Splog

CubCrafters now leads the field for Special LSA (see this report to learn more) thanks significantly to their early installation of the 180 horsepower Titan engine. Outback Shock is starting making waves in the sky with their impressive entry. Outback with Shock options is sold in America by SportairUSA. Both these companies are to be congratulated […]

Wind blows across the dunes here in Nags Head in a way that first drew the Wright Brothers 114 years ago. Indeed, a couple miles north a memorial commemorates the famous bicycle shop owners who made history in this breezy outpost on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. For 45 years, an event has occurred on these ever-shifting […]

AirMax SeaMax — Icon A5 — Vickers Wave — MVP — Lisa Akoya… you only need look at the best promoted brands to see that arguably the most innovative ideas in light aircraft are coming from the LSA seaplane sector. Each of these is a great example of visionary engineering. Others LSA or light kit seaplane developments — Searey, Mermaid, ATOL […]

Normally we elect not to delve into accidents on ByDanJohnson.com but where it can be instructive and when readers are keen to learn more — and when we have direct information — discussing such matters can be useful. To say the last month has not been good for Icon Aircraft would be a gross understatement. While the […]

Does any aviator in the country not know the name Aircraft Spruce? Odds are overwhelming that you have one of their thick catalogs chock full of every part, panel gear, tool, and aeronautical doo-dad on the market. They are known to stock many hard-to-find items. Almost as likely, you’ve bought something from Aircraft Spruce. Maybe you […]

The Marana Regional Airport, in Marana Arizona was the site of the first annual U.S. Flight Expo May 3–6, 2017. The west coast of the U.S. appears to lack major aviation events of the sort commonly seen in the easter U.S. This is especially odd considering the large number of pilots and aircraft in western states! (Some […]

In the late ’90s, an earlier iteration of Remos Aircraft delivered their first aircraft, a G-3 Mirage, originally designed by the very talented Lorenz Kreitmeyer. That was twenty years ago. Recently, the Pasewalk, Germany company delivered serial number 450. Susanne and Harmut Lang, the new owners of the GXNXT — known as a GXnXES in the United States — took possession at their […]

Surely all readers know that Rotax-brand engines dominate the light aircraft landscape. The company owns something like 75% or more of the global market and close to that in the USA. Some worthy competitors are keeping the pressure on, but Rotax continues forward. The engine-to-follow is their new turbo-intercooler-fuel injected 135-horsepower 915 iS variant. Rotax […]

A dozen years after FAA created aviation’s newest sector, we have a new leader among manufacturers of fully built Light-Sport Aircraft. CubCrafters has been moving upward with several years hitting 50 deliveries. In 2016 the west coast builder finally topped perennial leader Flight Design, which slipped to second place. The CT builder had occupied the #1 position […]

April 2017 logged 12 years of Light-Sport Aircraft. The FAA regulation creating the category was introduced in 2004 but it was at Sun ‘n Fun 2005 that the agency presented Evektor SportStar and the Flight Design CT the first and second Special Airworthiness certificates. My friend and LAMA associate, Jan Fridrich, gave a presentation at Aero […]