Sun 'n Fun 2011 Day One

Well, Day One for me anyway; the show started yesterday but I was still stranded in Alabama by soggy and intractable weather with a couple Dakota Cubs.

Amy Gersch

We made it into Plant City at about 5:30 last night after squeaking under some very low ceilings, then running east once we hit the Gulf Coast.
A 6-day odyssey...and we're just glad to have made it at all.  Several VFR pilots are still stuck in the South and the storms continue.
Here's a video I quick-shot today, thanks to Legend Cub's Dave Graham, who took me over to meet the owner of a fabulous Piper Cub J3 restoration.

Dave "Speedy" Richardson

 LEGEND NEWS UPDATE

It's really gorgeous.  My video doesn't do it justice but it'll give you a bit of a peak.  The owner is having it judged and hoping to snag a Grand Champion Award. And it's sure got a shot: absolutely immaculate.
The restoration cost upwards of $80K!  Now that's commitment.

Dave and Kurt Sehnert also clued me in a new airplane about to debut from Legend, as well as a quick glance on how this top selling American-produced LSA builder has weathered the sluggish economic recovery.
"Our new Super Legend Cub," says Dave Graham, "has a flapped wing for reduced stall speeds and we're putting a lot of carbon fiber into the structure, in doors, wing tip bows and other components. The tailfeathers are Super Cub size with slightly more area, and aerodynamically balanced for more control authority."
"Power is a Lycoming 0-233.  It's a 115 hp, multi fuel engine to help address the ethanol fuel situation.  The Super Legend will have the same power to weight ratio as the original PA-18 Piper Super Cub with a 150hp engine, so it will be a good performer."
Legend's anticipated timetable:
[] Lycoming expects to complete certification testing by the end of Quarter 3, 2011,
[] ASTM certification for the airplane end of 2011, and ready for the market by Sebring 2012
Intro price is $139,900.  20% down will hold a slot.
It will be an SLSA first, then a kit.

Frame of the new Super Legend

 Kurt Sehnert weighs in on the new plane and the company's fortunes:
"The Texas Sport (kit) version will come after the SLSA version is done, probably by Sun 'n Fun 2012.  The kit can be built either Experimental Amateur Built or as an ELSA.  Of course we will offer our factory built program too as we do with our other models."
Kurt tells me the SLSA Legends continue to dominate sales, and buyers are ponying up for loaded versions with all the toys installed.
"Kit builders tend to build Experimental rather than ELSA because most want their own customized version, which you can't do with an ELSA, which has to be built to the same exact specs as the SLSA."

Super Legend frame detail

The amphib float option Legend offers had a curve ball thrown at it when Baumann Floats recently surprised the aviation world by closing its doors.
"We'll have to see what happens," says Kurt.  "We're looking at other players, but it's been a bit of a shock and it's a shame, they made an excellent product.  But like all business, we'll just go to plan B."
On the Economy: "Well, we figure if we got this far, we'll make it.  It has been a skinny two years.  But it feels like things are moving again."

Sun 'n Fun 2011 Takes Off Tomorrow

SUN 'n FUN 2011 kicks off, even as scores of planes - yours truly included - remain scattered around at airports up to hundreds of miles away, trying to beat the storm system that’s prevented them from making it to Lakeland, FL so far.

The big airshow’s big boss, John Burton, promises an impressive line up:
* Blue Angels performances four different days, highlighting the celebration of the 100th anniversary of naval aviation
* a 20-year retrospective on Desert Storm
* a 10-year commemoration of September 11, 2001
*  the formal opening of the new Central Florida Aerospace Academy (CFAA) on the SUN ’n FUN campus.
* F-22 Raptor flight three different days
* AvBid Airplane Auctions
* Hot Air Balloon Launch at dawn, Saturday, April 2
* Daily and nightly airshows with fireworks
* AOPA "Rally GA" Day
* Lindbergh Foundation Awards for electric-powered flight advances
* "Green Space” Exhibit of environmentally friendly, aviation-related products and services, anchored by Lindbergh Foundation.
* 75th Anniversary Cub Convoy mass arrival to SUN ’n FUN, Monday,  March 28.
And of course all the mix of colorful booths, new aircraft (including new LSA) and a whole lot more.

photo courtesy Harvey Reidel and Sun 'n Fun

Be there or be square!
Speaking of square, I may have to pull the plug, rent a car and drive the last 500 miles from Sparta, TN...but I'm hanging in until the last minute because it would sure feel a lot better to land in the same Dakota Cub I started out in.

Stranded in Sparta

Half way to Sun 'n Fun, thumb typing on my iPhone, we're sitting in the same place we've been in - the comfy lounge at friendly FBO, Sparta Aero Services - since 8 this morning.
It's 3:30 now.
Allow me one small comic book growl of anguish: aarghh.

Situation: 8:00 a.m.

Thanks, that feels better.
Our erstwhile Cub Crew, ably led by aviation Whiz Kid Amy Getsch who's interning in marketing at Dakota Cub, the Super Cub replica kit and certified maker, flew down this far yesterday, landed right around sunset after a lovely, mottled-sun trek at a leisurely 90 mph all the way at an average 3000 feet.
400 miles down, we stopped for a late lunch and picked up some reinforcements: two gents also en route to Florida, each flying their J3's.
Dick Pattschull of Iowa City and George Armstrong of Omaha, Nebraska launched, just after we got back from lunch, from Fulton Co., Mo.'s Hensley Airport.
We hurried along, Amy and I, in the Dakota Super 18 LT she calls Little Airplane, and the identically painted Super 18 she calls Big Airplane (it has a 180 hp engine; the LT has a C90 that puts out 113 hp).

