ByDanJohnson.com - Home Page

Happy Fifth Birthday to ByDanJohnson.com! See our June 24, 2009 SPLOG report where you can read about our proudest new feature: PlaneFinder 2.0. We're very excited to offer visitors this free service and we think everyone from new buyers to veteran pilots will enjoy studying -- or just playing with -- PlaneFinder 2.0. Go enjoy!

ByDanJohnson.com offers a range of FREE and valuable services. *** Visual Search to find any content in our 1,000+ pages. *** See Videos on best selling Light-Sport Aircraft. *** Check LSA Market Info for business news such as market share info. *** Use our SLSA List to find any approved Special Light-Sport Aircraft of nearly 100 models offered. *** For LSA Flight Instruction, Rentals, or Maintenance, click our FIRM List. All lists on ByDanJohnson.com are user sortable so you can quickly find what you want. And, to your right, please click any Featured Aircraft photo or text to read more about the best aircraft in light-sport aviation.

We are happy to provide these unique, free services...but please don't let our free offerings prevent you from becoming a Member for $29 per year. Along with our Sponsors, Members like you help us add fresh content to ByDanJohnson.com.

Thanks for visiting!...and please consider becoming a Member, giving access to member-only features: SpecCheck, Pros & Cons and PlaneView, plus all the pilot reports you care to read.

...a web log of developments in Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft

Arriving from Shanghai...Electric Power Two Seater

June 29, 2009

The E430 takes its first flights with Yuneec's company test pilot, Sun Xun, a 3,600-hour pilot, at the controls for the flight evaluations. (Interesting to note he sat on the right side of the cockpit for this.) For more info, contact Yuneec's UK office.

Two Chinese delegates attended ASTM meetings in Freidrichshafen Germany in April, the first time the nation has been represented. Those reps indicated they believed ASTM acceptance in China may not be far off. Meanwhile, Shanghai-based Yuneec company is moving forward, and upward. *** Yuneec's E430 will be featured at AirVenture along with a distinctly American design: the Flightstar Spyder (single place, Part 103-capable ultralight) fitted with a Yuneec electric motor. *** Using a 6-battery setup on their two seater, E430 expects 1.5-2 hours of flight and with such an installation, payload is a respectable 400 pounds even with a 45-foot wing span. A 10-battery setup may fly 2.25-2.5 hours. A video gives a hint to the sound level (turn your speakers up loud). *** Yuneec International announced, "The E430 is a twin seat, single engine, LSA class aircraft designed to be simple to use, easy to fly and with virtually zero vibration. It's very smooth [with] low noise, no emissions, no [petroleum] fuel, extremely low maintenance and...it's environmentally friendly." The company continues, "Charging times of 3 hours for as little as $5 make electric a low cost way to fly." *** On Saturday June 20th at an Airfield North of Shanghai the E430 performed two flights of around 15 minutes and did a series of basic test maneuvers. Under full power E430 rolled 260 feet, rotating at 40 mph. A climb rate of nearly 1,400 fpm was achieved during the second flight. Top speed in level flight was 94 mph.

Announcing PlaneFinder 2.0...Find Your Best LSA!

June 24, 2009

We kept PlaneFinder 2.0 lean and light, with quick-read questions and responses. If you need more info to select your response, hover over any highlighted title and a hint box will pop up like the one for "Mission" above. A few instructions appear at the bottom of the page...but it's real easy. Go try it!

Just over five years ago when ByDanJohnson.com went live, we planned a feature called PlaneFinder. It was to be an key element of this website, offering advice to help pilots select your ideal aircraft. That was version 1.0 and it proved to be more complicated than needed plus the ultralights and kit-built light planes we spent years evaluating were giving way to Light-Sport Aircraft. Reluctantly, we quietly put PlaneFinder on hold while we followed the emergence of LSA within the world of aviation. *** ByDanJohnson.com went live on April 1st, 2004... four months before the SP/LSA rule was announced. Click forward five years and we now have an astounding 97 Special Light-Sport Aircraft models from 70 manufacturers. Every one is listed on our SLSA List with links to find out much more about them. Now, we add a crowning touch: PlaneFinder 2.0. *** This automated, interactive system asks your preference to 24 very simple (this-or-that type) categories, for example, "High wing or low wing?" As you answer, the Matching SLSA list will quickly narrow your search to those with your preferred qualities. You don't have to answer all 24 categories; just pick those important to you. PlaneFinder 2.0 will show you all SLSA that match your selections. You can change your category responses as often as you wish to refine your ideal feature set. Or you can Reset and start all over. Give it a try. ByDanJohnson.com offers PlaneFinder 2.0 completely free of charge, though you will have to register and receive a password. (Of course, we'd sincerely appreciate your $29 membership to support this website.)

Steady Subtle Changes Add Up to the Max

June 21, 2009

In February, I attended an open house at the U.S. headquarters of Evektor on the Melbourne, Florida airport where I captured these before-and-after views of the sleeker exterior to the SportStar (new on left; original on right). The top photo shows a row of vortex generators.

