Life is good if you like LSA seaplanes. Here’s a quick look at five that are either on the market or in development. Today SeaRey reigns as far and away the most successful and proven design, with nearly 600 flying. While SeaRey (pictured below) has been an Experimental Amateur Built (EAB) model, the company, Progressive […]
Questions erupt over EAA/AOPA medical plan
“I’m of mixed feelings over this,” express many LSA industry participants who have caused my phone to ring regularly since late September. That’s when EAA and AOPA came together to address requests from some members for a driver’s license “medical,” which would allow aviators with certificates beyond Sport Pilot to fly GA aircraft with clearly […]
Looking ahead to a better year
Happy New Year! Everyone in aviation from hang gliders to jets is hoping for a year of improvement in 2012. Certainly it’s been a tough four years since 2008’s tumble. Many see hope and promise in the arrival of a new year and that mood is powerfully amplified by the Sebring LSA Expo in January. […]
Coming soon: The LSA industry’s biggest get-together
While AirVenture, Sun ‘n Fun, and Germany’s Aero may have more LSA professionals in attendance, the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) Dinner at the Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo is big. How big? For the last four years, LAMA has “sold out” — standing-room-only last year — its annual dinner. The event takes place in […]
Looking ahead to the new year
Preparations are underway for the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo, the eighth running of the focused event. The annual gathering in Sebring, Florida, occurs about the third week of January each year and, as such, kicks off the aviation calendar. (Sun ’n Fun now starts the season of recreational flying.) Recently we visited the show site […]
FK Lightplanes earns SLSA #123: FK12 Comet
As they’ve done numerous times, Hansen Air Group — a team of dedicated pilots, nearly all of whom fly or formerly flew airliners for their day job — has helped shepherd another Light-Sport Aircraft through the ASTM standards process to get a FAA airworthiness certificate. The Altanta area importer has done this with several aircraft, […]
Electric Aircraft Development Alliance in works
A wide range of people recently sat in a room used all day long by the ASTM Committee that develops the Light-Sport Aircraft certificate standards. Apparently sitting in a room all day — while the sun shown brightly and the flying would have been great — was not enough punishment for this hard-working crowd. Indeed, […]
Aircraft Spruce acquires California Power Systems
Aviation powerhouse Aircraft Spruce (officially Irwin International Inc.) recently completed agreements to buy California Power Systems (CPS); both are California-based enterprises. This shows what CPS had accomplished through 30 years in business, but it also shows that Aircraft Spruce remains committed to Light-Sport Aircraft, by far the largest users of the Austrian engine. It also […]
LSA Global
Since the beginning of LSA time, way back in 2005 (when the first LSA was approved), LSA have arrived on American shores from overseas factories. American producers also sold airplanes to Yankees, but none went overseas as governments of other nations had not yet accepted ASTM certification standards. In the last year, a lot has […]