Situation: 5:15 p.m.

 Big Airplane is being flown by Dave "Speedy" Richardson, AKA the Resident Gypsy, a conundrum that describes his rooted history in Sioux Falls and his love of long XC flights.
Amy talks to "her" - Little Airplane - as if she were a beloved horse - there's even a little stuffed panda bear riding along in the wing root with a great bird's eye view of the tandem cockpit and what's a comin' too.
Half an hour later we slowly overtook the pokier J3s and pressed on toward Sparta.
Clouds to the east spread a long gray somber note to the end of the days flying
Dick, after a comm miscue, landed several miles south of Sparta. We looped back trying to find Speedy, who could transmit but not receive.
We finally touched down in a murky dusk. I was impressed with how easy the big 26" bush tires and stout tailwheel soaked up my landing imperfections
Up at 6 the next morning, we ate and headed to the field. Eight hours later, still here. More bad weather en route. I may have to hop a winged beer can from nearby St Louis if we get stuck.
And I say again: arrgh.

Touchstones: Honoring the Basics

The FAA has a helpful publication that wouldn’t hurt us to check out now and then, whatever our level of experience and skill: the Airplane Flying Handbook.
Sure, it may seem like plain vanilla...but where would hot fudge sundaes and banana splits be without good old dependable vanilla?
We pilots need to maintain our good airmanship foundation, no matter how big a hotshot we sometimes imagine ourselves to be.  Reviewing the essentials helps us recall those nuances we forget, or shortcut...and which, in a pinch, we may desperately need in our quiver of flying skills.
Once we start down that "I got this wired" slippery slope, the risk of incidents and accidents increases...and who needs that kind of education?

Criquet Storch SLSA

Case in point: FAA's Handbook section on porpoising.
I sometimes revisit a landing tendency that I've been working to correct: I will make a bigger-than-necessary pitch correction after bouncing a landing.
If I balloon up at a higher angle of attack then I want, I'll push the nose over -- too far.  Instructors invariably tell me, "Whoa, just let it settle or go around, don't go chasing it."
I picked up that habit from hang glider and ultralight flying, where ultra-slow landing speeds and draggy airframes sometimes let you get away with...and even require...dramatic last-second pitch-ups to keep you from making hard landings.
The problem with such pitchy exuberance in an LSA or traditional GA airplane is the cleaner airframe's tendency to let you get it into "porpoising" flight, by chasing an ever-growing up/down nose angle...until a hard impact becomes unavoidable.
Porpoising is a classic scenario for collapsed landing gear.  A local SportCruiser was recently destroyed when the pilot lost control after porpoising near the runway.
Rather than reprise in my own words how to avoid mimicking the happy undulations of our sea-going mammalian friends, I'll refer you to this excellent section (it's a PDF: go to page 8-31).
I know I picked up a few pointers I'd forgotten...and learned a couple things I'd never learned in the first place.  After all, no one CFI can cover it all, no matter how skilled.
A pilot's license is our ticket to continue lifelong learning...and self-teaching through study and practice is an important component of it.
Speaking of the SportCruiser, I started to porpoise one the first time I flew it.  The SLSA has a very sensitive pitch response, especially compared to its roll pressures.
I expected I would be easing the nose off the runway just fine on my first takeoff but we suddenly zoomed up to a 20-30 degree angle.  Instead of easing the stick forward, I pushed it just a bit too smartly forward -- and we were instantly looking back down at the runway.
My instructor said "Whoa cowboy, easy does it!" as he eased the stick back to establish a proper climb angle.  I became a pitchmeister with my pinkies in that airplane from then on.
The FAA Handbook's bottom line: if you get seriously out of sync in pitch inputs, just power up and go around.
We sometimes forget we usually have a choice.  Doing a go-around is always a good mindset to keep in your mental skillbag: it's too easy to slip into the "I gotta land now!" syndrome.
Give that Handbook a look: I bet you'll find something in there that will make you a better pilot.

Aviation Jobs, American Style

Good news from Allegro LSA’s head honcho Doug Hempstead, as he spoke with our publisher Mike McMann. 
Allegro, now a solely-American made, composite/aluminum S-LSA (my flight report is due out soon in the magazine) told Mike he expects to hire as many as 35 workers within the next year.   These are jobs that were formerly held by Czech Republic personnel.
Allegro is a Czech-designed airplane (Fantasy Air) that, like so many LSA, was built in Czech Republic and assembled, test flown and delivered in the States. 
Doug and his wife Betty bought the rights to produce the airplane here and production is now underway at the company's Sanford, NC plant.
More than 450 of the Kevlar-composite fuselage/aluminum wing Allegros have been sold since 1994, most overseas.  The Hempsteads hope to change that proportion...and employ more Americans in the process.
Three Allegro models are offered: Classic Trainer at $89,000 (also configurable as an IFR trainer), Voyager at $94,000 (adds things like MGL Voyager EFIS, Garmin radio and transponder and vertical card compass), and Executive at $99,000 (adds two Dynon Skyview Synthetic Vision panels and Garmin GPS 500).
Those are highly competitive prices for a composite ship with lots of high-tech extras.  It's an excellent airplane that fulfills a lot of missions from trainer to cross-country cruiser.

Deals! We Got Deals!

I just finished a column that's becoming an annual event: talking with Avemco Insurance's VP Mike Adams, who filled me in on the general picture for LSA accidents,  claims and what it says about pilot's flying habits and the market strength as well after two brutal years trying to grow a fledgling industry.

