Affordable Aviation

I just wrote up a piece for the Tech Talk Dept. of Plane & Pilot on the *** iFly 720 GPS, a really amazing, super-affordable, Air Gizmo-dockable unit that’s got more features than Carter had pills (that’s a reference for older readers). *** Here’s my lead from that article, out in the next issue : […]

For all you smartphone and iPad users, here’s a great guide to Oshkosh from *** Sporty’s Pilot Shop. You can read all the details here, and I’m posting a couple of my own screens. *** There’s lots to like, because anybody who’s been to the Big Show (it’ll be my 32nd year this year) knows […]

In a valid but failed attempt, LSA pilot Michael Combs tried to set a Coast-to-Coast record and came up just 91 miles short (out of 1,954) when thunderstorms blocked his route. He reports he’ll try again. He flew the first attempt with his son, Daniel Routh. *** Many of us think about our activities with […]

Catching up from the road after 3 weeks (1 day to go) in Hamburg, Germany on family business and a laptop double-meltdown (don’t ask). *** The Sling is a South African LSA that made a splash in 2009 with a ‘round-the-world flight just received its official S-LSA Airworthiness certificate, making it #125 on the official […]

* REVISED June 21: Missing text at end replaced. * *** Some big news developing recently regarding the European Aviation Safety Agency’s (EASA) certification of the first three light sport aircraft in its new category designed to legitimize ASTM-certified LSA. *** The new category is called EASA CS-LSA. We’ve talked about it before, see below, […]

This is pretty cool, I have to say: a flying…what, waterbike? Winged pontoon? Powered box kite? Here’s the home page for *** Flynano: and doesn’t this supremely giddy pilot in the illustration remind you of U2′s Bono? Hmmm…backer? Person of Interest? Is Lindsay Lohan going to buy one? Stay tuned… *** A year ago, I […]

Although we Sport Pilots only have to self-certify (and have a driver’s license) to legally fly Light Sport Aircraft, *** the success of the self-certification “medical” has no doubt factored into AOPA and EAA’s joint proposal to FAA to expand the concept to include Private Pilots. *** To add your comments to the FAA page […]

I’ve been a (budget) international jet setter the last couple months so figured it was time to update through an e-chat with *** Chris “Doc” Bailey, who’s heading up a hydra-like push at Renegade Light Sport to get the Lycoming IO-233-LSA engine in as many birds as possible. *** I’ve talked before about the many-pronged […]

The *** Federal Aviation Administration just released a document about its assessment regarding the performance of the LSA industry, specifically in regard to LSA producer’s, shall we say, sub-par performance toward compliance with the ASTM airworthiness standard set out in the very definition of the Light Sport category. *** U.S. LAMA head and Light Sport […]

Ben Sclair, who publishes General Aviation News, wrote a nicely thought out piece on the nuances of the high cost of flying, with a focus on LSA in particular. He laments the black/white thinking that permeates such discussions and makes a decent case for that time-worn truism, if you really want to do something, you’ll […]