I write this on the eve of Oshkosh 2022. The big summer celebration of flight opens officially on Monday, July 25 running through next Sunday, July 31st. Based on a tour of the grounds on setup day, I think we’re in for an interesting week.
I plan to continue work to bring you daily coverage but I’m hoping to be more efficient this year, to cut too-frequent 16-hour days to perhaps 12-hour days. That will mean shorter articles but those generating the most interest can go deeper when the show concludes.
After a difficult Saturday when storms blew through (see “Tough News” below), Sunday produced sunshine and mild temperatures. Weather for the remainder of the week looks great.
Welcome Back T-Bird
We haven’t seen this design for a few years although it never really disappeared. Bret Kivell of Indy Aircraft kept the design alive and well after the original developer left the business.
It’s Almost Time! Oshkosh Launches An Airshow Summer and Fall 2022
Get ready for summer’s big celebration of flight. It starts Monday, July 25th for the week. Of course, I’m writing about EAA AirVenture Oshkosh… what else? The world’s largest collection of aircraft meeting every description and pilots all over the country and from other nations were flying to Oshkosh and many have arrived, including successful 48-State Challenge aviator Dave Tillema (article).
On Saturday, the field was hit with significant thunderstorms that did some damage as vendors across the field were trying to set up. However, Sunday has cleared and weather for the next couple days looks very promising.
I am onsite starting Sunday the 24th looking for stories and aircraft of the type commonly reported here: Light-Sport Aircraft, kit aircraft Sport Pilots can fly, and ultralights. I will do my best to report daily…
While Oshkosh will dominate aviation news for the next couple weeks at least, I want to preview addition LSA-related events for the rest of 2022.
Maiden Flight of Dingo — An Affordable Part 103 Biplane Honoring Hovey’s Whing Ding
When I look at Dingo from Future Vehicles, I see a fascinating blend of designs combining the looks of Aviad’s Zigolo Mg21 and Mike Loehle’s former Easy Riser. Yet Dingo isn’t some mashup of old designs. It’s been created by experienced engineers building with conventional construction but to Part 103 parameters.
Biplanes convey a vintage look but they also make for good hangar mates since their wingspan is usually shorter. Dingo is surprisingly compact with wings not even 22 feet wide.
Biplanes also fly slowly so complying with Part 103 speeds is not difficult.
Let’s learn more about this new entry from design engineer Marek Ivanov, a name alert readers may associate with a completely different design called Song (image below). Marek does engineering work for other aircraft producers as well. He leads “a team of experienced professionals with more than 20 years of experience in the aviation industry; they have participated in the development of more than 30 types of aircraft from ultralights to Part 23 (GA) aircraft.”
Maiden Flight of Dingo
On June 22nd 2022, Dingo took its maiden flight flown by test pilot Jan Jílek at the Jaroměř airport (LKJA).
Let’s Fly to Oshkosh 2022 …One Pilot’s 48-State Adventure of a Lifetime!
“Time to spare? Go by air!” is a familiar humor line, speaking to weather uncertainties, mechanical delays, or relaxed cruise speeds that can slow or stall a cross-country flight in our fun, recreational aircraft.
One man created his own special way to log some flight hours getting to Oshkosh. Evidently this adventurous pilot never heard another popular line: “The shortest distance between two points is a straight line.” (Don’t anyone challenge me with Great Circle routes; this is about a long flight but not a globe-spanning one.)
While pilots around the nation are in various stages of preparation for the flight to EAA’s big summer celebration of flight, our aerial explorer is already en route. He’s about halfway as this is posted.
Ambitious Journey
I’ve had the pleasure to fly into Oshkosh a number of times. I’ve also several times flown with pilots making their first entry. Ask anyone who’s done it; joining the arrival pattern to Oshkosh on the busy days right before it opens is an experience no one forgets.
Fantasy or Fantastic? Futuristic Retro? Junkers Introduces Distinctive A50 Junior
Talk about being ahead of its time, Junkers’ A50 Junior was designed to 600 kilograms / 1,320 pounds …93 years ago!
“In 1928,” said the company, “what was to become the most successful Junkers sports aircraft left our Dessau production plant for the first time: a single-engine, two-seat, low-wing aircraft with an oval fuselage cross-section and corrugated sheet metal skin. The prototype was equipped with an 80 horsepower Armstrong-Siddeley engine.
“Astonishingly, she had a take-off weight of a mere 600 kilograms, a light aircraft from the very beginning,” said Junkers.
Why am I writing about a 93-year-old aircraft? Because, “It’s back!”
Back to the Future?