FPNA A22 Valor

That column will be out in the mag this spring.  The short tell is: rates haven't gone up...and they haven't gone down.  We're in a general market stagnation where new pilots are replacing those who are dropping out. 
Pilot accidents are less frequent, especially experienced GA pilots, because Avemco's 5-hour minimum transition requirement before they'll write a policy for a new LSA owner is helping pilots get the touch they need to fly these aircraft well. 
LSA are generally lighter in weight than the birds they've flown all their lives, and the initial experienced-pilot mindset tended to regard them as toys instead of a new type of aircraft that deserves respect.

Another thing Mike touched on is the high cost of repairs after an accident.  That's because repairs require insurance companies to mostly buy new parts at retail price...there just isn't a deep supply of used and salvaged parts yet for LSA, while there certainly is for GA airplanes.
And that brought me to wonder just what used LSA are going for these days.
I checked Trade-A-Plane's website and pulled up around 20 for sale.  Although many didn't list prices, the majority did, along with TT (total time on the airplane) and a list of installed instruments and other options.

American Legend Cub

I cherry picked a few to give you an idea what the used market is looking like for LSA that are one to five years old. 
Prices have dropped considerably for many airplanes.  Sometimes they're older models with higher hours.  Sometimes the owner is simply moving on to a new bird.
Here's the sampling I picked.

2009 Gobosh 700S 250hrs TT $112K
2008 CubCrafters Sport Cub S2  80hrs TT $134K
2008 Jabiru J-230 $96K no TT listed
2007 AMD Zodiac CH601, all mods as of 3/19 155hrs TT $75K.  (The modifications are significant: several 601 models, almost all of them homebuilt, had structural failures and fatal crashes, leading to extensive airframe modifications)
Zenair 601XL (2 available) both built by "old experienced A&P mechanic, rebuilt Lycoming 0-235s, one has 60 hrs TT, the other was just finished, $60K each, upgrade kits on each
2007 Dova Skylark 64hrs TT $160K invested, asking $119K
2007 Evektor SportStar Plus 135hrs TT $85K
2007 FPNA Valor 525hrs TT $55K
2007 Rans S-6S Coyote II, 100 hp, kit built, 102hrs TTAF $47.5K
2007 Remos G3 1450hrs TT, $59K
2006 American  Legend Cub 495hrs TT, 120HP Jabiru $75K
2006 Flight Design CTSW 150hrs TT $75K
To my eye, we're beginning to see some real deals out there.  That bodes well for the industry. 
Some of these planes may go to schools, others will get more pilots flying, or keep those older dudes and dudettes in the air.
And since this is still a new fleet, you can likely find a top-shape airplane for tens of thousands less than new. 
Here's your chance to get into the game if brand-new isn't on your must-do list.

"Ice" that iPad 2!

Now this sounds like fun: trying to blow up an iPad2!
Jeppesen, the aeronautical charting company, just ran a rapid decompression test on the iPad 2.  The poor, innocent device was explosively decompressed at an altitude of 51,000 feet!  It came through with flying colors, which ought to be good news for just about every private or airline jet passenger intent on finishing their latest World of Warcraft scenario (after getting to a safe altitude first of course.)
Jeppesen had previously tested the original iPad, part of a successful program to get initial FAA authorization for the Jeppesen Mobile TC charting App.
The Jeppesen Mobile TC App is available, of course, from the App Store or through iTunes, and it’s free for those already subscribed to Jepp’s electronic navigation service.
What does this have to do with LSA?  Nothing much, I just thought the prospect of iPad2 coming through the fog of a rapid decomp unscathed was kind of cool.

Skycatcher: Too Right, Mate!

Cessna marches on with its C-162 Skycatcher production.  Latest milestone: it’s first international delivery to an Australian customer.

graphic: © James Lawrence 2011

Aeromil Pacific of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast Airport took delivery and will use the bird for sales demos.  The FBO also plans to display it at Avalon 2011: the Australian International Airshow in early March.
In related news, Skycatcher’s design team won the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Piper General Aviation Award for 2010.  Congrats to those hardworking slide-rule pushers.
AIAA presents the award annually for outstanding contributions leading to the advancement of general aviation.
As I posted after Sebring, Cessna plans to deliver 150 Skycatchers this year.

Insider Tips From A CFI

Here’s a thoughtful piece by John Zimmerman (for Sporty’s Pilot Shop online) that has the virtue of giving you a broader picture of the flight training experience.
I’ll share the highlights, then urge you to link on over and join the discussion  – there are reader comments and you can weigh in yourself.
The article is 7 Things Your Flight Instructor Won’t Tell You.  John isn’t out to accuse instructors of duplicity, but rather acknowledge that in order to pass on a wealth of information, things get unintentionally glossed over.
* Students are likely to take more than the minimum of 20 hours (Sport Pilot) or 40 hours (Private Pilot) to get their tickets. 
* A Recreational license is still a viable alternative to both...if you can find a school offering the training.
* Don’t show up unprepared for a lesson...CFIs don’t like it and it adds to your training hours.
* You need both pitch and power to control airspeed and altitude. (This is fun, I talk to people all the time who fall on one side or the other of this tireless debate.
* Good crosswind landings use both slip and crab.
* Decision-making is hardest on the ground, i.e. “Should I really fly today?”
* Flying can, and will, change your life in ways you never considered.
It’s a good read, and good comments too from readers.

AOPA's Fuller: Let's Rally GA!

