LSA/Sport

The versatility of light sport aircraft make them ideal for grass strips like that at Triple Tree.

Here are FLYING’s picks for the best LSAs, which can be flown without a private pilot license.

No other airplane I’ve flown can do what the SuperSTOL can. STOL, as you know, stands for “short takeoff and landing.” SuperSTOL, then, implies really short takeoffs and landings, made possible by the airplane’s huge 45-degree fowler flaps and self-deploying leading-edge slats, designs borrowed from the Helio Courier bush plane and scaled to fit this diminutive two-seat experimental amateur-built kitplane.

FLYING looks at the differences in miles per gallon among piston, turbine and jet models.

Founded in 2017 at South Texas Regional Airport in Hondo, Texas, startup Texas Aircraft Manufacturing (TAM) made a splash at last summer’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh when they introduced their new-generation Colt Light Sport Aircraft (S-LSA). Now, just months later, the company has announced that the Colt has received full FAA ASTM (American Society for Testing […]

The U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, got off to a sunny and warm start on Wednesday with temperatures in the low 80s and a stiff wind not deterring demo pilots showing of the latest light sport aircraft. Thursday was another story as colder temperatures and rain swept across central Florida, putting a damper […]

An increase in the weight limit for LSAs from 1,320 pounds to more than 3,000 could be coming before the end of 2019 or in 2020 according to news published by both the EAA and AOPA. Should that weight limit become a permanent part of the LSA guidelines along with a number of expanded pilot […]

Van’s Aircraft, well known for a long-line of two and four-place kits now numbering more than 10,000, will soon begin building complete aircraft on a new assembly line the company is creating in Aurora, Oregon, for future RV-12iS and RV-12-iST SLSA models. The move is seen as the next step in a plan Van’s began […]

Yakima, Washington-based CubCrafters can now start shipping its certified XCub to Canada and Japan as the company has achieved validation for the Type Certificate in the two countries. CubCrafters already delivered the first Japanese airplane after the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) validated the TC of the two-seat taildragger. Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) also […]

A handful of Pipistrel Alpha Electro two-seaters are operating in the United States, but because of the shortsightedness of FAA regulations for light-sport aircraft they can’t be used for paid flight training. Now, the Slovenian maker of the battery-powered airplane thinks the rule will be amended by early next year, a change that would usher […]