Welcome!
We are almost ready for Sun ‘n Fun and then Aero Friedrichshafen — two great springtime events. We will be reporting from both shows, first in Florida and then Germany. Watch for news and video!
Find more than 1,000 videos altogether on Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer YouTube channel, (now more than 50,000 subscribers!) — Hundreds of our best videos are archived here in a searchable format.
Thanks for your visit. We genuinely appreciate those of you who have become members!
We are almost ready for Sun ‘n Fun and then Aero Friedrichshafen — two great springtime events. We will be reporting from both shows, first in Florida and then Germany. Watch for news and video!
Find more than 1,000 videos altogether on Light Sport and Ultralight Flyer YouTube channel, (now more than 50,000 subscribers!) — Hundreds of our best videos are archived here in a searchable format.
Thanks for your visit. We genuinely appreciate those of you who have become members!
This year celebrates 15 years of Light-Sport Aircraft and its companion pilot certificate, Sport Pilot. This year also celebrates the 12th year of LAMA providing the LSA Mall. What a fascinating ride it has been!
For 2019, the LSA Mall will add a few previously-owned LSA, as this part of the light aircraft market is developing. I’ve 
In addition to dozen Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kits all parked wingtip-to-wingtip, LAMA will also again host a display of engines used on Light-Sport Aircraft and Sport Pilot kits.
If you visit the core area of Sun ‘n Fun, you know it is a fair walk to Paradise City. Yet it is a great draw as many see that Sun ‘n Fun’s “alternate airport” in Paradise City represents something of an airshow-within-an airshow.
Look for the golf carts with the Rotax logo prominently displayed and stick your thumb out for a ride.
In late February, Texas Aircraft invited me to an unveiling ceremony. As it’s always wonderful to witness the arrival of a new aircraft and sense the excitement and enthusiasm of its developers, I jumped at the opportunity.
“We cannot thank the people of Hondo enough for the loving welcome we have received since coming here,” Barros said. “The leadership and people of Hondo have made this possible. We are proudly genuine sons and daughters of Hondo. We are confident that we will make Hondo deeply proud of us.”
In addition to Hondo city officials including the mayor, Lyndsey Dennis represented Texas Governor Gregg Abbott’s Office of Economic Development and presented a certificate signed by the Governor congratulating the Texas Aircraft Manufacturing team with their accomplishment
Powered by a Rotax 912 swinging a Sterno composite prop, Colt is an all-metal, tricycle gear design based on a previous-generation aircraft that 
Something old. Something new. Hang glider pilots I know are very familiar with Horten designs, a form of validation for modern hang gliders …flying wings, aircraft with no tail or fuselage structures. Yet many pilots don’t know Horton and have only a sketchy understand of flying wing stability.
In 1943, Reichsmarschall Göring issued a request for design proposals to produce a bomber that was capable of carrying a 1,000 kilogram (2,200 pound) load over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) at 1,000 kilometers per hour (620 mph) — the so-called “3×1000 project.” Conventional German bombers could reach Allied command centers in Great Britain, but were suffering devastating losses from Allied fighters.
The Government Air Ministry approved the Horten proposal, but ordered the addition of two 30-mm cannons because they felt the aircraft would also be useful as a fighter as its estimated top speed was significantly higher than that of any Allied aircraft.
At this time, the company is not disclosing any pertinent data about the aircraft but I will be at 
“You just saved my life!” It’s not often anyone, even a medical doctor, hears those words. Back in the ’90s I was sometimes on the receiving end of a call when a pilot phoned BRS to report a “save,” a sparing of a life by the use of a parachute. It is a humbling experience to have someone exclaim that you (and your fellow workers) are the reason they are alive.
The system is designed to be a last resort for pilots and passengers when all other attempts to recover the airplane in case of emergency or pilot incapacitation have failed.
Numerous European and U.S. ultralight and experimental aircraft use the system, including Lancair, Carbon Cub, Kitfox, Glassair, 
Light-Sport Aircraft have accomplished much in the 15 years this new class of aircraft have existed: 
“Our new training partnership with 
“It is safe to say that Able Flight would never have existed without the influence of 
Jon passed away on February 15th at the age of 83. Aviation lost a good man after many productive years. Rest in peace, old friend.
“We are Arizona’s newest aircraft manufacturer,” said Garrett Komm when we finally located him and his bright blue and silver aircraft.