In its declaration of 2011 as the year to "Rally GA", AOPA echoes the call to action of its President, Craig Fuller, who said recently, "We don’t just want to watch for a turnaround (in General Aviation), we want to do everything we can to make it happen!" 
He's urging members from all sectors of flight to honor, protect and promote our common treasure: – the freedom to fly. 
To do its part, AOPA put together a list of events for the coming year, places where we can all join in the celebration of flight and the discussion of how to move it forward.
Check it out to see what's coming your way.

The YouTube Cockpit

"Personal Video" has gone mainstream.  Seems like everyone from pilots to skiiers and snowboarders to skateboarders to mountain bikers to...well, anybody in outdoor motion is slapping on these small, rugged, HD-quality, purpose-built camcorders to immortalize every breathtaking moment.
Imagine how different memorial services are going to be in 2082.
All it takes is your desire to slap a camera onto a helmet, headband, monopod pole, suction cup or get some Ram Mounts and tape/sticky-back/bolt/clamp them to a vehicle hard point and you are Good To Go!
And by vehicle, I mean airplane, car, snowmobile, dune buggy et al, but also ski, snowboard, hang glider, shoe...you name it, the Adventure Vid gang is doing it.
We've talked about some of these tres' cool cams in the past but I just got re-seduced by the phenomenon yesterday.
After wrapping up my Phoenix motorglider pilot report, due out in late spring's Plane & Pilot, Jim Lee of Phoenix Air USA told me about a new POV camera he'd used to tape the 127 mile all-soaring flight he just made in that truly fabulous airplane.
Check out this video, it's an awesome teaser for the joys of soaring flight in a motorglider.

After seeing Jim's vid, I was hooked; started searching around the net; found this friendly company which offers three top-selling, small, HD-quality cameras that you can mount about anyplace to make some very cool videos...and yes, I bought one!  (I am a tech junkie, why do you ask?) 

 For my LSA coverage, which includes inflight video of pilot reports and to supplement GA photo shoots, I jumped on the same camera Jim has: the Drift Stealth HD 170 "helmet camera".
Two main reasons: the remote control and the several HD modes.
Here's a few more notable highlights: I'm hoping to do a Tech Talk column soon on the Stealth for the mag.

Drift Innovation's Stealth HD170.  That little button at left is the (wrist wearable) remote

 * HD Video: 1080p at 25 or 30fps, 720p at 25, 30, 50 or 60 fps
* Zoom: 4x Digital zoom in 720p and WVGA
* Microphone: Built-in.  Optional external mic jack (for radio and intercom chatter using a headset Patch Cord (Aircraft Spruce has it, I use it with my tape recorder for inflight note taking)
* wireless remote control (several brands don't have that!)
* slow-motion/interval shooting (one pic every 3/5/10/30 seconds for cool time lapse sequences)
* lens rotates to support any mounting angle
* Sensor type: CMOS
* Video format: MOV (H.264)
There's a lot more to check out, I'll leave you to it.
MyPOV360 has other top POV cam setups too, but it's got a great package deal going on right now for the Stealth, and no, I don't get a commission.  This is the setup I jumped on because once in awhile, you just gotta grab the tech and join the party.

"Preflight? You don't need no steenking preflight!"

As I preflighted a rental J3 Cub last fall, an older gent, kind of scruffy looking, was keeping me company, though we'd never met.
A pilot and airport regular, he quickly revealed his belief about preflighting in general.

Even the well-intentioned can compromise a good preflight

“Aw,” he said, rubbing his grizzled chin, “just go.  It’s a Cub, it's fine, just get in it and takeoff."
I looked at him, wondering if he was kidding.  He wasn’t.
“Well, thanks...I think...,” I replied, mildly annoyed, “but I think I'll just finish up here if you don't mind."
“Naw," he said, waving at the air, "just jump in and go, it’s alright.”
I ignored him and his distracting insistence, wondering what his game was.
We didn’t know each other. He had no reason, or right for that matter, to try and persuade me to skip a vital part of good airmanship practice.
Perhaps, I thought, he's an angel sent to cement my determination to do things right.  See, I get excited about flying.  I tend to want to rush through the essential but boring stuff, like a proper preflight, and get to the fun stuff, like grabbing some air.
So I have to consciously discipline myself to slow down and do things right -- hitting all the points on a checklist is another example -- otherwise I might scatterbrain myself into an emergency.
And who thinks trading off that five or ten minutes on the ground is worth the minutes of sheer panic or hours of fixing whatever went wrong that can come of it?

