General Aviation News

Atol triphibian for sky, sea, or snow

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To many observers, the development of Light-Sport Aircraft seaplanes is fast-paced, inventive, and intriguing. You may have read about entries from the USA, Europe, or New Zealand. How about Finland?

“Finland has 188,000 lakes,” said Anssi Rekula, cofounder and sales director for Atol Avion, producer of the Atol LSA seaplane. “We know the joys of water flying, as well as the demands. Many of Finland’s lakes are remote and require range and reliability to access, so we designed the Atol 650 for this environment.” [Read more…]

Flying the SeaMax

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Arguably the most exciting sector within Light-Sport Aircraft are the LSA seaplanes. One company, Icon Aircraft and its handsome A5, has attracted enormous attention. Nothing wrong with that, in fact, the company’s superb marketing has been helpful to the entire LSA industry.

However, despite all the media coverage, this California producer is one of the later entrants to the LSA seaplane party. A few came before and one of them is back in action.

The SeaMax LSA seaplane designed and previously manufactured in Brazil has been somewhat absent in recent years. We’ll skip the details, but the company, AirMax, used a lot of energy to repel an undesired takeover. In recent months that was resolved and AirMax is now ready to move forward.

SeaMax was an early LSA to meet the consensus standards as required by FAA before sales to the public can begin. The first was the Mermaid in February 2006. Next came the Colyaer Freedom on January 2007. On Christmas Day 2007, SeaMax became the third. [Read more…]

First VFR flights to Cuba

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After the last guy in office decided Cuba could be visited by Americans, a growing flock has been doing so. Europeans have been going for a long time; now Yankees can, too.

One thing no one has been doing is flying VFR to Cuba. According to John Craparo, this was the first time in at least 60 years. [Read more…]

Can you fly IFR in an LSA?

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“You are not allowed to fly IFR in a Light-Sport Aircraft” is a common dismissal from many in aviation.

Is it factual to say that filing and flying by reference only to instruments in a LSA is excluded by regulation? Is it wise to use these aircraft for flight into conditions of reduced visibility?

By 2017, I venture to say almost everyone in aviation knows about Light-Sport Aircraft and the Sport Pilot certificate, but a superficial knowledge can result in an incomplete understanding. A few details might be helpful. [Read more…]

Shock treatment

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Once upon a time, the producer of a yellow LSA taildragger installed the industry’s most powerful engine, resulting in a performance leader. This gambit succeeded handily and the builder enjoyed several strong years of sales. Others looked upon this success and saw that it was good.

So, of course, being aviation entrepreneurs, others worked to do the original one better. How about not only an excess of power, but other features and macho good looks to cause jaw-drops at every airshow? [Read more…]

Vickers Wave gears up for 2017

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Pilots not closely following Light-Sport aviation can be excused for thinking only one LSA seaplane is available.

Established LSA companies like Progressive Aerodyne and its Searey or Scoda‘s Super Petrel or Airmax’s SeaMax or any number of aircraft to which floats have been fitted may be somewhat baffled by the outsized attention Icon Aircraft‘s long-delayed A5 receives from aviation and non-aviation media.

On the other hand, most leaders of these companies do admit that Icon’s media juggernaut also brings attention to LSA seaplanes in general.

With that in mind, are you ready for one that might out-WOW the A5? [Read more…]

Sonex B, now available in red!

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Pardon a little fun in the title. I recalled the line long ago attributed to Henry Ford, “You can have any color Model T you want, as long as it’s black.”

Sonex Aircraft had so regularly brought bright yellow airplanes to airshows, folks could be excused for thinking that was the only color available. Of course, since the company sells kit aircraft, you can have whatever color your wallet can handle.

Why wouldn’t you want a red one? The color works for Ferrari. [Read more…]