Affordable Aviation

From the land of sky-blue waters comes … no, not a beverage but Canada’s first electric ultralight. And sky-blue waters aren’t the point; instead, it’s all about blue skies and getting up to them for a bit of soaring fun. Thanks to my journalist friend Russ Niles, Editor-in-Chief of AvWeb (one of my favorite aviation […]

Yes, as the pics show, I did indeed take advantage of a rare, calm, beautiful, warm (for winter) day in New England to drive over to Tom Peghiny‘s Flight Design USA and take my first hop in a fuel-injected Rotax-powered LSA: the new CTLSi. Company Chief Pilot Jonathan Carter did me the honors as we […]

The first iLSA are flying in the USA. Springboarding from Apple’s famous iDevices, why not iLSA? This stands for “i” Light-Sport Aircraft, meaning they’re fuel injected, which today suggests Rotax’s new 912 iS engine. Tecnam has announced P2008s with the new powerplant. Pipistrel has iS models, too. Others will follow, although Remos indicated they are […]

Congratulations to Air Creation USA for winning Special Light-Sport Aircraft approval for their newest weight-shift control aircraft called the Skypper. That’s a worthwhile achievement for any new LSA, but before I tell you how this model is different, let me do another explanation. In summer of 2012, FAA issued an internal order — meaning it […]

This article follows up on an earlier one about Guy Reynolds. Yesterday, on his 100th birthday, Guy took the skies as he has so regularly, flying his Evektor SportStar with a fellow pilot along for safety. Rather than interpret, I present local journalist John McVey’s entire piece below. John also gives you a perspective on […]

In case you don’t know about Able Flight, here’s a link to the organization’s website, and another to its donation page. This wonderful endeavor helps paralyzed and otherwise physically challenged people, both civilian and war-wounded, to achieve their dreams of flight by taking them through a complete Sport Pilot training course or even LSA Repairman […]

On a lovely day recently at my home airflield — Spruce Creek Fly-in — local Cub afficianado Ron Bishop assembled quite a few of American Legend’s handsome yellow Cub lookalikes. The affair, complete with the requisite hot dog lunch attracted about 200 visitors said Ron. They saw more than Cubs as a SeaRey, a CTsw […]

On November 30th, Guy Reynolds will celebrate his 100th birthday by taking a flight in Light-Sport Aircraft. Putting a finer point on it, he’ll take this flight in his LSA. Are you surprised that a centenarian has an LSA? Admit it… I was. However, Guy is no ordinary guy. He bought his Evektor Sportstar back […]

Good to Go in China Things are happening in China. “So, what’s new,” you say? “We’ve been hearing about China for months.” Things may move slowly in China but this week, Airshow China is happening in the southern city of Zhuhai and my colleague, Jan Fridrich is present. He reports that some LSA are displayed […]

U.S. Pipistrel Sinus motorglider owner/dealer Rand Vollmer recently flew 1,170 statue miles nonstop at mostly economy cruise settings from Oshkosh to Florida on one 24.5-gallon fill up in his Sinus, 49-foot span motorglider. Color me green with envy and drooling from sheer lust for flight. For the trip, Rand’s average speed was 102 knots. Fuel […]