 Case in point: I learned to take preflight seriously in my hang gliding days in the early '70s.  More than once, I personally witnessed pilots assemble their gliders on a high mountain ridge, check everything over, climb into their harness, walk to the launch... then charge off the hill, only to discover in sheer terror they’d forgotten the most essential part of pre-launch hang gliding: to hook the harness into the glider!
Hanging helpless by their hands from the bottom of the control bar, the glider, catastrophically weighted well forward of CG, would plummet toward the ground at a negative 30 degree or more angle.
I know, it sounds stupid: who would forget to hook in, after all?
You'd be amazed.
Many veteran pilots and newbies alike get so comfortable, so casual, they simply hurry to the launch, eager to get airborne, and forget to clip in.  In fact, it's one of the biggest causes of injury and death in that sport.  And to this day, I read now and then of a forgotten hook-in.
Pilots may do everything right with the glider and his harness, but think they're beyond needing to ask for a “hang check” -- an important part of preflight where someone at launch holds the nose level so the pilot can lay out prone and make sure the harness and 'chute lines aren't tangled.
Of course, the prime benefit of a hang check is that you verify you're hooked in.
I personally screamed at a pilot not long ago, seconds before he launched, that he wasn't hooked in.
I might have saved his life.
Shook up by how close he'd come to disaster, he moved the glider away from launch and sat down to think long and hard about why he'd spaced out such an essential step.
Skipping preflight for a Cub, or a SkyCatcher, or a Boeing 787, carries the same risk of catastrophe.  Why even go there?
Back to my Cub preflight: I asked my "airport angel" why he would ever suggest someone skip a preflight?
“Aw, it's a Cub, it’s been flying for 60 years, nothing’s going to happen to it.”
Giving him a look, thinking that a senior citizen like the Cub deserves even closer scrutiny, I gave him a look, politely disagreed and finished up, then went for a nice flight.
After I landed, having thought about his casual indiscretion, I looked for him but he’d left. 
I did tell the guys who run the FBO that they had a guy wandering around the field spouting dangerous advice.  What, I pondered, if he’d given the same spiel to some young, impressionable, easily-intimidated student pilot?
Looking out for each other when we fly is an important piloting virtue.  It doesn't serve us, nor the flying community, to act like Top Gun loners who neither volunteer, nor accept, needed advice.
The next time I see that dude, I’m going to both thank him for reinforcing my good habits, and ask him this: “What the hell do you think you’re doing suggesting that pilots skip preflights?”
Because that kind of dumb thinking, plain and simple, is what gets pilots killed.

REMOS: New Dealer & Boy Scout Pow-Wow

Remos continues to build its ever-expanding U.S. sales/service network.  The company just “promoted” Tom Pekar’s Success Aviation, near Houston, from a Pilot Center to it’s 16th Aircraft Dealer in the U.S.
The new dealer has two Remos GX demos, one with an autopilot.  Both are used in the school.

“Most flight training operations involving the GX use about 3.2 gallons of fuel,” he says, “compared to over 5 in a Cessna 152 and close to 9 in a Skyhawk.”
With the price of avgas jumping up the way it has been of late, flight schools nationwide have to at least be giving renewed thought to adding LSA trainers to their fleets.
One of the tangible bonuses the GX brings to its quality build and superb handling characteristics (my personal view: it’s as sweet to fly as any LSA out there) is its capability of flying with the doors off.  In summertime Texas, that’s a definite asset!
Success Aviation hopes to draw on the 7-million-population Houston megalopolis.  The school is licensed to administer FAA tests, provide training from Sport Pilot to Commercial and CFII, and service aircraft in its two large hangars.
Meanwhile, out on the right coast, longtime aviation innovator LoPresti Aviation is hosting its annual First Saturday Aviation Experience at the company hangar, Sebastian Municipal Airport (X26), Florida.
More than 100 members of the Indian River Boy Scouts will gather at the annual weekend event for breakfast and an introduction to the world of aviation.  Face-to-face chats with pilots and climbing around a variety of airplanes are scheduled.

The late, great aircraft designer Roy LoPresti dreamed of making it easier for kids to gain exposure to the joys of aviation, not such an easy thing to do in these days of guarded airports and security checks. 
Childhood today must be so overwhelming for kids, with all the digital distractions their generation is heir to.  Anything that gets kids closer to hands-on experience with airplanes can only be for the good, for them and for aviation. 
One can only get so much joy from a computer game joystick.
Tim Clifford of RAF (Recreation Aircraft Foundation) will also speak to the kids. RAF is a private group dedicated to preserving backcountry airfields and creating new public-use recreational airstrips.

VP-X Electronic Circuit Breaker meets EFIS

Vertical Power has a cool line of electronic circuit breakers that make it easy to monitor the status of your electrical system. 
With so many LSA going to glass cockpits, having general and specific information about the state of your electrics displayed right on your EFIS screen is crucial to safe flight.

The company’s VP-X Sport and VP-X Pro modules now work with many popular EFIS display panels. Most recent to jump on board is the popular Dynon SkyView 7" and 10" EFIS display panel systems, which Dynon's Robert Hamilton expects to be fully integrated by the end of this year.   
Both VP-X units will also display with other popular panels from AFS, GRT, MGL and Garmin G3X.  
The concept is simple and powerful: to allow monitoring of the overall health of electrical systems, view and control the status of individual circuits, and respond 
to circuit faults.
In the SkyView setup, the VP-X pilot display appears as a window along with the Engine Monitor, Primary Flight Display and GPS Moving Map.  Trim and flap positions also display.

Garmin G-3X panel with VPX electrical system status

The core engine of all Vertical Power modules is its patented electronic circuit breaker (ECB) technology.
ECBs not only detect circuit faults, but can do other “smart” things like detect and notify of a burned-out nav or landing light or disable the starter circuit when the engine is running.  The VP-X Pro provides more than 30 power circuits, plenty for even the most loaded LSA out there.
One dramatic difference from conventional systems is how much less electrical wiring is needed, reducing weight, complexity and number of possible failure points.
Other cool features include automatic landing light wig-wag, pilot and co-pilot trim control, electric flap control with intermediate flap stops (and flap control backup in case of flap switch failure), trim and flap position display, over-voltage protection, alternator control and lots more. 

Diagram shows how VP-X electronic circuit breaker interfaces with switches and EFIS panels

Experimental kit builders have driven this powerful technology so far but SLSA manufacturers are beginning to incorporate them into their airplanes.

