-powered Yuneec eSpyder working on SLSA approval as one-place airplanes. It could be the low price tag. No question that a price under $60,000 for a ready-to-fly Special LSA is attractive. However, I’m always amazed at conventional aviation magazines droning on about the “high cost” of LSA when, in fact, we have many aircraft offered at below $100,000, several below $80,000, and a handful for even less the new SD-1 Minisport (and the other low-priced LSA are all two seaters).
Light Aircraft Flight Over the North Pole
Matevz Lenarcic is in the air again. Lenarcic is the daring pilot who has already flown around the world … twice! Some pilots simply don’t know when to rest on their earlier achievements. Indeed, today Matevz embarked on a solo flight over the North Pole in his specially configured light aircraft. His mission (besides an audacious long distance flight): recording black carbon readings over the Arctic. He’ll cross much of Europe, pass over the North Pole, continue to Canada and return to Europe crossing the North Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland flying parallel to Lindberg’s record flight from New York to Paris (map). He will capture the Arctic with aerial images and if you’d like to vicariously join his adventure, you can follow Matevz’s North Pole flight.
A biologist and photographer, Matevz is again flying a Pipistrel Virus SW that has won NASA’s efficiency competition; the company pocketed prizes of more than one million dollars.
The Iceman Goeth … to the South Pole
Matevz Lenarcic, a Slovenian pilot I met briefly when I was at the Pipistrel factory last fall, has raised the bar to ridiculous heights from his previous long distance exploits (including his around-the-worlder in a Pipistrel Sinus motorglider in 2004), by landing in Antarctica! *** He’s making another globe-circling, solo marathon — that’s right, the entire trip, east to west — all by himself, in a modified Pipistrel Virus SW 914 Turbo. The engine has an Intercooler unit but at least for Antarctica as well as some high-altitude reaches he has planned, engine cooling will be the lesser of his challenges. *** The epic flight in the SW (for Short Wing) began last January from Ljubljana, Slovenia where Pipistrel has its state-of-the-art sustainable energy factory (it actually sells surplus energy back to the Slovenian grid.) *** The route Matevz mapped out is by no means intended to be a short haul either, even by globe-circling standards.
Bending the Air in the Dynamic SuperSTOL
By all accounts — and none to the contrary (that I personally heard) — the “new and improved” Paradise City was an out-of-the-ballpark home run hit. On the final day of Sun ‘n Fun 2013, John “Lites” Leenhouts gave his closing review. He noted attendance was up somewhat on Tuesday through Thursday and down a bit on other days, but he highlighted the great success that was Paradise City, the new permanent home of the LSA Mall. The area was chock full of exhibitors, up almost double from last year. Flying went on all day long as predicted, even during the main airshow. Twice I flew in on aircraft I was evaluating while watching aerobatic aircraft twist and turn over the main runway. I know of no accidents or incidents so major kudos to the 186-person-strong volunteer staff under area chairman Dave Piper’s direction. They dealt with many new changes and nearly every detail appeared to go as planned.
Pre-Sun ‘n Fun 2013 LSA News Wrap
CORRECTION 4/10/13 — Due to a misinterpretation of Just Aircraft’s recent news release I must update an earlier report. The company did indeed take its 300th order but it was for all versions of the Highlander model, not just the SuperSTOL. At Sun ‘n Fun 2013, company leader Troy Woodland confirmed very strong interest in the STOL model and expects around 60 orders in the first year since it was introduced. The big plus of my conversation with Troy is an impending flight in the remarkable-flying SuperSTOL, which I will report as soon as possible. Amazing SuperSTOL! — We’ve got a few news items as we head to Sun ‘n Fun where lots more will emerge. One of the big pre-show items was news from kit and SLSA producer Just Aircraft who reported the number 300 order for its Highlander. On a visit en route to Oshkosh last summer we stopped to visit the company and saw the SuperSTOL design taking final form.
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