“Our Junkers A50 Junior had its maiden flight in February 1929,” recalled Junkers (say: “yun-kers”).
“In that year, 69 aircraft were manufactured, [some of] which set a number of FAI world records. Various European record flights were also carried out with the A50. Famously Marga von Etzdorf was the first woman to fly from Berlin to Tokyo in 1930 with her Junior A50.
This July, Another Eagle Has Landed — Orlican’s New LSA Arrives in America
Fifty three years ago this month, Neil Armstrong made history when he declared first, “The Eagle has landed.” His words described a momentous occasion: humans about to set foot on the moon.
Orlican can’t claim such high ground but through two years of Covid dislocations, the Czech Republic developer finished their second-generation LSA and the first one in the U.S. was delivered to its first customer, a flight school.
Longtime LSA importer and reseller, Deon Lombard has been waiting as supply lines snarled and shipments were delayed. However, the European manufacturer persevered and the new model has crossed the Atlantic. Orlican’s Eagle has landed!
A New L600
In case Covid (understandably) fogged your brain, Orlican’s Eagle is a follow-on design. Americans and others have seen a very similar look before. It started with L600, which Deon has been selling in the U.S. for several years. Why the name “Legend?”
Look at the design.
Affordable Aviation Includes Powered Parachutes — Welcome New Owner of Six Chuter!
Considering the company has always been a western U.S. manufacturer, a name that sounds like “six shooter” conjures a cowboy image, horse-riding westerners packing a pistol on their hip. Actually, it’s just a fun name.
Six Chuter’s aircraft are enjoyable enough and the company careful enough about how it treated its prospects and customers that they managed to sell more than 2,100 aircraft since forming three decades back. Over many years of examining hundreds of companies, I am aware only a very small number of airplane producers that have built more than 2,000 aircraft. Six Chuter is clearly a company prepared to stick around for a while. Here’s a very brief look back at its history.
Six Chuter is one of the longest operating powered parachute companies in business today, founded in 1991 by Dan Bailey in Yakima, Washington. Dan sold the company when he felt it was time, in 2010, to “pass the baton” to prior Six Chuter dealers Doug Maas and Tom Connelly.
Aero 2022 Bonanza — Huge Aircraft Review from Europe’s Best Airshow
This year, 2022, saw a return to all the great airshows we have come to know and love. One of my all-time favorites and my #1 pick in Europe is Aero Friedrichshafen.
I already provided three articles — (1) turbines, (2) six innovations, and (3) Aero success — covering what I found to be highlights of Aero 2022 that I thought you would like best.
Now, thanks to encouragement from Marino Boric — a Europe-based, highly-knowledgeable professional journalist — I want to provide what longtime radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to call “…the rest of the story.”
What follows is Marino’s few-paragraphs-each review of no less than 21 airplanes, 4 electric projects, and 6 combustion engines. You will not find this depth of reporting anywhere else in the USA.
Folks, this article is much longer than our usual articles (by 6X).
Which Is More Important: Robots or Humans? Drones Want to Fly Beyond Visual Line of Sight
Airspace from ground level to 400 feet is about to get really crowded. Keep alert, fellow pilots! Am I overstating this situation? I don’t think so.
You know about drones. You may not know they are presently restricted to visual line of sight. However, a line-of-sight drone won’t get your Amazon package delivered a few miles from the distribution center to your house.
Throughout Covid, a group has been working on potential changes to FAA regulations to allow drones to fly further, beyond visual line of sight (as military drones do now). It’s abbreviated BVLOS.
It is impossible to keep up with all the regulatory actions from dozens of agencies. Some of this stuff is dry as old bones. The document I’m focused on runs to 381 pages. If you’re a real glutton for punishment, read the whole thing.
The good news = This is only an industry committee report.
Speed Cruiser from B.O.T. Aircraft Now Available as Journey from Aero Affinity
The title of this article contains a lot of information. If you are a close observer of light aircraft, you may recognize B.O.T.’s Speed Cruiser but you didn’t get the rest right away, did you? Now Available? Journey? Aero Affinity? Neither did I know these references until Sun ‘n Fun 2022, but here is the story.
I’ll get to Speed Cruiser, ‘er… Journey in a minute but first a bit about a new collaboration forming at the DeLand, Florida airport. You know the place, where the DeLand Showcase ran for five years. In case you missed the news, DeLand Showcase is no more. Director Jana Filip departed to join Sun ‘n Fun so the event she expertly ran will now give way to something new, from someone else. More on that later.
Although the DeLand Showcase prematurely ended its five-year run, the DeLand Airport remains a beehive of recreational aviation activity.