Every year, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association asks industry professionals to nominate a deserving person to receive the LAMA President’s Award. Rest assured this has nothing to do with the POTUS spectacle about to begin. Instead this vote is for an individual that has made significant contributions to the light aviation field and is perhaps more relevant to your daily enjoymemt of the art of flying.
Many Deserving Persons
I think we are very lucky aviators. Americans, Europeans, and aviators in many countries have literally hundreds of great Light-Sport Aircraft or Sport Pilot kits to choose between. The list is so extensive that making a choice of the one you can probably afford is challenging, enough so that we created PlaneFinder 2.0 to help airplane shoppers narrow the list. (It’s fun; give it a try, no cost involved.) Many of the Award winners have been aircraft designers and/or manufacturers.
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Sun ‘n Fun Day 2 — As Summertime Approaches, Light-Sport Seaplanes Draw Interest
Seaplane flying is a specialty within aviation but it is one that has steady appeal and develops passionate aviators. I prefer to modify that “gear-up landing” line to… “There are pilots who love seaplane flying and there are those will love it.” Be forewarned: Once you touch your seaplane* or floatplane* to the water, it may forever change you. If you think I’m being too dramatic, you probably haven’t flown off the water.
Great, so it’s magical to see the countryside from a few hundred feet up. Even better, enjoy flying low across the clear, blue, warm waters of the Bahamas. Examine the shoreline of a big lake in a way you’d never do in a landplane. Compared to airports, seaplane pilots have many times more lakes or rivers able to handle a landing. All are fair game in an emergency and many U.S. waterways will permit normal water operations.
Are you convinced yet?
Copperstate Day 1 — Wild Sky’s Goat, a Special Light-Sport Aircraft Trike Built to Last
The Copperstate airshow is on in Arizona! Put on by a new combination of Copperstate leadership in cooperation with the town of Buckeye Arizona — which has been hosting its own Buckeye Air Fair — the new event is off and running in its new time slot of early February. For most of its 46-year-long life Copperstate has been in October. Showing the city’s support, both Buckeye’s Mayor and Vice Mayor were present at opening evening ceremonies. Some 20,000 people are expected.
Videoman Dave and I are on-site and working. We’ve already captured a few new interviews for you. On Day 1, one aircraft in particular caught our eyes.
Wild Sky Goat
In many years of reporting on light aircraft, I have flown a lot of weight shift control trikes. I love flying trikes. I’ve flown simple ones, super-deluxe ones, tough ones, and ones that weren’t so tough.
Sebring Day 4 — 2 Video Pilot Reports, a Surprise Arrival, and a Wrap-Up Interview
The final day of the Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo brought good flying conditions until mid-afternoon when light precipitation returned. The good start allowed us to record two Video Pilot Reports (VPR), one on the Magnus Aircraft all-carbon-fiber Fusion 212 and the other on the fully enclosed SilverLight Aviation American Ranger AR1 gyroplane. The videos will take some time to edit but I’ll provide a quick glimpse below.
One surprise arrival was Aeromarine LSA‘s Mermaid. Remember this model? This Chip Erwin creation was really the forerunner of the modern LSA seaplane category. Before Mermaid, we had Progressive Aerodyne‘s Searey and Aero Adventure‘s Aventura. Both those models have been upgraded for the time of ASTM standards compliance but early in the new millennium it was accurate to call them “ultralight seaplanes” built of gusseted aluminum structures covered with sewn Dacron surfaces.
Flying Aeroprakt’s New A32 Vixxen at Midwest LSA Expo in Mt. Vernon
Many pilots expect the first appearance of a new model at the biggest airshows, but here’s one of those times when the sector-specific shows win. It’s all about timing and the new Aeroprakt A32 just won it’s SLSA approval (#147 on our SLSA List). The Midwest LSA Expo is the first show after getting its documents, so here it is!
Videoman Dave and I spent the morning working on a Video Pilot Report. We captured all the video, spent an hour flying with multiple cameras mounted, and recorded what we call the “stand up.” This segment comes after the flight when I — can you guess? — stand by the the airplane and review it on the ground.
We loaded A32 Vixxen with six of our Garmin Virb cameras plus Dave’s new Garmin 360 cam. It was our first with the latter and, no promises, but that may hold some user-controllable footage so you can go along in an even more realistic way.
SeaMax “Rebrands” Itself; Well Established SLSA Seaplane Ready to Launch
The LSA seaplane sector is one of the most intriguing areas of the diverse Light-Sport space. Development has introduced many fresh ideas to this class of airplane.
