Affordable Aviation

Considering the company has always been a western U.S. manufacturer, a name that sounds like “six shooter” conjures a cowboy image, horse-riding westerners packing a pistol on their hip. Actually, it’s just a fun name. Six Chuter’s aircraft are enjoyable enough and the company careful enough about how it treated its prospects and customers that […]

This year, 2022, saw a return to all the great airshows we have come to know and love. One of my all-time favorites and my #1 pick in Europe is Aero Friedrichshafen. I already provided three articles — (1) turbines, (2) six innovations, and (3) Aero success — covering what I found to be highlights of Aero […]

Airspace from ground level to 400 feet is about to get really crowded. Keep alert, fellow pilots! Am I overstating this situation? I don’t think so. You know about drones. You may not know they are presently restricted to visual line of sight. However, a line-of-sight drone won’t get your Amazon package delivered a few miles […]

The title of this article contains a lot of information. If you are a close observer of light aircraft, you may recognize B.O.T.’s Speed Cruiser but you didn’t get the rest right away, did you? Now Available? Journey? Aero Affinity? Neither did I know these references until Sun ‘n Fun 2022, but here is the […]

In a time of great spectator enthusiasm for STOL competitions, wouldn’t a VTOL be even better? If a super-short takeoff is cool, why not vertical takeoff? Of course, most of the multicopter types — flying machines sometimes called eVTOLs — take off vertically but those are different, electric flying animals. Despite waves of breathless reporting by […]

For years, one company has led the fleet of light aircraft. Regular readers of this website already know who it is: Zenith Aircraft. The company may be at the back of the alphabet but they are first in deliveries*. This particular year, however, the company based in Mexico, Missouri celebrates its 30th anniversary. Beginning in […]

Let’s return to affordable aviation after two wonderful shows full of shiny new aircraft. Turbine engines and sleek composite fuselages interest plenty of pilots but then most of us come back to reality and start looking at aircraft we can afford. Some can pay the invoice on a high-end aircraft to enjoy its capabilities. That’s […]

Our concluding report from Europe’s most interesting airshow (certainly for those interested in affordable aviation) speaks to the challenges for big event organizers in the restrictive atmosphere of Covid mandates. As recently as seven weeks before the show was to open (about as close to the show as I dared to wait to make airline […]

Sun ‘n Fun started the recreational flying season as it always does, taking place this year in the beginning of April. Aero Friedrichshafen ended the month at the end of April. These two shows make April the strongest month of the year for airshows, certainly for the affordable aviation crowd. Aviation journalist and LAMA board director […]

“Now, wait a minute,” I hear some object! “You can’t do aerobatics in a Light-Sport Aircraft. It’s not allowed.” Are you sure about that? True, most LSA are not recommended for aerobatic flying or training. However, one of the main reasons for that is that Rotax does not want their LSA 9-series engines used for […]