Pilot Reports

How can you do good for aviation and for a fellow American who wants to fly but has challenges? One organization shows the way. By any measure, Able Flight is doing good by enlarging the number of folks who learn to fly. That they do one better by helping people with disabilities learn to fly […]

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 […]

A sexy new airplane reminiscent of the WWII Bearcat

[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 […]

Just talked with CubCrafter’s PR head Jon Bliss to check out the haps on the left coast – Yakima, WA to be exact – with the company’s Super SportCub and other Cubalike models. *** “We’re doing as well as we’ve done in a long time,” says Jon. “We’ve even got a backlog of orders.” *** […]

Right in line with Icon’s high-viz marketing push for its A5 amphib LSA comes the announcement that iconic big-ticket shopping purveyor Nieman Marcus has the futuristic waterplane as the number one (and priciest) fantasy gift in its 2009 Christmas Book. *** The Icon is currently in extensive flight testing at Tehachapi, Ca, one of the […]

The more I look into the story about those two wild and crazy South African dudes (post below) who flew around the world in the LSA of their own design and manufacture, the more interesting it gets. *** Just heard back from James Pitman who offered this: *** “We’re just getting into production at this […]

Last July I ran an item on the grand LSA adventure of two South Afrikaaners, James Pitman and Mike Blyth, who set out to fly around the world — in an LSA! *** Happy to report the boys finished the epic flight, all 45,150 km (27,090 miles) with a stop at EAA Airventure 2009 to […]