Pipistrel LSA s.r.l.

This website regularly promotes affordable aviation. Can you genuinely find an aircraft you like that is affordable? If so, are the smaller shows — ones I call “sector-specific” — the place to find them? Those two questions come up all the time on ByDanJohnson.com. When you read Flying magazine or AOPA Pilot, the odds are […]

Probably like a lot of you, I enjoy different kinds of flying but if asked to state one favorite, it’s an easy question to answer. I’m a great enthusiast of soaring flight. Over decades of sampling a large number of aircraft of every description, I’m still drawn to a machine, which lacking any kind of […]

For a week last month, the center of the aviation universe was headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin — population around 50,000 until AirVenture brings in five times that many on the biggest days. AirVenture Oshkosh is arguably the most important aviation event in the world each year, bringing people together from all points on the compass… […]

“WE DID IT!” boasted the team from down under! “We are thrilled to announce that this afternoon we achieved a World Endurance Record for an electric aircraft, breaking the previous mark set in Germany last year.” (Note: Official recognition always takes more time.) Pipistrel distributor Michael Coates, wrote, “South Australian-based Eyre to There Aviation … Flying […]

Does Alpha have the tiny little motor that could? Article updated 6/22/21 —DJ That sounds like an old childhood story (“The Little Engine that Could…”) but here we are in the new millennia with electric cars, huge wind farms, vast solar collector projects, biofuels, and more. Subsidies are pouring in to electric projects around the […]

In the world of Light-Sport Aircraft, we have more than 90 manufacturers and 145 Special LSA (see our whole list) accepted* by FAA. This huge diversity of design has given recreational pilots around the world a large number of ready-to-fly aircraft choices beyond anything we have seen in aviation since the beginning. However, the old […]

One bone of contention among LSA sellers is that legacy flight schools — the sort that typically uses Cessna or Piper trainers — sometimes disregard LSA as trainer aircraft. “They’re built too lightly.” “The nose wheels are too weak.” “My mechanic doesn’t know the Rotax engine.” Some may have even more creative excuses. I’ve interviewed […]

Electric aircraft are often in the news — even mainstream news — although mostly the reporting is about futuristic projects. Alpha Electro is a present-day aircraft being sold and used for flight instruction …just not in the USA where regulations bar use of electric motors as powerplants.

Sometimes I am told I have the best job in the world. Hmm, could be. My work entails some of those things no one truly loves, like paying bills, but it also involves flying airplanes for review. That part is indeed quite a pleasure. In this post, I want to tell you what I flew […]

A good friend in aviation journalism and Editor-in-Chief of Plane & Pilot magazine is Robert Goyer. We’ve known each long enough to have stood around years ago at South Lakeland Airpark waiting to fly this or that new ultralight. In his Going Direct column earlier this month, Robert wrote an editorial about FAA’s Part 23 rewrite project. Using […]