Affordable Aviation

Two forms of flying are racing at us at increasing speed. This is both scary and promising at once. What can we expect? My crystal ball is no better than yours, but let me tell you what I can imagine may be headed our way. I refer to two generally unrelated activities in the air: […]

At Sebring 2017, another long-awaited aircraft emerged… or re-emerged. After wandering for a few years since original Hawk developer Chuck Slusarczyk retired and sold his company, the once-popular design has a new home in central Florida. I’ve written about this before (earlier article), but we hadn’t seen much until Sebring 2017. The season-starting Sebring Expo […]

Are Light-Sport Aircraft too expensive? With yellow taildraggers from some companies exceeding $200,000, it certainly sounds so. Gorgeous and modern carbon fiber LSA run $125,000 to $180,000. So, yeah, if your budget is leaner or if you merely want to keep the price tag down for a recreational aircraft, it’s tougher than imagined before the […]

Why do we go to all the little airshows? Good question. Everyone knows that a professional journalist or true-blue aircraft enthusiast almost has to trek to the big events like AirVenture or Sun ‘n Fun — with the latter coming up soon April 4-9, 2017. Fine. Yet are the smaller events worth the travel expense […]

At last November’s DeLand Showcase, I tried something new. I didn’t know how it would work or be received but I took a shot. As it turned out, a good many folks seemed to enjoy my “Race Around DeLand 2016” video. I literally used a golf cart and did a drive-by video shooting of most […]

Once upon a time, the world was without Internet, static and boring. In those ancient times, to follow aircraft developments, most aviators had to wait for a magazine that arrived once a month. In 1995, the World Wide Web was born and only four years later work began on ByDanJohnson.com. * Many have called the […]

News from Sebring Expo 2017… The thirteenth annual running of the Sebring Expo is history concluding on Saturday, January 28th. By most accounts it was a solid event. Show organizers were blessed with wonderful weather no doubt helping foot traffic to be substantial each morning and early afternoon. Several vendors told me they booked orders […]

News from Sebring Expo 2017… “We had a lot of interest in Elf,” said Don Reece, the man behind Apogee A.C.E., the Florida dealer for Ekolot. Indeed, though even smaller and tucked behind Ekolot’s better known Topaz, Elf caught the attention of Videoman Dave and I as we scoured the Sebring exhibit grounds looking to […]

At last fall’s inaugural DeLand Showcase event, I got a chance to fly Legend Cub on their own Legend Floats. I’ve interviewed Legend folks about this model, but flying one was still on my to-do list. American Legend Aircraft Company was one of the very first in the Light-Sport Aircraft business and they’ve now fleshed […]

Pilots not closely following Light-Sport aviation can be excused for thinking only one LSA seaplane is available. Established LSA companies like Progressive Aerodyne and their Searey or Scoda’s Super Petrel or Airmax’s SeaMax or any number of aircraft to which floats have been fitted may be somewhat baffled by the outsized attention Icon Aircraft’s long-delayed […]