Comments

There's a lot in your clear-eyed if sobering piece to commend, Robert, but as a fellow editor (for LSA) I have to disagree with the severity if not the entire tone of your piece. LSA is indeed struggling like all of aviation, and to some extent reeling from the recent "crackdown" from FAA audits. Yet the big shakeout everyone's been predicting, literally, since the very beginning of the movement 7 years ago has still not happened. Why is that? Are LSA, as you and others here comment, really too slow, too cramped, too expensive and the rest of it? Or could part of the problem, along with the stifling economic realities, be the entrenched GA mindset that still pines away for those glory days when a good percentage of the pilot population could in fact afford to own an airplane as an individual? And also afford to fly it? Whereas now we just can't say that because it's no longer true, except for upper middle class and beyond incomes. Without meaning to flat out disagree with you, I prefer to say that LSA offer roomy (compared to many many four-seat GA craft) cockpits, comfort, lots of (often extraneous, agreed) digital electronics, and certainly fun flying. I've flown from NY to Oshkosh round trip twice in an Evektor Harmony with certainly no less comfort than the same trip done in a very cramped (but yes, very fast) Mooney. Our average fuel burn was under 5 gph at 115 knots cruise. My butt never got sore either, though it was certainly a longer trip both ways at that speed than it would have been in the Mooney. LSA offers a different kind of flying. It's not a return to Cub/Taylorcraft/C-172 flying, though there are similarities depending on which model you focus on. We have to realize GA flying as we knew it is dead. LSA is not though - not by a long shot. Yes, it is most decidedly an industry in search of a robust market. FAA and the economy are hurting it. Manufacturing realities are hurting it too. You make many good points around that. Ask Randy Schlitter of Rans Aircraft (4,000 light aircraft produced over 30 years) if you can build a $60K LSA airplane and make any money on it. He'll flat out tell you no. He tried it and nobody came banging on his door. If he can't do it, I'd guess no one can, unless our national currency continues its collapse and we start all over on the gold standard! LSA is a unique and many-splendored sector of flying. Two weeks ago, in the runup to Sebring, I thermaled a ship I'd never flown, the Pipistrel Sinus motorglider, in raggy, choppy, tiny cores for half an hour. Never gained more than a thousand feet at a time, but the ship (with engine shut down) was so easy to wrap around into a quick bank, centering up with very little rudder and holding the turn without having to work at all, that I instantly felt at home in it. The Sinus has a 30:1 glide ratio and just over 200 fpm minimum sink. It cruises, at 3 gph, at 110 knots. It's easy to fly. It's a heck of a lot of fun to fly. It costs around $125,000. For me, that's a lot of money. For four or eight partners, it's as cheap, or cheaper, than owning a car. I've joined a gaggle of Legend Cubs from Texas to Sun 'n Fun and had a wonderful time of leisurely sightseeing, loose formation, and lots of pilot camaraderie. That Cub flight wasn't in freeway Fast Lane mode, eyes glued to dials to squeeze out every last tenth per gallon of fuel efficiency. Yes, it was slow. Yes, it was also a return to the kind of flying many people left behind in the 60s. In these last 3 weeks surrounding the Sebring LSA show, I flew or rode in a Pipistrel Sinus motorglider ($125,000), Phoenix motorglider ($160,000), Tecnam P92 taildragger (low $100Ks), SeaRey amphibian ($125,000 and much less in kit form - 500 are currently flying), 108mph Revo Monster hang glider/trike (that was a hoot!), Cessna 152 (very cheap to own, very very cramped inside, very old-smelly, very anemic in climb and cruise performance compared to most LSA), Flight Design CTLSi ($130K+), Flight Design CTLS on floats ($even more), and another couple I can't remember just now (it was a long trip and I'm bushed.) And what do I remember most about those flights? Certainly not how much those airplanes cost. That's simply the reality of the aviation world today. No, what comes to mind is the sheer fun of flying around in the most diverse, prolific (design-wise), beautifully group of airplanes for the civilian market we've probably ever seen. If I could ever make up my mind to just own one of those aircraft or any of the nearly 130 designs that have passed ASTM certification, I would seek out a partnership and be glad to share not only in the expenses, but the potential community spirit that can arise from joint ownership. We've made GA a kind of military or college cram course experience in this country for too many decades: get your ticket, get in, take your lesson, get out, cram cram cram, get one rating after another, spend more and more money, then