I first ran into Stefan Coetzee and KFA at Aero Friedrichshafen, my favorite light aircraft show in Europe. I was caught by the clever name. Easy to say, “KFA” sticks in your mind like a catchy tune.
Kitplanes For Africa sounds like a company making aircraft that should have superior bush capabilities. It was a handsome aircraft and I felt readers would enjoy it but they had no American representation at the time so I filed the discovery away under: “Promising.”
The bigger and more accurate picture is that KFA is yet another light aviation success story for South Africa*.
Almost half-way around the world, South Africa fell out of many conversations once the apartheid struggle finally ended in the 1990s. Yet despite years of ugly headlines, the country’s interest in aviation has been strong and building. Companies are producing lots of aircraft. (The Aircraft Factory alone produces 20 Sling aircraft each month, and has plans to increase to 30, employing almost 500 personnel.)
KFA was begun roughly when apartheid ended, so it shares no history with that difficult period.
A Return to 2004 LSA Prices in 2023 As SkyRanger and Nynja Return to Market
I write about affordable aviation whenever interesting material is available. This website will eventually (probably by August or September) move to the AffordableAviation.com domain that I purchased many years ago. It’s important to me that pilots can actually afford to own and fly their own aircraft because I am one of you.
I maintain you’ve always been able to find affordable new airplanes but you had to accept something other than a 150 knot four seater.
Part 103 has always been a choice — no medical, N-numbers, or pilot certificate needed — yet not everybody wants that. A great many pilots desire a two seater, even if they nearly always fly it solo. You usually pay more for a two seater, making it less likely to be affordable.
One modestly-priced two seater is available, fortunately.*
A Genuine Bargain?
One flying machine made flying affordable some years ago but it rather quietly slipped from the American market.
EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023 — Set-up Day Tour to Whet Your Aviation Appetite
Do you know when you’re an airshow junkie, ‘er… enthusiast? Answer: When you actually enjoy observing the set-up process. I’ve made the following observation many times.
The night before opening, with literally hours before the show starts, the place appears in a state of chaos. Pandemonium reigns. Vehicles, crates, equipment of every kind is seemingly strewn about as if by a storm (which did do some damage on Saturday night, ironically most affecting those who started earlier).
Every show I think, “No way can they get this or that exhibit ready in the 10-15 hours before the main gates open to hundreds of thousands of visitors.”
Yet every show on opening day, I find myself saying, “What?! It’s all done!” Did they work all night? Even if staff was willing to work all night, it seemed unlikely to get the job done mere hours earlier. Maybe it’s magic or Santa’s Elves.
Super-Affordable Part 103 Dingo (low $20,000s, complete) Enters Production
While you continue digesting FAA’s 318-page thriller on Mosaic, here’s a fun aircraft that does not have to spend even one minute meeting those new rules. I’ve written about the Part 103-compliant Dingo from Future Flight before (this article) but the delightful biplane is now entering production.
Tom Peghiny of Flight Design USA fame, wrote, “Jan Jilek is one of the design engineers of Future Vehicles as well as their test pilot. He is also a talented aerobatic performer. We flew together in a few planes while I was working in Sumperk, CZ [as a consultant to Flight Design].”
Dingo was created by Marek Ivanov. At the beginning of 2021, he showed the first 3D images to the Future Vehicles team. This is an experienced group that does a wide range of engineering work for a variety of aircraft producers.
Describing Dingo
Dingo’s airframe is primarily riveted 6061 and 2024 aluminum sheet.
MOSAIC NEWS — FAA Running Ahead of Schedule? Unbelievable? …Proof Here, Now!
Whenever I write about FAA’s Mosaic regulation, especially when I mentioned the date they predicted, a substantial percentage of all readers shrug this off, believing that FAA will never complete it on time.
What if I told you they were ahead of schedule? Is that an unbelievable claim? Perhaps, but the proof is right here, right now! Can’t wait? Check the link below.
Consider the following communication from the ASTM committee working on LSA standards. In case you don’t know what that is, ASTM is an industry standards group that operates privately, creating and getting agreement on standards used by FAA to accept Light-Sport Aircraft into the aviation fleet. (This is different than conventional FAA “certification.”)
BIG MOSAIC NEWS
Honestly, from almost the beginning, FAA has moved faster than most of us imagined. At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022 FAA announced they would remove the drone portion of Mosaic, which was delaying the overall regulation as that community works out their issues.
