Some long-awaited revisions to the Sport Pilot Rule were recently released and, as we’ve anticipated, there are positive improvements.

First up: The restrictive 10,000-foot maximum altitude limitation for LSA flight which, among other scenarios, restricted flying over high terrain such as in the Rockies, was amended to allow flight above the limit, with one important condition: Pilots must remain at or below 2,000 feet AGL, whichever is greater. The proposal to change the original maximum altitude was made to address concerns of LSA pilots about flying safely in the mountains or over large bodies of water. Another concern was keeping sufficient altitude over sensitive wildlife areas, where 2,000 feet AGL or greater is often required.

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What a way to start the year. Officials from Piper Aircraft called a press conference on the opening day of the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, and, like no other I’ve seen after attending all six Expos, the media turned out in droves. Cameras clicked constantly, videos whirred, and recording devices captured every word. It may not have been as spectacular as Apple’s iPad media event, but it generated the same kind of intense buzz.

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SPLOG By DAN JOHNSON

Expect the PiperSport LSA to take center stage at Piper's Sun 'n Fun exhibit.

With the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo now history — but hoping to build on the strong beginning of the LSA-only event — preparations are underway for Sun ‘n Fun 2010, running April 13-18.

Sebring, in January, has become the first airshow of the year and when it goes well, some feel the rest of the season can follow. Certainly as Sun ‘n Fun is often considered the start of the “season” (of sport flying, presumably), the two events are ever-more linked. So, at least you might say, if Sebring goes well, so may Sun ‘n Fun. We certainly hope so, as this new year simply must be better than 2009 if our small aviation businesses are to recover from the slump all of aviation has endured.

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If you refer back to earlier reports, you can easily see 2009 was a down year (no surprise, right?). General aviation was off more than 50% and Light Sport was down badly as well, with 42% less registrations than in 2008.

With this post, we present our now-somewhat-famous chart. We hear from some who say they prefer the info to be broken out for the last year only and I will give a summary of those figures below. We realize the limitations of such a brief portrayal of the market situation, but to maintain consistency from chart to chart, we continue to present the relative market shares since the first registrations were filed back in April 2005.

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SPLOG By DAN JOHNSON

Tecnam can lay claim to being the “largest LSA manufacturer” by virtue of producing more than 3,000 ready-to-fly aircraft (with approximately 120 of them flying in the USA as “official LSA” — the U.S. is a relatively new market the Italian company, which was formed in 1948). In my travels to Europe and other countries, I’ve seen a lot of Tecnam models sold under the rules of those countries. But even with all those aircraft and many interesting designs — such as the Echo Super, Sierra, Bravo, Eaglet, and even a new twin that isn’t a LSA — for my money, the P2008 is easily the prettiest two-seater the company has ever designed.

It resulted from a marriage of Tecnam, an all-metal airplane company, to Spain’s Composite Aeronautic Group (CAG). The latter, bought by Tecnam, was the short-time producer of the Toxo Sportster, a handsome all-composite LSA.

Tecnam won’t be producing the Toxo, but the P2008 pairs Tecnam’s prodigious design ability with CAG’s expertise in composite manufacturing. In America, Tecnam is represented by Tecnam North America, a talent-heavy group based in Richmond, Virginia.

For more information: Tecnam.net.

SPLOG By DAN JOHNSON

You’ve surely seen news coverage of Terrafugia’s Transition, the “roadable” LSA from a brain trust of award-winning MIT engineers in Woburn, Massachusetts. This modern version of the well-worn flying car concept has attracted plenty of media attention, and deservedly so. I have been reviewing all their materials and I’m impressed with the task’s complexities.

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