Splog

Two wildly divergent events occurred in the last few days. They are completely unrelated yet they show the global interplay in modern light aviation. One story involves relative newcomer Icon Aircraft and their A5 LSA seaplane. The other revolves around the producer of the most successful LSA in America, Flight Design. Both airplane producer stories […]

Article Update — Photos of the designer’s own project… see at bottom. —DJ 3/2/22 A steady stream of readers ask about motorgliders. This is one of recreational aviation’s most interesting aircraft types. Motorgliders can soar reasonably well for those interested in working thermals or ridge lift to ascend without motor noise. Many others might never […]

Americans know Zigolo thanks to U.S. importer, Chip Erwin. He brought the genuine Part 103 ultralight to the USA but also to other countries where he found customers. Those who know Chip are aware he has many international connections. Beside importing aircraft to the USA and helping customers build them, Chip experimented with electric propulsion […]

I promise I will not keep reporting futuristic eVTOLS or multicopters. However, since the Jetson One article went over better than expected and since I’ve focused mainly on Part 103-sized multicopters, how about one that is LSA-sized? I still would not follow one multicopter article with another except for developer Doron Merdinger, saying this, “Suggested [selling […]

By my study and reports from several other organizations, the world has somewhere north of 1,000,000 pilots. That estimate includes all airline, military, GA, and recreational pilots even including hang glider and paraglider pilots and sky divers. One million, more or less. Now, as anyone who has not been vacationing on Mars the last couple […]

It’s always exciting to welcome a new entry into recreational aviation. Two Bat Hawks are presently inside the USA and will be debuted at Sun ‘n Fun 2022. Bat Hawk is a well-established, conventional microlight-style light aircraft powered by a Rotax 912 that helps it provide “sensational” performance. “We now have two planes in the country,” said […]

For years — no, make that decades — numerous pilots of light aircraft have told me the Rotax 503 was their favorite two-stroke engine. These days, it’s much more likely a pilot will go on about how great the Rotax 912 is. Yes, some grumble about the purchase price, the replacement parts cost, or the […]

In the early days of Light-Sport Aircraft, a veritable tsunami of flying machines crossed the Atlantic or Pacific to land on American shores. In the earliest days imported aircraft comprised more than two-thirds of all entries on the market and that situation persisted for a few years. Later, American companies — which had been relegated […]

Barely after we rang in the new year, here’s a review of 2021 market shares and info regarding the state of the light, recreational aircraft industry. After a surprisingly strong 2020 despite Covid, 2021 returned to Earth a bit but with some shifting between categories. This year the contrast that stood out was between Factory-Built […]

To welcome a brand new year in affordable aviation, I am pleased to announce the launch of our Part 103 List. This new list presents 89 Part 103 entries for models built by 57 manufacturers. [UPDATE 1/18/22 — We made the 103 List even better with the “Model column now leading to info right here on ByDanJohnson.com, […]