On the first and fourth day of the SUN ‘n FUN International Fly-In & Expo 2013, which was held in Lakeland, Florida, last week, Czech Sport Aircraft provided detailed safety briefings to the Lakeland Fire Department. The briefings focused on the Ballistic Recovery System (BRS) that Czech Sport Aircraft offers as an enhanced safety feature on its aircraft, with the aim of helping the fire department understand how best to react in response to an emergency related to the deployment of the BRS in flight.
The BRS is a rocket-deployed emergency parachute system that can save lives. The first ballistic recovery parachutes were on the market in 1982 and the first deployment was in 1983. The pilot must elect to deploy the system by pulling the activating handle. While the systems are usually never deployed, they provide an important feature of enhanced safety to operators of Light Sport Aircraft, according to company officials.
Commenting while hosting the Lakeland Fire Department at the Czech Sport Aircraft exhibit at SUN ’n FUN, Matthew Harvey, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Czech Sport Aircraft, said, “Czech Sport Aircraft strives to ensure the highest standards throughout all its processes and operations in order to provide clients with the safest Light Sport Aircraft of the highest quality on the market today. Close cooperation with the emergency services concerning the safety features of our aircraft is very important. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to brief the Lakeland Fire Department and we cannot stress enough just how important safety is to Czech Sport Aircraft.”
Czech Sport Aircraft recently went through its FAA audit. Company officials report that no safety-related issues were found by the FAA inspectors.
The company offers the SportCruiser SVAP+, which features dual-screen Dynon Skyview instrumentation with additional enhanced features. This version is also the result of an extensive weight reduction exercise carried out by Czech Sport Aircraft engineers, resulting in an increased useful load, according to company officials. New models are equipped with Garmin 796 GPS and ADS-B Receiver. In addition, Czech Sport Aircraft continues to supply the SportCruiser Classic with analogue instrumentation.
The SportCruiser is a two-seat aircraft of full metal construction. The aircraft is arranged as a low-wing mono-plane with cantilevered wings and conventional empennage. “The excellent flight characteristics of the aircraft and robust construction of the airframe are perfectly suited to entry-level students,” company officials said in a prepared release, adding that as of December 2012, the SportCruiser was being used by almost 20 flight schools in the USA alone.
Almost 500 SportCruiser and PS-28 Cruiser have been produced. About 150 aircraft are operating in Europe.
Czech Sport Aircraft is located in Kunovice in the heart of the Czech aviation valley. From 1954 up to the present day several aircraft have been designed, developed and manufactured in Kunovice.
“highest standards throughout all its processes and operations”
Quite a change from when original version was being built by CZAW over there under Chip Erwin. When the English authorities examined the aircraft design, testing, and construction for certification of a kit version already being shipped and sold to UK folks by the dozens, they found so many flaws and concealed shortcomings it took YEARS to meet their standards and Chip abandoned the English builders (choosing to focus on quick profits from sending rtf versions to USA KNOWING they had weak nosegear and other issues) who had to complete the required documentation themselves to fly.
And Dan Johnson continued to be a CZAW cheerleader throughout that tawdry period even helping Chip pretend the Parrot and Mermaid were in production when neither was…. but of course deposits were being taken anyway… right up to bankruptcy.