Hot Off The Water

To the answer “Progressive Aerodyne!” comes the Jeopardy question “What LSA company thumbs its nose at the bad economy?”
Certainly one of the most-fun LSA flights I’ve had in some time came at the controls of that company’s SeaRey amphibian.

Designer Kerry Richter and his SeaRey, buzzing the pond at Progressive Aerodyne's factory in Tavares, FL

My LSA pal Dan Johnson recently wrote up a piece on the amphib which spurred me to excerpt some highlights in advance of my own flight report on the lively sea bird coming soon in Plane & Pilot.
Kerry and Wayne Richter, second and third generation founders of Progressive Aerodyne, started back in the ‘70s with many memorable UL birds they created with dad/grandfather Stanley Richter.  The company then was Advanced Aviation and it put out, among other craft, several iterations of a very popular ultralight amphib: the Buccaneer.

Buccaneer SX-1.  Photo - www.lightsportaircraftpilot.com

Building on that success, as Dan notes, Progressive Aerodyne popped out 31 Experimental Amateur Built kits in 2010.
After Sebring 2011, they sold 14!  That's impressive for any aviation company in these difficult times.
All those new builders will have lots of company: more than 600 SeaRey builders are already splashing into lakes and rivers all over the world.
The kit goes out the door at around $70,000.
And as I reported last month, Kerry tells me the SeaRey SLSA should be through ASTM accreditation by Oshkosh and will sell in the neighborhood of $120,000 -- "loaded" -- a very attractive price for an amphibian.
I went to Progressive Aerodyne's factory in Tavares, Florida after the show to shoot and get the tour.  Kerry is one busy designer.  He demonstrated a folding-wing option he’s developing that can be done, on land, by one person!
If you’ve got flying from water on your mind, this is one hot setup.  Other LSA amphibs have yet to make the big splash SeaRey has.  
A good part of that has to be its nearly two decades of design refinements and a cohort of happy owners.  Here's one well-seasoned, robust design...and one heck of a lot of fun to fly.

AERO...and e-Flight Expo...coming soon

The e-flight Expo kicks off for the third time at "AERO" in Friedrichshafen, Germany, April 13-April 16.  

Bunches of new aircraft and propulsion technologies along with the awarding of the Lindbergh Electric Aircraft Prize (LEAP) will mark the gathering of 550 exhibitors from 26 countries.
The e-flight name stands for more than electrical flight innovations: ecological and evolutionary advances in flight regardless of their nature are embraced, although electric is certainly leading the show.
Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, will present his foundation’s prize for outstanding achievements in the development of electric flight.  

This year should bring several exciting advances in electric flight .  I’ll be doing a broad story for the magazine soon on what’s up and what’s coming.
Another highlight of the Expo is "History for the Future of Flight”, a tantalizing assemblage of descendants and close relatives of last century’s aviation pioneers:  Claude Dornier, Igor Sikorsky, Marcel Dassault and Count Zeppelin.  

Bertrand Piccard, globe-circling balloonist and grandson of the atmospheric scientist Auguste Piccard, will also be there...unless test flights for his ongoing electric flight project "Solar Impulse" interfere.
Mr. Lindbergh, a tireless environmental champion in his own right, will also bring Albert II, Prince of Monaco, to augment support for Lindbergh’s championing of “electric mobility”, which includes  – aviation but also other forms of more planet-friendly transportation.  

Yuneec's new Viva two-seat electric powered motorglider

The expo will feature flight demonstrations from Yuneec’s e430 and E-Spyder electric aircraft, and the Chinese company’s new Viva.  The two-seat, side-by-side all-electric motorglider has a folding prop in the nose, run by a 40-kilowatt electric motor.
Top Slovenian LSA maker Pipistrel will display a four-seat hybrid airplane.
And Flight Design, top U.S. LSA producer, plans to display the latest version of its hybrid engine: a Rotax 914 combined with an electric motor.
But wait: There’s more!  36 teams will take to the air in the Berblinger Flight Competition, created to demonstrate "flying using innovative techniques" based on the latest research, knowledge and developments in aviation.
Germany, Slovenia, Italy, France, Australia, Czech Republic and Austria will field teams...but none from the U.S.  What’s up with that?

Yuneec E-Spyder (based on FlightStar ultralight)

The prize will go to aircraft capable of “carrying people and incorporating original and innovative ideas of environmental sustainability, economy, safety and/or construction.”
The first, technical part of the competition happens April 15, 2011 at AERO.  The winner gets €100,000 in prize money - that’ll work!
The second part takes place in the German city of Ulm on its 200th anniversary of Albrecht Ludwig Berblinger’s attempt to cross the Danube River in a hang glider of his own design.  Studies of his failed attempt indicate the design was sound...he could very well have succeeded, in 1811, if he’d had more knowledge of thermal air currents over the cold river. 

Expect AERO's e-flight to once again be the premier showcase of cool new stuff that will change all our lives in years to come.

AOPA to FAA: Let CFI-S Hours Count for the Private License!

There’s been some controversy lately regarding FAA’s mandate that flight training towards the Sport Pilot license is not allowed to count toward the Private Pilot (PPL) and higher licenses and ratings unless the instructor is a certificated CFI, rather than a CFI-S (as FAA delineates Sport Pilot-only instructors).
Recently, AOPA petitioned the FAA to change the regulations and allow those hours to count for all higher levels of certificated airmanship.
The pilot member organization picked up support along the way from EAA, GAMA (General Aviation Manufacturers Association), and NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors), all of which are now petitioning FAA to change these regs: FAR Part 61.99 and 61.109. 