ultimately fly once a month or maybe twice, for 50 or 100 hours per year, mostly alone or with one other person. That's the statistic. Most airplanes sit in a hangar most of their lives. That's no way to treat an airplane. So I say, man, this All-American rugged individualism thing is really messed up when it comes to flying. The most exhilarating flying I ever did was hang gliding. And though it was always solo, at day's end we typically sat around a fire drinking a beer somewhere below a mountain or at a tow site, reveling in our experiences, sharing what we'd learned, enjoying each other's company and eager for more the next day. LSA recaptures some of that excitement and good cheer company, but we're still trying to see the marketing side through yesteryear's lenses. What needs to be killed, from my admittedly, unabashedly cheerleading perspective, is the attitude that we've got to own everything ourselves. Looking into concepts such as the new Aviation Access Project mentioned above (which offers 1/4, 1/8 and even 1/16 shares in aircraft...any aircraft, not just LSA), or Lets Fly.Org, or AOPA's Aircraft Partnership Program, we have the opportunity right now to whip the "too expensive" prejudice and embrace LSA for what they are: aircraft that are not in fact, as a class, hard to "handle in wind" (any more than a J3 Cub is, and in fact considerably better in many cases than at least some heavier, but less nimble, GA planes...case in point: I landed recently in a 19 mph direct cross wind...in a motorglider with a 49-foot wingspan! True story - aerodynamics have come a long way); nor too cramped (I'll take most of the 40 LSA I've flown over a Cessna 150, 172 or Piper or Mooney any day...some LSA have 50" and greater cockpit width); nor modest in performance (unless all you care about is speed - many LSA climb in excess of 1,000 fpm, have superior short field chops, handle as well as or better than any GA plane I ever flew, have superior stall recovery and spin resistance, and many have 700 to 1000 mile ranges on a tankful...don't get me started!) But the point is not to argue with your conclusion that LSA is dead, but just say I disagree. I think you're premature to say that, though no observer could fault you for your prognostications: there is a lot to be concerned about for sure. My point is to say we've got a wonderful bounty right under our noses, and all we need do is see it for what it is, not what we thought or still think it should be. LSA is an incredibly diverse, well made, safe, fun, versatile sector of aviation that deserves more market support than it's getting. General civilian flying itself is on its back, not just LSA. Whether in this armed camp world we now live in, that can change, is a larger, more troubling question, in my opinion. But for the fun flying that we can be doing, right now, let's look at the European "club" approach to flying, where people socialize around the aircraft they rent and co-own, rather than maybe running into someone at the field and sharing a quick cup of coffee before racing out the the flight line to do 2o solo touch and goes. Let's get out of our fixation on sole ownership and rediscover not only the considerable joys of recreational flight but also of pilot community. My closing arguments: a well-respected, long time aviation figure who has many ratings and has been winging around since the 1970s in GA, hang gliding and ultralight flying, recently bought into a four-way partnership on a new Flight Design CTLSi (with fuel injected Rotax 912iS engine). His other partners are a long-time jet airline/freight pilot; a 30-year GA pilot who is developing an amphibian LSA for the US market; and another GA pilot with many years flying experience. All of them could probably have popped for the full cost. None wanted to. All of them could certainly have bought an older, used GA airplane. But all of them wanted the enjoyment of flying that particular, new, sleek, efficient, comfortable, well-built, proven fun-flying airplane. It's got a 1000 mile range by the way. And none of them seems to mind that the extra hours on a long trip will give them more opportunities to enjoy the ever-shifting landscape below. Isn't that why we got into flying, many of us, in the first place? These partners share all the expenses: hangaring costs, annual costs, insurance, eventual engine replacement etc as a monthly payment. Each then just pays his own individual flying costs, mostly gas. It really is about the same as owning a car. Scheduling conflicts so far are rare and easily done through online software like Flight Schedule Pro that many flight schools use. No hassles, no confusion, very tidy...and each feels they enjoy the pleasures of full airplane ownership...because they do! So really now, is LSA dead? Or is it our imagination and willingness to adapt that's on life support? Thanks for the stimulating article Robert, and all the great comments above.