Czech Sport Aircraft

Knocking around the ‘Net looking for signs that Light Sport is alive and well… *** Michael Combs is nearing the end of his 19,000 mile odyssey — what a vision. Latest word from PR dude Dave Gustafson is that the Flight for the Human Spirit in a Remos GX has made it to my old […]

If you’ve checked into Facebook since January you may know that PiperSport has its own page that you can become a fan of (I am, along with 9,200 others so far!) *** What you probably don’t know is there’s a fascinating video interview that chronicles why and how Piper decided to add social media such […]

Piper Aircraft’s Prez/CEO Kevin J. Gould made it official today at Sebring: the company has entered into a new, worldwide-exclusive distributor licensing agreement with Czech Sport Aircraft that will bring the SportCruiser to market – by April! – under the new name PiperSport. *** As I reported yesterday, Piper did not buy into the company […]

What a way to start the year. Piper called a press conference at Sebring and like no other I’ve seen after attending all six Expo events, the media turned out in droves. On opening day the legacy brand unveiled their LSA entry at Sebring 2010 (it was also their first exhibitor appearance). Camera clicked constantly, […]

Lots of other aviation news organizations embraced multimedia before ByDanJohnson.com did. We figured online was already quite lively with hyperlinks and true interactivity as represented by our exclusive PlaneFinder 2.0 feature. *** About a year ago, of UltralightNews approached me with an idea to do brief reviews of LSA. I accepted his invitation and today […]

[UPDATE: 1/13/09 at 1 PM Eastern — Following reports by AOPA Online, Flight International’s Flight Global, and Jim Lawrence below… Piper stated that — contrary to reports in Czech newspapers and radio — they have not signed an agreement with Czech Sport Aircraft. Thus reports about the amount allegedly invested much less forecasts of building […]

A long and winding trail in the sky, this story is… Once upon a time an American traveled to the Czech Republic, founded a small business to build kit aircraft, grew that into a full-fledged LSA producer, gained an investor with whom he later disagreed, and lost his enterprise. That’s the shortest possible take on […]

With one month to go (and it’s hard to imagine a big December), we have figures to report for this most extraordinary year. We’re all (painfully) aware of the economic predicament, but how has this impacted light-sport aviation? Here’s my observations. *** In 11 months, the industry has increased fleet size by 35% to 1,510 […]

Through the first six months of 2008, Light-Sport Aircraft deliveries have reflected the same challenges afflicting the rest of general or sport aviation…and for that matter, the overall U.S. economy. In fact, LSA registrations aren’t off as badly as are GA deliveries, perhaps due to significantly better fuel economy in an LSA. These FAA registrations […]

I can identify four factors in the economy presently affecting airplane sales: Potential customers (often with plenty of assets or creditworthiness) see the value of their stock portfolio going up and down like a roller coaster; worry over their once-soaring real estate, now down markedly in some areas; witness the continuing rise of the euro-dollar […]