Splog

First Icon Aircraft wowed aviation enthusiasts with its sleek and uniquely featured amphibious A5 LSA seaplane. Over the years the company reported collecting around 1,000 orders, a success story that even beats Cessna’s Skycatcher. However, several years passed and the company did not enter production, although they reported a deal with Cirrus Aircraft to handle […]

Aviation has embraced tablet computers like iPad to an extent no one would have imagined only three years ago. These devices are being used for far more than showing a sectional map or approach plates. In fact, with companies like Tecnam supplying Apple’s iPad Mini as standard equipment in their new Astore LSA model, these […]

On a visit to Rotax near Wels, Austria in April this year, I was privileged to examine the immense Rotax engine factory and test facilities with executive Christian Mundigler. Taking a whole day from his many duties, Christian gave us a thorough tour of the many departments both non-aviation and for Rotax Aircraft Engines. In […]

I recently flew with a friend who has some interest in learning to fly. After we got out of a Flight Design CTLSi equipped with dual Dynon 10-inch SkyView screens flanking a Garmin 796 — in all, an awesome amount of beautifully presented information — my friend sighed and made a statement that he could […]

I just wrote about Van’s Aircraft, a 41-year-old company that just came out with their first ready-to-fly airplane. Now I want to talk about a 65-year-old company and a 65-year old airplane design, Astore. First came a 1948 Astore. Recently the 2013 Astore — just unveiled to the public last month at the Aero show […]

Single Seat Darling — Perhaps it’s because we haven’t had so many new SLSA offerings lately (though don’t look away too long as more are definitely on the way!). Maybe it’s because the new airplane is a single seater. Certainly we have not had many single seater SLSA … well, none so far, but that, […]

Several aviation sources recently carried news about Icon Aircraft and their A5 LSA seaplane development. Icon Aircraft has been waiting — surely with increasing impatience — for FAA to answer their formal request for exemption to the Light-Sport Aircraft gross weight parameter. FAA normally replies in 120 days, however, more than a year passed and […]

Across the northern U.S. states and across much of Europe it was a lousy, cold, snowy winter. It seemed everyone I spoke to at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany complained about the crappy winter and their laments mirrored those from America’s northlands. However, the weather appears to be going directly from winter to summer. It was […]

Several Florida airports have been active during the recession in their efforts to pull new clients. We reported earlier such projects but went to visit one of these over the last weekend. Renegade Light Sport Aircraft had an open house staged in their gargantuan 71,000 square foot hangar and offices on the Fort Pierce airport. […]

Here are two aircraft from sources thousands of miles apart. Likewise, the aircraft could hardly be more different yet each has something special about it. You’ll want to catch both videos. We’ll start with the one we flew: Just Aircraft’s brilliant Highlander SuperSTOL. The company has delivered more than 300 Highlander kits making the side-by-side […]