On one level, EAA AirVenture Oshkosh is a celebratory fly-in with an air show.
On another level, it’s a fantastic bazaar for all things aeronautical, with representatives for many types of aircraft showing their wares to possibly thousands of potential buyers. From the conservative to the cutting edge, domestic and international, airplanes on display at Oshkosh during the week of AirVenture can have a wicked magnetism for one’s heart and wallet.
Okay, dear reader, I am as easily seduced by airplanes I see at Oshkosh as anyone, whether or not my bank account and calendar can accommodate it. So let’s talk about one that caught my eye at AirVenture 2022.
It is the mesmerizingly sleek Light Sport Aircraft (LSA), the Czech Skyleader 600, that was flown to Oshkosh from Fresno, California, by Michael Tomazin, the North American distributor for Skyleader.
You can build a Skyleader 600 LSA airframe from a kit for about $70,000, Michael says. That still leaves you in search of an engine, propeller, avionics, upholstery, and lights. A flyable Skyleader 600 will probably cost between $110,000 to $120,000, plus your sweat equity, driving pull-rivets and such.
Michael says some builders of Skyleader 600 kits enlist the help of an A&P mechanic for powerplant installation and other technicalities. A ready-to-fly Skyleader can run $175,000 if you’d rather not do it yourself.
Your prize will be a streamlined airplane for two that cruises at 120 knots, pulled through the air by a three-blade propeller spun by a Rotax engine.
The Skyleader company includes a division that has experience building doors for Airbus 320 jetliners. CNC machines are used in Skyleader manufacture, giving consistency and repeatability, Michael explains. Components are surveyed with lasers for accuracy.
Michael notes the LSA’s sexy winglets aren’t cosmetic — they help the Skyleader 600 hold heading as well as adding to the airplane’s cruise speed and fuel economy. And the electric Fowler area-increasing wing flaps are interconnected with automatic trim change as the flaps are extended.
Michael adds he finds the Skyleader 600’s controls well-balanced. On cross-country flights he has been known to trim it out and ride, flat footed and arms folded, for as long as possible.
The pitch of the three-blade Duc propeller on Michael’s machine is quickly ground-adjustable with a wrench to optimize the aircraft for changes in the kind of flying, and altitude, it will encounter on different legs of a cross-country trip.
The Skyleader 600 has the option, for $4,300, to carry a full-plane emergency descent parachute which, Michael explains, can also be released behind the airplane as a braking parachute in an emergency landing.
A rakish sliding canopy provides good visibility and headroom, and side port windows in the canopy can be opened in flight, according to Michael.
He adds the traditional 6-foot, 3-inch headroom in the 600 was recently expanded by making a different rail system and seat attach point in response to customer requests.
Kit builder or fly-away buyer, a pilot can enjoy a sleek machine that exemplifies one of the secrets revealed with the collapse of the old Soviet Union: The Czech aviation industry is built on decades of skill and advanced rationale.
Kit? I doubt that only a very small percentage of buyers of LSAs are considering an incomplete build it yourself kit like this.