From the land of sky-blue waters comes … no, not a beverage but Canada’s first electric ultralight. And sky-blue waters aren’t the point; instead, it’s all about blue skies and getting up to them for a bit of soaring fun. Thanks to my journalist friend Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief of AvWeb (one of my favorite aviation websites), I heard about a Canadian friend who’s done some interesting development work. Given the general excitement about electric power and my personal interest in soaring flight, I called up my old friend.
Like many of us who enjoy soaring hang gliders, developer Randy Rauck said, “I always wanted to apply electric to a lightweight trike so we could quickly and easily fly our hang gliders up to where the thermals abound.” When he’s not creating a new powerplant Randy runs the Freedom Flight Park in Lumby, BC Canada. “I wanted to try electric to get away from the vibration of a lightweight two-stroke gasoline engine.
Air Creation Skypper Wins SLSA #130
Congratulations to Air Creation USA for winning Special Light-Sport Aircraft approval for their newest weight-shift control aircraft called the Skypper. That’s a worthwhile achievement for any new LSA, but before I tell you how this model is different, let me do another explanation.
In summer of 2012, FAA issued an internal order — meaning it was intended for their field offices and Designated Airworthiness Representatives (DARs) and others. This order with a name only a government agency could love — 8130.2G CHG1 — changed some of the rules about how aircraft gain their SLSA Airworthiness Certificates. One company that got trapped by the learning curve that followed was Air Creation USA, these days operated by Neil Bungard. Neil was relatively new to the ASTM standards process and any misunderstanding he may have had of CHG1 was matched by FAA officials and non-FAA DARs. Everybody had to read and decipher FAA marching orders as described in the lengthy document.
Fixed wing or Flexwing; Take Your Pick
I am only aware of one company* in the USA that offers you a choice of a conventional three-axis fixed wing or a weight-shift control (WSC) flexwing. Why do this? Simple. Not all pilots want the same kind of aircraft and some of us like both kinds of flying.
It happens that the boys from Zephyr Hills airport have two interesting machines and you ought to know about them. “Boys” in this case refers to Abid Farooqui, Larry Mednick, and Phil Mednick; the latter are a son and father combo. Abid and Larry are trike guys while Phil is the fixed wing fellow and they display not only expertise, but as the impressive Revo development shows, they bring genuine creativity to the aircraft. This trio of talent operates several businesses, including a flight school.
One company, Apollo Aircraft, offers the Columbian-designed Ibis Magic as well as the Apollo LSA (formerly Apollo Fox).
Judging Winners Sun ‘n Fun 2010
I once followed judging at shows like AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun. In fact, an aircraft I helped inspire — a modernized primary glider called the SuperFloater — won Outstanding New Design at Sun ‘n Fun 1995. Judges closely examined homebuilts, kit or restored vintage airplanes, and warbirds. If they included factory built aircraft, I was not aware of it. *** So, this year I admitted surprise after learning factory-built Light-Sport Aircraft won awards. *** To honor the hundreds or thousands of hours people put into their winners, I want to highlight some LSA and ultralights that judges liked. The Grand Champion LSA was Wayne Spring’s 2010 Predator powered parachute; Reserve Grand Champ was James Jonannes’ 2009 Arion Lightning LS-1; Grand Champion Ultralight was James Wiebe’s 2010 Belite Superlite; and, Reserve Grand Champ was Danny Dezauche’s 2010 CGS Hawk Ultra.
Pre-Christmas Roundabout
Ramping up to the big day when that jolly red-flightsuited Sport Pilot in his original LSA -a two-place, roof-landing, 8 RP (reindeer power) flivver – will fly all those XC legs to good little pilot’s chimneys, herewith some stocking stuffer newsies and tidbits to help wind down 2009. *** Kennedy Aircraft Service & Repair serves up a blog with tasty tidbiti about the SeaRey amphibian which is (forgive me) making a splash on the water-fly-sport scene. *** An interesting info site called The FAA Buzz (not affiliated with FAA) has a blurb about Virginia Aviation, provider of FAA-approved E-LSA inspection courses. V.A. is now cleared by the fedgov to conduct an LSA repairman’s course (LSRM) on weight shift control aircraft. *** Speaking of bugs-in-teeth flight, Precision Windsports has a quick-read page on the relative merits of E-LSA vs. Amateur-Built kits. Browse around the site, they’ve got lots of good trike info and pix (as seen here).
