Affordable Aviation

Last July I ran an item on the grand LSA adventure of two South Afrikaaners, James Pitman and Mike Blyth, who set out to fly around the world — in an LSA! *** Happy to report the boys finished the epic flight, all 45,150 km (27,090 miles) with a stop at EAA Airventure 2009 to […]

Once upon a time, there was a purveyor of flying machines and a trainer of pilots in the great kingdom of Texas that wondered why more people hadn’t come to fly the Planes of Sport. *** “I have an idea,” said the Duke of U.S. Aviation Group. “Let us sally forth to the local market […]

I’m sitting at my desk, gloom and doom outside the window as the snow flakes fall, wishing I had one of these: a Legend SkiCub. *** I confess I succumbed to a nostalgic moment, remembering the wonderful trip I had with Darrin Hart and the boys from the Legend factory in Texas down to Sun […]

Paradise USA just marked the 10th Anniversary of its P1 design with some positive and encouraging signs for the industry: *** The Paradise P1, which I did a story on this year, is now certified in the U.S., Brazil (it’s home company has a new 75,000 sq. ft. factory there), Australia and South Africa. My […]

I was out in L.A. last week and had the distinct pleasure to hop a flight out of Santa Monica Airport, an old haunt of mine, with Flight Design USA‘s California sales rep, Karine Noel. *** Karine was a perfect hostess. She’s just set up shop to demo the company’s top-o’-market line of LSA. *** […]

Rans Aircraft seems determined to reverse the trend in ever-higher SLSA prices with a new package for its long-popular (2000 flying worldwide), constantly refined bird: the S-6ELS Coyote II. *** The 26 year old Kansas company, highly successful purveyors of more than 4,500 kit and ready-to-fly aircraft (and a thriving bicycle builder as well) offers […]

American Legend, makers of the popular fun flivver Legend Cub SLSA and Texas Sport kit version, aren’t letting any bad-economy moss grow under their Cub-yellow tennies. *** First, the top-selling American LSA maker received ASTM certification and has completed versions available as we speak for its Amphibious Float Cub. *** The web-footed little bear is […]

Tecnam can lay claim to being the “largest LSA manufacturer” by virtue of producing more than 3,000 ready-to-fly aircraft (with approximately 120 of them flying in the USA as “official LSA” — the U.S. is a relatively new market for the Italian company). In my travels to Europe and other countries, I’ve seen a lot […]

Here’s one of those great events that bring out garage geniuses and newtechies alike – and in time lead to entire new industries: the Eco-Marathon Ulm. *** Think of this event/competition as a call to young designers and engineers to craft minimally-fueled flying machines. Brings to mind the European aviation meets of a century ago, […]

“Chinese New Year” invokes images of fireworks but here’s another take. We hear little or no recreational flying occurs in China, but that turns out to be wrong. According to an article in Wired magazine by by Michele Travierso, the Do-It-Yourself spirit exists even in that highly controlled country. *** A Chinese DIYer named Mao […]