Should hours logged with a CFI-S count toward the Private - and beyond?

The specific language asks FAA to “permit the instruction time received in pursuit of a sport pilot certificate to be credited toward the instruction requirements of additional certificates and ratings.”
Of course, getting advanced ratings requires training from a qualified CFI.  The petition only addresses Sport Pilot training as given by a CFI-S.
The crux seems to be FAA's 2009 ruling reinterpretation that revised its own 2002 take that held ultralight flight time logged by Sport Pilots would count toward higher-level certificates. 
The 2009 statement posited that allowing CFI-S training to count toward the PPL in effect constituted permission for CFI-S to provide training for the PPL.
No way, said AOPA, proclaiming that aeronautical experience gained in pursuit of the SPL provides “a valuable foundation for the additional requirements of the private pilot certificate.”
Nobody’s suggesting that CFI-S can legally take a student through the PPL.  Buy why shouldn’t the skills taught by one count?
Does any pilot logically believe that good instruction doesn’t make them a better pilot from Day One?
FAA’s narrow view is akin to making a student retake 7th grade algebra before he takes geometry in the 9th grade, because he was taught by middle school instructors instead of in high school. 
Math is math and teaching is teaching. 
Aeronautical skills and knowledge, as with riding a bicycle, don’t simply evaporate because they were initially learned from someone with a CFI-S-only credential.
The group goes on to say allowing sport pilots to move smoothly up to higher-level licenses and ratings not only doesn’t compromise safety, but gives Sport Pilots greater incentive to pursue those skills and in fact enhances safety.
Works for me.  What do you think?

Flight Design 4-Seater to Debut at AERO

Although not strictly LSA-centric, here's a cool story: German-based Flight Design, maker of the top-selling CT-line of LSA, is coming out with a new, certified 4-seat aircraft dubbed the C4.
As the name unintentionally implies, Flight Design surely hopes to have an explosive impact on the General Aviation market, and we wish it success.

This is NOT an official Flight Design rendering, just my own fantasful imagining of the C4 based on the CTLS

The first full-size POC (proof of concept) version debuts in April at Europe's big Aero 2011 airshow in Friedrichshafen, Germany.  It's a fabulous show, BTW, especially since lots of electric-powered aircraft will also be on display.  I'll do a wrap up of its coming events in the next couple days.
Back to the C4: An interesting wrinkle is the company's outreach for feedback on the merits of the airplane's design.  They'll poll the show goers at Aero, but also will have an online survey for all of us to weigh in on.  That link won't be hot until March 1st, but make it worth your time: they're giving away a Garmin aera 500 GPS for your trouble...not that serving up opinions is ever a problem for us pilots.
This is apparently a sincere request, not just a marketing strategy: Although in development for years, Flight Design's engineers won't freeze the design until somewhere around Sun 'n Fun 2012, after wading through all the public input.
Also of more than passing interest is the company's plans to type-certify both the CTLS and MC — currently ASTM-approved S-LSA designs here in the States. Flight Design will use a EASA certification system, which makes use of the company's recently granted Design Organization Approval.
You have to admire Flight Design's impressive commitment to all aspects of private flight.  Over 24 years, the company has built more than 1,500 aircraft, flying in 39 countries, has successfully passed quality control audits conducted by LAMA, ISO (International Standards Organization) and TÜV (a vast German technical standards consortium in existence for 130 years, roughly equivalent to ASTM).
It's also developing a hybrid power system and working to expand its global service and support, currently in place in 39 countries.

Voice of the (Pilot) People

Smart Brief picked up on an AOPA poll of its membership (without citing the numbers of poll respondents) that shows an overwhelming majority can see themselves "flying as a sport pilot in the future."
That dovetails into a topic I'm working on in my column for the May issue, which covers the recent LSA Tour of Florida that took place right after Sebring 2011.
John Hurst, head of Sebring Aviation, who flew a Flight Design CTLS on the Tour, told me of his desire to overturn what he perceives as an entrenched belief among younger pilots that LSA flight is primarily viable as an alternative for older pilots faced with the possibility of losing their flight medicals, and therefore their flight privileges.
"I want us to stop preaching to the choir and reach out to younger pilots.  Too many younger pilots think of LSA as a compromise you need to make when you're in danger of losing your medical.  I've heard younger pilots say, too many times, 'I won’t have to do something like that for a lot of years'.  I'm trying to change that perception to show them LSA offers several benefits they can't get with a type certificated aircraft."

The question the poll doesn't answer is, "How far in the future do you see yourself flying as a sport pilot?"

On the face of it though, these are encouraging numbers.  At the very least it shows that sport pilot flying is building a strong positive image for itself.
The poll results:
74.91%: Yes -- I could see myself flying as a sport pilot in the future
11.06%: Yes -- I am flying as a sport pilot now.
(aggregate total: almost 86%!)
14.03%: No -- I would not fly.

Larry Newman, 2011

Larry Newman, 63, one of the seminal manufacturing/marketing dynamos in the early days of hang gliding who made the successful transition to ultralights, has died after a reported 3-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

Larry Newman

Larry was a flamboyant entrepreneur who successfully sold his ElectraFlyer hang gliders.
When people started sticking motors on the foot launched craft, he came out with a new company, American Aerolites, to produce the Eagle ultralight.
I first flew the Eagle with Plane & Pilot Publisher Steve Werner back in 1983.  I remember it vividly: while Steve was up on a test hop, I was taking photos of his flight next to the runway at Coronado Airport, north of Albuquerque, near Larry's factory...and I got stung twice by fire ants.