Sensenich Propeller Offers New Super Cub Prop for Lycoming O-320
Can you hear it? Do you notice pilots all around you preparing for the annual pilgrimage to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for AirVenture 2023? Preflights happening. Engines firing up. Courses set on the EFIS. We’re off to the biggest aviation week of the year!
One pre-show announcement came from one of our most stable and long-lived producers in recreational aviation, Sensenich Propellers. Based in Plant City, Florida not far from Lakeland where Sun ‘n Fun happens every year, Sensenich will be going on the road with the rest of us as we make our way to upper midwest U.S.
Come on along. Hope to see you on the grounds… though maybe not because on the busy days literally hundreds of thousands of pilots and friends will be examining tens of thousands of aircraft and every imaginable kind of aviation gear, including props, of course.
Now for Lycoming’s O-320
On July 11, 2023 Sensenich received a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for its carbon ground adjustable pitch STOL propeller on Piper Super Cub Aircraft with O-320 engines.
Big Splash! — Vickers “Aggressively” Tests the Hull of their Wave LSA Seaplane
Oshkosh is nearly here again so it must be seaplane flying time. America’s north is rich with open water for fun or safety. When the summer season arrives, seaplanes are at their finest. Indeed, AirVenture’s Seaplane Base operation is a whole show alongside the main show; if you’ve never gone, a visual treat awaits you.
One LSA seaplane we’ve been anticipating for a long time is Vickers Aircraft‘s Wave from New Zealand. Lead by namesake Paul Vickers, the down-under company has been deliberate about development.
I wrote about Wave following its maiden flight. That splendid achievement awkwardly came immediately before Sun ‘n Fun 2022 launched. As a result, other show-related news quickly pushed down the Wave story on my home page.
That was unfortunate but unavoidable. The show must go on (and be reported). I’m always amazed at how many aircraft make first flights or other notable events just as some show is opening.
More than Spinning Multicopters, Here’s an In-the-Wing Electric Idea that Recently Won a Patent
Naturally, sharp-eyed ByDanJohnson.com readers already know about Chip’s big idea. See this article; scroll down.
What you didn’t know is that this idea was unique enough to win a patent. That’s uncommon in recreational aviation, though, of course, an idea like this may go far beyond sport flying.
Chip Erwin is one of those restless people who probably lays awake night cooking multiple ideas in his brain at the same time. Many industries have their “Elon Musk” type who moves forward on several fronts despite plenty of people telling him he can’t do what he does every day.
As the mainstream media hyperfocuses on multicopter air taxi ideas consuming vast amounts of money (why media pays attention in the first place), people like Chip have different thoughts about using electric power on aircraft. Depod is one of those concepts.
Depod is not intended for Merlin Lite.
Top 50 — Beginning the Decade of Gyroplanes; Meet ArrowCopter and Those That Followed
A dozen years ago, fixed wing pilots thought very little about “gyrocopters” — as some people called them. Actually that word is a model name established by Igor Bensen, widely thought of as the father of this activity along with Juan de la Cierva of Spain, known for his pioneering autogyro work.
The preferred term these days is “gyroplane.” Names aside, what pilots care about is having fun in the air and being able to afford a flying machine. When an aircraft also looks terrific, heads turn.
From eleven years ago comes the #3 in our list of Top 50 Aircraft Videos. More than 450,000 views of this video show broad interest in ArrowCopter, quite the head turner in its day.
Gyroplane interest grew quickly after European designers took the lead from American manufacturers. Think back to the days of Ken Brock’s gyro or the former Air Command (now under new management).
Air Taxi or Air Funster? — 5 Models in Development, as Part 103 Multicopters Not Taxis
If you listen to perpetually-excited media, air taxis will soon be shuttling people hither and yon in all the big cities of the globe. Executives and shoppers will be whisked around downtown skyscrapers silently, quietly, swiftly, and the cost will be modest. Do you buy all that? I’m not holding my breath.
Oh, these air taxi vehicles are coming. I don’t doubt that, if for no other reason than they are absorbing vast amounts of money as people bet on some grand future where infotech merges with aviation to make flying vastly better and easier. It’s a fantastic dream and when smart people powered by enough money work on something long enough… something often happens.
Fine. That’s the sales pitch and apparently it’s working because more than 350 companies around the globe have raised billions of dollars to pursue their dreams yet the first entries remain far from market.
Several people at the very pinnacle of FAA have departed the agency and are now working for air taxi developers (naturally, they are often called by some term other than the mundane “air taxi” label).
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