LSA/Sport

The engineers at Tecnam appear to be frantically pumping out new LSA designs, and now the company is focusing its attention on tailwheel lovers – a group of pilots who are ignored by most manufacturers these days. A tailwheel version of the P92 has been brought to the market on the heels of the P92 […]

Tecnam has just increased the versatility of its popular P92 high-wing LSA series airplanes by introducing an amphibious version, the P92 Sea-Sky Hydroplane. This seaplane model will be offered for both the Echo Classic and its slightly larger and faster sibling, the Eaglet. Flight tests are in progress and the only performance numbers available so […]

(January 2011) Last November a group of 50 members of the F37 committee gathered for its biannual meeting. No, it wasn’t to test a futuristic stealth-fighter aircraft (though, interestingly, a Google search reveals the F/A-37 Talon is one of the fictional aircraft used in Hollywood films). Indeed, on the surface F37 is seemingly much less […]

(December 2011) October’s column discussed training in a light-sport aircraft for the private rating. Briefly, if the LSA is equipped for night VFR and if the manufacturer states so in the POH, you can do all of your training for the rating in the airplane. Upon learning this, I naturally wondered if, after receiving said […]

(October 2011) While I was training for my Sport Pilot certificate, there were several times after my instructor and I returned from a late-afternoon flight lesson when a sport pilot grad and another CFI would be next in line to take the Remos G-3 out for a lesson. A lesson that would clearly extend beyond […]

Lisa Airplanes, a young French company started in 2004, recently announced the commercial launch of the Akoya, an amphibious airplane reportedly able to land on snow, water or ground without any additional modification. The two-seater aircraft is made entirely of composite materials and relies on a 100 hp Rotax engine powered by unleaded gasoline. It […]

The Bristell, an all-metal, low-wing LSA from Liberty Sport Aviation, made its debut appearance in North America at AOPA Summit in Hartford, Connecticut. Built in the Czech Republic by manufacturer BRMAero, the Bristell features a 51-inch-wide cockpit and large canopy that give it the feel of a larger airplane. Powered by a 100 hp Rotax […]

(September 2011) To be sure, Experimental amateur-built (aka homebuilt) aircraft are not light-sport aircraft and never can be. But does that mean sport pilots can’t fly them? Apparently, there’s still a bit of confusion about the answer to this very question among pilots and regulators seven years into the Sport Pilot/LSA rule, says EAA’s David […]

After a demo flight in a light-sport airplane a few years ago, private pilot Steve Satter decided on his first airplane purchase. “Up until I bought the Flight Design CTLS, I had been renting standard category airplanes,” explains Satter, who earned his private ticket in 2003. “I discovered that the new LSAs offered affordability compared […]

Two Weeks to Taxi was kicked off in late 2005. The program began in 2004 where only the airframe was completed in 18 days. But the program quickly evolved, and through an ingenious feat of organization and efficiency, customers can now come to the factory and get their airplanes ready to taxi during a quick […]