Splog

I’m counting and that’s three times in a row that still-relatively-new FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has maintained his positive view of Light-Sport Aircraft and the industry which produces them. When he was brand new — just a year ago in Oshkosh — Babbitt complimented the LSA safety record at AirVenture 2009. He repeated these congratulatory […]

Catching up with Jon Hansen and James DeHart of Hansen Air Group in Georgia.  They rep the lovely line of FK Lightplanes German composite aircraft for all of North America (except Florida.) *** Jon had just delivered the first FK 9 ELA to a customer, who was there when I came by with four of […]

Posting from the road:  I’m in Illinois covering a major DC-3 75th Anniversary event for Plane & Pilot for the next couple days, then on up to Oshkosh Airventure for the show all next week.  I’ll be posting LSA news from the road but before I head out into the super-humid, super hot thunderstormy day, […]

<> Jan Fridrich , head of Europe’s LAMA, just sent me some intriguing stats from his comprehensive data crunching of S-LSA (or overseas equivalents) official registrations up to now. *** Europe continues to lead overall numbers with just under 1850 total.  The U.S. tally is now over 1200. *** Sales have been light for the […]

Call them “flying cars, flying motorcycles, flying dune buggies,” or “roadable aircraft.” Regardless of the correct term, a growing wave of these car-to-airplane machines are in various stages of development and most will be at AirVenture 2010. One of the newest entries is a kit with the lowest projected price among the group; all others […]

Over the years, I’ve increasingly seen AvWeb as one of the leading websites for aviation. I have often expressed appreciation to their staff for their frequent, balanced coverage of Light-Sport aviation. Certainly if you look beyond the big member websites of EAA and AOPA, AvWeb has the biggest influence I can perceive. Recently I made […]

Politicians take actions that are often viewed negatively by small business owners, which term basically defines nearly every LSA producer. But sometimes government leaders do good things; this may be one of those stories. Even while EASA (the European equivalent to FAA) talks about job-killing regulations, perhaps the cottage industry of Light-Sport Aircraft discovered a […]

In the endless tree-covered rolling terrain of northwestern Tennessee resides a Canadian manufacturer of Italian aircraft. Welcome to Skykits, producer of two models of Savannah, a STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) design from ICP of Italy plus a newer variation of ICP’s Vimana, which Skykits calls Rampage. *** Starting out in his native Canada, […]

Here’s a hot item that should shake the dust off the notion that LSA are little toy airplanes. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) *** With all the concern recently over ash cloud emissions from Iceland’s Eyjafajallawhatever volcano that disrupted global air transportation (and also revealed how precarious airline business models must if, as reported, they were in […]

Caught up with Jim Lee recently to find out what’s up with the Phoenix motorglider I wrote about here a few weeks back. *** The good news is his full time devotion to making Phoenix the Next Big Thing in LSA motorized soaring flight.  He’s renamed his Urban Air company Phoenix Air USA. *** Believe […]