Splog

Hard to believe, isn’t it? Summer is over, we’re into fall and looking at winter. Surprisingly, that means that in a couple months the sale of boats and other watercraft begins to ramp up. Marine shows are commonly scheduled for the dead of winter. If that seems odd, think of it this way: When it’s […]

I don’t know about you, but I can guess that Mosaic Fatigue is setting in to a lot of quarters. Some pilots have done an extraordinary job of digging into this 318-page document to distill essential parts that need to be addressed. Many pilots get exhausted just looking at the NPRM. …Me, too. I look […]

Named “Ultra Air,” the newest Hawk Single sounds like it might be Apple’s new laptop computer. In our analog world, Hawk Ultra Air is nearly the exact opposite… except it is a light aircraft. Many might say it’s “ultra” fun so, hey!, the model name works. “Less is more” is also a phrase that might […]

Recreational flying fans… I don’t know about you but I’m getting pretty tired of studying Mosaic. It’s been on my mind every day since FAA issued it on July 24, 2023, just before EAA AirVenture Oshkosh started. I’ve studied this pretty closely — thanks SO much to Roy Beisswenger for his effort to make a […]

At Midwest LSA Expo on Day Three, I interviewed two leading sellers in the LSA or Sport Pilot kit space, one imported model and one U.S. brand. They represent different approaches to the business yet each has been successful, one for 35 years and one for 40 years. These conversations were a great way to […]

At Midwest LSA Expo on Day Two, I gave my first Mosaic talk to a SRO room. The video turned out well so following some editing on the Q&A session that followed, I pledge to get this up next week. My presentation was a distillation of 318 original pages into a 45-minute presentation. Some described […]

One sure way to know if a show works is to observe vendor participation over a number of years. As this is my 14th year attending the Midwest LSA Expo, I can tell you 2023 represents a strong turnout. Companies come back year after year because it works to connect them with interested customers. Both […]

Nine years ago, in 2014, electric aircraft were mostly experiments and the beginning was challenging. Several ill-fated projects attempted to electrically power airplanes that were inappropriate for such a powerplant. Batteries of the day had lousy power-to-weight ratios. Enough juice to lift and fly a two seater, much less a four seater, by an electric […]

Mosaic was a subject of intense conversations at AirVenture Oshkosh 2023. In a surprise to many of us, FAA released the Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) for Mosaic ahead of schedule. Lots of people who needed to study it were already en route to the EAA show for a week, 10 days, or more. […]

When AirVenture Oshkosh ends, you can almost hear a national sigh as if to denote the flying season is over. EAA’s magnificent summer celebration of flight leads to Labor Day and into fall. Fun flying in northern climates might begin to slow but in the southern half of the U.S., flying for fun is entering […]