Making A Splash… in China: Ramphos Trident SLSA
A few years back I evaluated Ramphos. Now, the boat-hulled trike is our newest Special Light-Sport Aircraft amphibian — SLSA #102. Priced at less than $40,000 for the Rotax 582-powered version to something north of $50,000 for the four stroke Rotax 912 powerplant, this seaplane qualifies as a bargain. Ramphos Trident won its SLSA approval back in April 2009. *** In revealing this achievement, one of the most interesting points from U.S. partner Gil McGarity concerned a Ramphos entry to the potentially huge China market. “Just when things looked the darkest, what with spending all our money for the certifications and the recession starting with a vengeance, we were invited to China,” Gil recalled. “We struck a deal to help develop a line of weight-shift aircraft and train personnel to fly. We were given 10 young engineers trained in using the Katia CAD programs, two 747-sized hangars with state of the art paint rooms, composite labs, 5 and 7 axis CNC [machines], assembly areas and a seemingly endless stream of development funds.” To show how serious officials are about opening the gates to sport aircraft, Gil said authorities… “built a 500-meter asphalt runway for LSA craft very near us in Changsha.” He noted that very few if any recreational aviation runways exist in China.
LSA #100 Reached! …in Less Than Five Years
Triple digits! In five years the LSA industry has reached SLSA model #100. Actually, here’s another one that slipped by our radar. Info now shows SLSA #99 was the Krucker amphib trike named Cygnet and Van’s RV-12 was technically #100. Our SLSA List shows Special Light-Sport Aircraft in order of their approval. *** “We got our SLSA completed 3 July 2009,” wrote U.S. representative, Michael Percy, of XL Kites. This means the Cygnet he imports was approved a couple weeks earlier than the Van’s RV-12 on July 21st, which came one day after the fifth anniversary of the new rule announcement (July 20th, 2004). *** One hundred models approved in such a short time has no comparison in worldwide aviation history. In fact, reaching #100 only took 4.3 years because the first approval occurred on April 7th, 2005 …that’s two new models every single month!
Heart of Texas LSA Expo Judged a Success
Exhibitor Chris Regis of Paradise USA (representing the P-1) reported “good visitor traffic” and “excellent organization” from the people behind the Heart of Texas LSA Expo. The new event, held over March 8 & 9 is one of two planned shows following the strong 2009 performance at the pioneer of LSA Expos, the Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo. *** Several reports reminded me of the 13-city Sport Pilot Tour held during 2005 and 2006. Each of those events drew 10-20 exhibiting LSA and attracted 300-700 people at locations across the USA. The numbers sound small to those enamored of the huge crowds at Oshkosh. But, in fact, the Sport Pilot Tour, with its focused marketing on LSA only, helped customers find the manufacturer they were seeking. Everyone who came was interested in LSA and a vendor could speak to nearly all of them.
Think All Trikes Are Foreign? Think Again!
Weight-shift control LSA, affectionately referred to as “trikes,” are often made overseas. That’s a bit weird as the concept originated in the USA and spread around the globe. Tens of thousands are flying, despite their relative rarity in America. So you could be excused for viewing trikes as foreign. Not all of them… *** Though it won approval last summer, the newest SLSA in the game — we now have 89 models from 67 companies — is the North Wing Design Sport X2, available in two models plus ELSA versions with alternate engines. The Navajo may represent the least expensive SLSA you can purchase, retailing for $29,000 ready-to-fly. An Apache model is more dressed out and runs $32,000, still quite a bargain in today’s world of $135,000 SLSA airplanes. (More price info.) *** North Wing is an all-American company from Washington state making both trike carriage and wings.
FAA Begins “Assessment” of LSA Industry
At Oshkosh, FAA held a meeting to announce their LSA Assessment Project. The agency that gave birth to Light-Sport Aircraft in the summer of 2004 is now embarking on a fact-finding tour they say will judge the “health of the industry,” part of their “aviation safety oversight.” Sounds rather ominous, doesn’t it? However, officials also stated clearly and repeatedly, “What this assessment and evaluation is not is an individual Light-Sport manufacturer’s compliance audit.” *** Indeed, Terry Chasteen, the new head LSA man in the Small Aircraft Directorate characterized the day-long visits by two teams of two inspectors as benign. He’ll be joined by Tom Gunnarson, former president of LAMA now with the LSA office. The visits started this week at Tecnam’s U.S. quarters; AMD, Aircraft Manufacturing and Design; Fantasy Air USA / LSA America; and P&M Aviation USA.