At present a few companies are actively delivering airplanes that have proven themselves over several years of operation. One of those is SeaMax, formerly delivered by a company known by its Portuguese name, Airmax Construções Aeronauticas.
Now, welcome the simpler SeaMax Aircraft.
The manufacturer of the SeaMax M-22 announced a company rebranding last week. As part of its strategy to enter into the U.S. market, the company changed its logo and named the company after its prominent aircraft model.
“Our new brand, SeaMax Aircraft LTDA, captures the identity of a legendary and globally known aircraft and incorporates [the model] into the spirit of our company, consolidating market recognition,” said Shalom Confessor, Executive Director of the company headquarters in the United States.
The company now known as SeaMax Aircraft reports manufacturing 152 of its amphibious aircraft.
First Vashon Rangers Delivered to Owners After Successful Oshkosh Debut
UPDATE: Video on Ranger at bottom…
Often at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh we see improved models among vast displays of showplanes. What we see less of are brand new offerings. Yet given the sheer number of aircraft, something brand new can surprise.
You probably already know about Vashon Aircraft’s Ranger (we reported it here) but attendees saw it for the first time at the big summer airshow.
We shot video with Vashon marketing maven Amy Bellesheim and owner John Torode at the event and you’ll learn more about Ranger from this duo when editing is completed. We recorded our usual large batch of fresh video; please be patient during the editing phase and check Ultralight News YouTube channel to see the latest.
Great Showing and Show
Amy reported, “We were overwhelmed with positive feedback” at Oshkosh. “We are up to 57 deposit holders,” she beamed.
Magnus Aircraft Fusion 212 Logs Special Light-Sport Aircraft Number 146
A new-to-Americans Light-Sport Aircraft made its debut showing at AirVenture 2018. Here is the Magnus Aircraft Fusion 212.
It appears another SLSA snuck by my penetrating radar for such achievements. U.S. chief pilot Charlie Snyder told me that the first Fusion earned its Special Airworthinews certificate back in September 2017 thereby joining our SLSA List at number 146.
Magnus hails from Hungary, home to more aircraft manufacturers than you may be aware, including such as ApolloFox fixed wing and Apollo weight shift trikes.
American representation for Magnus Aircraft USA is handled by Snyder and Magnus president Istvan Foldesi. We recorded a video interview with both men at AirVenture 2018. Both live in the USA while the company CEO Laszlo Boros runs the Hungary operation in a new manufacturing plant near Pecs-Pogany Airport.
Snyder and Foldesi exhibited their brightly painted low wing that uses mostly carbon fiber construction and a dual taper wing.
Pipistrel Update — 900 Virus, “House Organ,” and Oshkosh Splash
In the world of Light-Sport Aircraft, we have more than 90 manufacturers and 145 Special LSA (see our whole list) accepted* by FAA. This huge diversity of design has given recreational pilots around the world a large number of ready-to-fly aircraft choices beyond anything we have seen in aviation since the beginning.
However, the old 80/20 rule still applies where (approximately) 80% of the aircraft sold are built by 20% of the manufacturers. It is a credit to this 14-year-old industry that even the smaller companies can remain viable enterprises. Very few of the 90+ manufacturers have left the business. However, most of the airplanes are made by a few top producers, which you can see in our market share charts.
Pipistrel is One of the Leaders
“Serial Number 900 leaves the factory headed for Australia,” glowed Michael Coates, the longtime distributor for Pipistrel aircraft in Australia and the United States.
Newest SLSA (#145) Is Evolution Trikes’ Revolt
The newest SLSA on our List is a weight-shift control aircraft from Evolution Trikes, the folks who put the trike world on a pedestal with their remarkably deluxe and superbly finished Revo (see our Video Pilot Report of Revo and Part 2).
Following that BMW of trikes (Revo) Evolution released Rev, a Part 103-capable single seat trike.
A year ago, the company debuted a new model, called Revolt.
In less than a year, this model went from pre-flying debut to a fully ASTM-compliant aircraft.
Evolution, lead by Larry Mednick, started ASTM work in June 2017. Testing was completed by December 15, 2017 and they felt ready for an FAA inspector but it took time to arrange a visit from an agency.
In the case of any new model, FAA in Washington, DC can choose to require an official, full-blown audit, meaning three or four full days’ work by three or four FAA staffers.
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