Among all aircraft producers in the world, a very limited number have exceeded the daunting barrier of delivering more than 10,000 airplanes. Those in this exclusive club include manufacturers of major aircraft such as Boeing, Cessna, Piper, and precious few others. While Van’s Aircraft is approaching this number with its RV kit-built aircraft series (itself […]
sport pilot
MoGas flying higher as avgas price rises
“Things are really popping with autogas,” said Kent Misegades, one member of a group, the Aviation Fuel Club, trying to assure more LSA-friendly fuels (like zero ethanol or E0). Though the new Rotax 912 iS can handle ethanol, it truly loves E0 and many experts say it runs more powerfully and cleaner with such fuel, […]
FarWest Aviation becomes Tecnam service center
FarWest Aviation has become a factory-certified service center for Tecnam Light Sport Aircraft. Located at historic Flabob Airport (RIR) in Riverside, Calif., the company also recently earned the designation of Independent Rotax Service Center. Tecnams are powered by Rotax. In addition to servicing Tecnams and Rotax engines, the company overhauls Lycoming and Continental engines, does […]
Positive news for Paradise City
Even as we prepared for this year’s Sun ’n Fun, I attended a meeting relative to the area known as Paradise City or the Light Plane Area, though some simply call it the Ultralight Area. Whatever you call it, dramatic changes are underway and you should pay attention. Our meeting was arranged by 23-year area […]
Cessna suspends Skycatcher sales in Europe
According to a French dealer for Cessna, 80 Skycatcher orders have been cancelled, but Cessna officials in the U.S. say the Wichita giant has just temporarily suspended taking orders for the LSA in Europe. For many months, my Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) Europe colleague Jan Fridrich and others have tried to convince EASA to […]
EASA awards first restricted Type Certificates
On Day 1 of Aero 2012, Dave Unwin reported hearing many comments about EASA’s halting move toward acceptance of the concept of Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft, which was invented in the USA. The European Union, with an equally proud heritage of aviation, is showing familiar reluctance to embrace what another country has achieved, even when aircraft […]
Familiar frame, different name
For some planes, it’s the (air)frame, not the name, that sells it. Such is the case with the Polish-built AT-4, an airframe that was introduced to the American market a few years back as the Gobosh 700. Gobosh, which stands for Go Big Or Stay Home, went out of business in 2009, but the AT-4 […]
LSA news from Sun ’n Fun continues
Splogger (Sport Pilot Blogger) Dan Johnson continues his recap of Sun ’n Fun, with this installment reporting some news from the show: The 10-year-old committee (F37) that worked with ASTM to write LSA certification standards had its first-ever meetings at Sun ’n Fun. I was unable to attend due to other duties, but the volunteer […]
More LSA news from Sun ’n Fun
Splogger (Sport Pilot Blogger) Dan Johnson continues his recap of what he found interesting at this year’s Sun ’n Fun. Today: Cool fly-in stuff: I visited with Mark Ausman of Vertical Power. I never fully grokked their product line of electronic circuit breakers, but I’ve got it now and understand the enthusiasm airframe makers and […]