Article

If you think weight and balance are boring and unimportant, you need to read the following

2007 Mooney Ovation3 Base price: $469,000 Engine make/model: Continental IO-550G TBO (hrs.): 2000 Horsepower@altitude: 310@SL Fuel type: 100/100LL Propeller type: Hartzell CS/3-blade Landing gear type: Tri./Retr. Max ramp weight (lbs): 3374 Gross weight (lbs.): 3374 Landing weight (lbs.) 3374 Empty weight, std. (lbs.): 2267 Useful load, std. (lbs.): 1107 Useful fuel, std (gals.): 102 Optional […]

CZAW SportCruiser Base price: $79,500 Engine make/model: Rotax 912 Horsepower: 100@SL TBO (hrs.): 2000 Fuel type: 100/100LL Propeller type: FP/3-blade Landing gear type: Tri./Fixed Max ramp weight (lbs.): 1320 Gross weight (lbs.): 1320 Landing weight (lbs.): 1320 Empty weight, std. (lbs.): 765 Useful load, std. (lbs.): 555 Useful fuel, std. (gals.): 30 Usable fuel (gals.): […]

Within 24 hours of getting home from Sun ‘n Fun, several industry leaders including Evektor America’s Jeff Conrad, Flight Design USA’s Tom Peghiny, Jabiru USA’s Ed Ricks, and BRS parachute’s Gregg Ellsworth packed up and headed off to California. What motivated these men to depart so soon after a long week in Florida? They all […]

Want to win a free Light-Sport Aircraft? You missed one chance but the other is still available. Organizations like EAA, AOPA, and Sporty’s have given away airplanes as incentives. Now, LSA have “arrived.” *** At the May 2008 Alaska Airmen event, CubCrafters supported the organizer’s fundraiser; a $50 ticket bought you a chance to win […]

You can hardly doubt the headline. A cruise through our SLSA List will show almost a quarter of all (12 of 50) designs that have won certification are from the Czech Republic. Even the USA counts only 11 SLSA models so far. Yet perhaps showing global cross-pollination, at least two Czech producers are owned by […]

In the auto industry “hybrid” infers the use of multiple technologies (think: Toyota Prius). In aviation, hybrid could mean an airplane designed in one country and built in another. Even Boeing farms out subassemblies worldwide, integrating them in America. Car companies coined “domestic content” to state what portion of a car is “Made in the […]

A couple approvals snuck past my radar in the last month of travel. Welcome to a Canadian bush plane and an Australian trike. Back around Tax Day, April 17th, AirBorne Australia gained their second SLSA airworthiness certificate with the XT-912 Outback. And on June 4th, the BushCaddy was signed off by a U.S. Designated Airworthiness […]

In a year of facilitating independent audits for Special Light-Sport Aircraft, LAMA, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association, completed reviews of six companies: IndUS (Thorpedo); Jihlavan (Kappa KP-5); Aeropro (EuroFox); Flight Design (CT); Czech Aircraft Works (SportCruiser, Mermaid, & Parrot); and Evektor (SportStar). CZAW and Evektor were announced at a press conference at AirVenture Oshkosh 2007; […]