American Aerolites Eagle

I almost jumped out of my jeans, it hurt so bad.  I thought I'd been shot in the leg.  I could barely see the critters but what a painful wallop they packed. 
After the success of the Eagle, Larry debuted the revolutionary, composite-fuselage, clear mylar-winged Falcon, a wonderful, radical design leap forward that would fit in well with today's S-LSA...and this was 26 years ago!
Today, to qualify as a Light Sport, it would need a fixed nosegear: the production Falcon had a cockpit pull-up retraction system that worked very well at reducing drag.
Always a superb (and shrewd) marketer, Larry managed to get Chuck Yeager and Delco batteries to endorse and use the Falcon in TV commercials, which ran for years and was a big success for Delco.
I had the great pleasure to fly Chuck's Falcon in the Greater Arizona Ultralight Air Race in 1984. 
I must report without intending to brag that I won the race...entirely by accident.

Photo courtesy Aerosoft

I say that because I got completely lost on the course, buzzed around for ten minutes looking for the pylon, then found it and flew the rest of the race firewalled.  The only pilot skill I exhibited was flying a crab course where everybody else seemed not to understand how to compensate for a 15-knot wind.
The winner was to be the pilot who completed the course in the fastest time...without exceeding the FAR Part 103 legal limit of 63 mph, straight and level, full throttle.  Yep, the Sport Pilot Rule that limits LSA to a top level speed of 120 knots had its germinus in the 1980s.
Anyway, my final average time for the 108-mile course was 62.58 mph!  Now you know why I say "accidental" winner.
Clearly the Falcon was capable of much faster than legal flight.  I wonder today how many LSA, especially these sleek composite ships, nudge the 120-knot limit by a few knots.  Maybe FAA will send up some air cops with speed guns.
I remember practicing before the race.  I'd run a few laps around a practice course and was on short final to land when I saw someone on the tarmac, furiously waving a red shirt.
"What an idiot," I mumbled, wondering what the hell he was doing.
As I got within 50 feet of touchdown, the guy was still there.  I suddenly realized it was Larry, and he was trying to wave me off from landing.
"What the...?" I said to myself, then checked the right side of the cockpit.  I'd forgotten to lower the nosegear!
"Dumbass," I mumbled, powered up for a go-around, dropped the gear, and flew the whole pattern that way.
After I landed, he grinned at me with a "You dumb s---" look...then eased my embarrassment by saying, "Don't feel too bad: Chuck landed in it a few weeks ago with the nose gear up."
He meant the great Chuck Yeager.  Larry introduced me to the legendary USAF test pilot a few months later.  Chuck  gave me a quick glance, a perfunctory handshake, then made to move off to join some other people.  I felt slightly invisible but my ego was none the worse for wear: Chuck was a huge hero of mine, as he was for a lot of pilots.
But Larry grabbed his arm and said, "Wait up, Chuck: Jim's the guy who flew your Falcon in the big race and won it!"
Suddenly Chuck's face lit up in a broad grin and he reshook my hand with substantial vigor.  "Well hell, Jim, great to meet you!"
Suddenly we were members of the same club...for a few moments anyway.
I saw Chuck a few years later in the Warbird area at Oshkosh and reintroduced myself.  I remember thinking at the time, "Man, he's getting up there in years."
At first he didn't remember me, not surprising since he'd become a highly visible and sought-after celebrity by then.  I reminded him of flying his Falcon - which had carried the nickname "Glamorous Glennis" after his late wife.  The Bell X-1 rocket plane carried the same famous moniker.  Chuck was the first human to break the sound barrier in level flight in the X-1, in 1947.
As years before, his face lit up briefly in a smile, then his brow wrinkled and he said, only half joking, "Hell, Jim; you got old!"
I laughed.  (I'm 22 years younger.)
I ran into Larry Newman a few years later.  He'd long since drifted away from the hang glider biz and hooked up with Ben Abruzzo and Maxie Anderson to be the first, in 1978, to cross the Atlantic in a balloon -- the Double Eagle II.

Double Eagle II

Later Larry accomplished the same feat in a different balloon with a different crew, this time being the first to cross the Pacific.
Ben crashed and died at 55 taking off in a light twin with five women aboard, at the same Coronado Airport where Steve Werner and I first flew that spidery-framed Eagle ultralight.
Maxie Anderson had died, at 48, two years earlier during a balloon race in Germany.
I'd wondered whether that was hard on Larry: to lose the people he'd made history with, and so much life still ahead of them.
Larry was an excellent and well-rounded pilot.  Before the hang glider and ultralight game, he'd flown for the airlines, and after the hang glider, balloon and ultralight adventures, he returned to the professional cockpit. 
He had a penetrating gaze to go along with a cocky Joker's smile that could easily intimidate you with his abundance of self confidence.
Larry wasn't always the easiest guy to have a casual conversation with either.  Try to BS your way through a topic he was conversant in, or disagree on a cherished belief, and he'd nail you right on the spot...grinning all the time, almost seeming to revel in your discomfort as he dared you to prove him wrong. 
I saw Larry the last time at an event in Washington, D.C. to honor his flight over the Atlantic.  We talked briefly; I could tell life had mellowed him considerably.  He'd had his share of triumphs and setbacks, as do we all, and life had etched his face and soul accordingly.
His big smile and bright eagle's penetrating stare were still there, but there was a resignation, and an acquaintance with humility and gentility too, and that's how I'll best remember him.
Fly high, fly long, Larry Newman.