Avia Blog

Denial can be a useful thing when it comes to getting the job done. I’ve done my fair share of flying overwater and out of gliding distance to land, and just rationalized that the odds were slim of ditching and I’d figure it out when it happe…

The modern car engine—even a cheap one—is such a marvel that you can turn the key without thinking about its once-in-a-million failure-rate ECU, its direct-fire coils and fuel injectors that can paint the Mona Lisa in 93-octane pulses. Oh, an…

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, Germany stunned the world by fielding the most advanced and competent air force on the planet. And it did that despite Draconian post-war treaty restrictions that all but prohibited combat aircraft development. But the pilots came from a different tradition—a passion for gliding and soaring. That continues yet today with most of the world’s glider production centered in Europe, including the re-introduced HK36 Super Dimona motorglider from Diamond Aircraft. “New” doesn’t exactly apply to this airplane because it has been in and out of production for 20 years. In fact, the design is really responsible for much of the way Diamond airplanes look, feel and fly for before it was a powered airplane company, Diamond’s predecessor, HOAC, was a motorglider company, with antecedents extending to 1980.

A brief query to the WABAC machine unearthed this gem on light sport aircraft from the Aviation Consumer archive: “Some think the combination of lighter, cheaper airframes and simpler pilot certification will yield a boom in private flying.” We think it’s reasonable to say that almost everyone thought this, but if you now think the boom sounds more like a faint squeak, you aren’t alone. The LSA groundswell has yet to form and judging by comments from our readers and video viewers, the cost of the airplanes has something to do with it. Maybe a lot to do with it.

If you park a Cub on a ramp, you’ll soon draw a crowd. If the Cub is on floats, you’ll need crowd control and that, in a nutshell, describes what may be American Legend’s best marketing ploy. At the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, last winter, Legend introduced the amphibious float version of its popular LSA Legend Cub. By dint of sheer size, it drew a constant stream of attention—the airplane towers over the typical diminutive LSA and it’s one of only a small number of LSAs being sold as purpose-built amphibians. (We covered two others, the Searey and the Seamax in the August 2009 issue, both flying boats.) While we initially thought the Legend amphib was a conversion kit available for any existing Legend, it turns out not to be. That’s not to say a Legend couldn’t be fitted with floats, but the airplane we flew is a purpose-made amphib and owner Dick Parsons told us he doesn’t have land gear for the airplane. (That’s an option.)

For the established manufacturers, the light sport evolution has presented an opportunity and a dilemma. The opportunity is that LSAs might gin up the market for certified aircraft by offering buyers a low cost of admission. The dilemma? How to capitalize on that. Do you leave LSAs to the upstarts or build your own? Cessna built its own, Cirrus stuck a toe in the LSA water and withdrew it—or at least delayed the plunge—and now comes Piper with the announcement that it will offer the former Czech Aircraft Works SportCruiser as a rebranded PiperSport. The announcement came at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in January in Sebring, Florida. Piper’s new CEO, Kevin Gould, explained that buying and marketing someone else’s design made more sense than spending hard-to-come-by developmental dollars to ultimately build an airplane that’s not much different from the dozens already out there. Point taken.

In a 2007 study going back more than 50 years, a Boeing safety group identified inflight loss of control as the number one source of airline fatalities. The 2008 Nall Report tells a similar story for general aviation. Loss of control inflight, or LOC-I in the argot of those who study aircraft accidents, includes a host of hazards ranging from garden-variety stalls to control surface hardovers and encounters with wake turbulence. LOC- I accidents happen to the spectrum of civilian pilots, from students to airline veterans. The stubbornness of LOC-I as the single largest cause of fatal accidents has a great deal to do with the way that we train. While the airlines have incorporated a number of loss-of-control scenarios in their training, general aviation hasn’t really addressed the issue.

Despite being one of the bigger players in LSA market, Tecnam Aircraft isn’t well known in the U.S. The company has actually been building aircraft and aircraft parts for over 60 years, and has 3000 aircraft flying worldwide. For comparison, Cirrus Aircraft and Diamond Aircraft have each delivered slightly over 4000 airplanes to date. Tecnam is reorganizing in the U.S. with a new website (www.tecnam.net), an expanding dealer and support network and a new aircraft: the Tecnam P2006T light twin. The P2006T (That name doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it?) has specs more like a single than a twin. Its gross weight is only 2601—50 pounds more than a Cessna 172SP—and cruise speed is in the 140- to 150-knot range. The really novel item is that the P2006T sports two Rotax 912 S3 engines. The S3 is the certified version of the Rotax found in most LSAs. Each engine puts out about 100 HP.