Evektor's SportStar became the first-ever Special Light-Sport Aircraft a little over four years ago, a distinction no one can ever take away from the Czech company. Yet that exclusive title has not encouraged the company to rest on their laurels. While Evektor has not re-certified their airplane (for example, like Flight Design and their CTLS, Remos and their GX, or TL Ultralight and their Sting S3), the design has nonetheless changed (photos). SportStar was also one of the first success stories gaining entry to the GA flight school market. *** Now for Oshkosh 2009, Evektor will launch their Max model in two variations. Their SportStar Max BT ("Basic Trainer") is the entry model, fleet priced at $110,000. But flight schools that focus on instrument training may opt for the $155,000 Max IFR model which comes equipped with the certified Rotax 912S (different than the ASTM-compliant "ULS" version). The company declared, "The Max IFR is the first Light-Sport Aircraft that is Part 23 instrument compliant for IFR IMC* flight, and can be used to train students up to and including a Commercial [with] Instrument rating." *** For personal use, SportStar has some enviable numbers to go with its cooperative handling. According to Josef Bostik, President of Evektor Aircraft, Inc., "Max can carry two persons in its 47-inch-wide cockpit plus a week's supply of baggage at 110 knots for nearly 800 miles non-stop."
*IMC is Instrument Meteorological Conditions or, colloquially, flying in the clouds.

Able Flight LSA Team Crosses U.S. in 17 Hours

June 9, 2009

Purpose: to demonstrate LSA are a viable way to fly long distance, but also to publicize Able Flight's nonprofit flight training scholarship program for people with physical disabilities. Their Peregrine FA-04 is a factory-built SLSA that produced an average groundspeed of 110 knots. It carries 30 gallons of fuel.

Cross this big country east to west in a day? ...in a Light-Sport Aircraft? Yup! On June 8, pilots Matt Hansen and Jessica Scharle successfully completed a transcontinental flight in Peregrine FA-04, dashing 1,813.5 nautical miles from Florida to California. After making five stops along the way the duo touched down at Gillespie Field near San Diego at 10:22 PM, marking an elapsed time of 19 hours and 21 minutes, which includes time for fuel stops. Total flying time was just over 17 hours. *** They may have accomplished the feat to help nonprofit Able Flight in its mission to assist disabled folks learn to fly, but I think these twentysomething pilots showed they have the right stuff. That's even more obvious when you hear Jessica Scharle courageously overcame a rare medical condition that fused almost every joint in her body. Nearly immobilized at one time, numerous surgeries, years of physical therapy, and personal determination helped Jessica become completely independent. *** After all that, a flight across America must have seemed a lighthearted jaunt. Indeed, when Jessica and instructor Matt Hansen arrived and were asked about the toughest part of their flight, they said in unison, "Texas." Hansen, 23, is a flight instructor who trains people with disabilities to fly. Scharle is 24 and an Able Flight scholarship recipient who earned her Sport Pilot certificate last year at Hansen Air Group.

Computers in the Cockpit; Digital Replaces Analog

June 6, 2009

Dynon's line includes (top left, clockwise): D-120 EMS, D-10 EMS round-hole panel mount, D-10a EFIS round-hole mount, and D-100 EFIS. "We are much more vertically integrated than our competitors, meaning we design and make everything we sell...our products are better integrated," claims Dynon.

Many website visitors ask about LSA avionics leadership. Indeed, ever since "steam gauges" gave way to glass screens, the players have changed. Analog instruments were made by many companies and became such commodities that you may not be able to name a brand. But as computers entered our cockpits, first via GPS and later with multi-function displays, brands became better known. *** For this mini-report, I'll divide the new players into two groups: EFIS/EMS providers and GPS/radio providers. A third group will include autopilot builders and even newer gear like night vision systems. As I make some guesstimates about market shares, I acknowledge this is non-scientific. If you believe you have better information, please forward your comments. *** Among fully-built SLSA, it appears Dynon has the lion's share of the digital instrument market (photo). They admit their biggest competitor remains analog gauges but in "glass cockpits," the Washington state company appears to have the lead -- estimated at 50-75%. Two top manufacturers, Flight Design and Remos, use only Dynon. In the Experimental (EAB) market, Dynon is the probable leader though they have competitors such as Grand Rapids Technology, Advanced Flight Systems, Blue Mountain, and MGL Avionics...each of which also has installations in SLSA. One educated guess is that Dynon has half the EAB digital market, where GRT and AFS have another sixth each and Blue Mountain and MGL have something less than 10% each.

First Major Corporate Change in LSA World

May 31, 2009

The familiar SportCruiser (#6 in the rankings), now rebadged from Czech Sport Aircraft. Former CZAW import arm Sport Aircraft Works continues to represent the sleek composite Dynamic.

A long and winding trail in the sky, this story is... Once upon a time an American traveled to the Czech Republic, founded a small business to build kit aircraft, grew that into a full-fledged LSA producer, gained an investor with whom he later disagreed, and lost his enterprise. That's the shortest possible take on it. When Chip Erwin's Czech Aircraft Works dissolved, the chrysalis produced Czech Sport Aircraft... the new owner of the SportCruiser (photos). As Chip takes an unplanned sabbatical from this business, the new team under Martin Zikes is taking action. *** Czech Sport Aircraft (CSA) says its roots date back to 1934 when "a group of aviation enthusiasts opened a small workshop and started to build gliders." Around World War II a related factory was seized by the Luftwaffe and served as a repair and maintenance facility. "After the war the company worked on all types of airplanes then flying in Czechoslovakia. During the '50s and '60s the factory manufactured the famous L-200 Morava, Z-37 Bumble Bee, and L-29 light military training jet. After the Velvet Revolution, the company was acquired by Aircraft Industries, the manufacturer of the legendary L-410 and L-13 Blanik gliders." *** A late-breaking 2009 development involves CSA establishing cooperative-ownership facilitator LetsFly as the national distributor. The Czech manufacturer recently completed its LAMA ASTM Compliance Audit successfully and has established U.S. service centers for the 89 SportCruisers presently registered with FAA.

For more SPLOG postings, see the SPLOG section under Light Sport Aircraft.