The Airplane Factory

Several Florida airports have been active during the recession in their efforts to pull new clients. We reported earlier such projects but went to visit one of these over the last weekend. Renegade Light Sport Aircraft had an open house staged in their gargantuan 71,000 square foot hangar and offices on the Fort Pierce airport. […]

Another busy week finished a very active August that has seen high readership… for which we sincerely thank you. Following are some brief news stories in the LSA space. *** ROTAX “EMERGENCY AD?” Aviation media was all over the Rotax “Emergency AD” story, but is that entirely accurate? Aren’t LSA subject to manufacturer-issued SBs or […]

The new Sling LSA from South Africa has the world on a string

Sling 2 Base price: $125,000 Engine make/model: Rotax 912 ULS Propeller: Warp Drive, 70-inch three-blade composite Gross weight (lbs.): 1320 Empty weight (lbs.): 796 Useful load (lbs.): 524 Usable fuel (gals.): 537 Wingspan: 38.6 Fuel type: 91 OCT auto gas or 100LL avgas Payload full fuel (lbs.): 286 Wingspan (ft.): 30 Overall length (ft.): 22.89 […]

*** While out west on business travel I had the chance to fly the latest SLSA on the List, the South African Sling. Earlier I’ve written about the all metal LSA’s round-the-world flight but now this low wing design is being made available for sale to Americans. *** On a gorgeous Southern California day, Matt […]

Normally I don’t write about record attempts or exceptional flights until they are completed and even then only if they are significant. Too many grand voyages end prematurely. But I’ve known Mike Blyth for decades and he’s already accomplished several daring flights. For example, his South to South expedition went from the southern tip of […]

Have you been thinking that it’s been some time since a new Special LSA was announced? While the torrid pace of yesteryear has abated, it ain’t over yet by a long shot. I know of at least a dozen aircraft still in progress to achieve SLSA status. Now, welcome to Sling, SLSA #125. *** Quietly […]

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 […]

For most pilots flying 100 hours represents a decent year of enjoying aviation. Mike Blyth and James Pitman hit that on the first long leg of their ’round the world flight, traversing a huge expanse of ocean en route from South Africa to Oshkosh. Their total flight will see each logging nearly 250 hours of […]