“Merlin was one tough little aeroplane,” said Dave Loveman. “John Burch was a Canadian ultralight instructor and needed a better aircraft for his flight school. The 42 inch wide cabin is quite comfortable for even the largest of pilots.” Mule is a bit wider at 46 inches.
Mule is a taildragger, in a tractor configuration, with side by side seating. Controls are standard stick and rudder with a center Y-stick.
With an airframe kit price of $18,700, adding an engine for a similar amount, plus paint and basic avionics, you should be able to get a Mule airborne for less than $50,000.
At a major show in China called Zhuhai visitors saw something: a new 6-axis LSA flight simulator. The developer is 
Chinese citizens play games, including flight simulators, as much as (or perhaps even more than) Americans do. Sitting at their computer or using a mobile smartphone or tablet is commonplace.
AeroJones is deep into planning for their new aircraft factory in Zhenjiang, China — where, presumably, they will also build the simulator. With the new facility, all manufacturing steps will be easier, less costly, and much more efficient, which will contribute to better values for customers buying the CTLS. Flight schools or other buyers of the modern and sophisticated CTLS will be able to fly to Dalu General Airport to see the factory and take demonstrations flights to confirm their purchase.
On Day 3 of 
Flying Legend’s Tucano is a scale replica of well-regarded original. Embraer’s EMB 312 Tucano is “a low-wing, tandem-seat, single-turboprop, basic trainer with counter-insurgency capability developed in Brazil,” according to 
Stalls were surprisingly slow considering how clean the aircraft looks, down into the high 40 knot range. A LSA version should readily meet standards for stall.
Let me be fair. Other West Coast aviation events have interesting qualities but none has ever risen to the level of AirVenture Oshkosh or Sun ‘n Fun. Those two dominate general aviation events. Both are “back East.”
Serious airplane buyers encouraged vendors on Thursday before the public attended. They came out in huge droves on Saturday. Vice Mayor Eric Orsborn, whom I interviewed on video, estimated 15-20,000 people that day. It looked like it and we have video proof. By the way, Eric is not only a city leader, he’s a pilot who just earned his ticket. His wife is also pursuing flying lessons and is going through ground school now.
In two quickly linked flights, they let me compare 915 to 912iS. That was most helpful but I did not know either airframe well so it was challenging to compare performance with my earlier experiences. Now, I have a better picture.
Acceleration was fast, we rolled less than 500 feet and climbed quickly from the start and kept going. Jean d’Assonville and I flew perhaps 300 pounds under gross but 
The wing itself is a fresh new airfoil and wingspan is about 16 inches shorter on each side.
Stalls in all configurations were very mild, even with full stick aft and no quick effort of recovery. At full power, Sling TSi would not stall and only wobbled the nose to signal the pilot — well, that and a clearly audible stall warning plus a very steep deck angle.
The Copperstate airshow is on in Arizona! Put on by a new combination of Copperstate leadership in cooperation with the town of Buckeye Arizona — which has been hosting its own 
In many years of reporting on light aircraft, I have flown a lot of weight shift control trikes. I love flying trikes. I’ve flown simple ones, super-deluxe ones, tough ones, and ones that weren’t so tough. Most I enjoyed.
“Talk about heavy-duty, this is simply the roughest, toughest Weight Shift Control (WSC) trike in the world,” said Sid. After my own close look at Goat, I cannot dispute his description.
“Goat is one of a kind, said Denny. “It doesn’t need special care. It is not fragile. It just needs good fuel, your respect, and a little love once in a while. If anybody can build something better, we’d like to be your first customers. Until then, we’re looking to build our team of true adventurers. We hope to share what we’ve learned & hope to learn from you too.”
Yet again, I am motivated to give Steve Beste an enormous “Thank you!” for his dedicated effort to take FAA’s data, make complete sense of it (no small task), and to then work with the folks at Tableau to make this information available to you. Even better, you can adjust the data to your liking in ways I never envisioned with our earlier years of reporting these facts.
Because a large number of you visit this website via your smartphone, you can now see images that fit your screen better (nearby image). Given a wide variety of phone sizes, screen resolutions, and browsers, not every phone will look like these images but the data is much more accessible via smartphone than it was when we launched late last fall.
Note that this is somewhat different than “Certification,” which offers more detailed ways to narrow the field solely to aircraft types that interest you.
“Duck and cover” was a phrase to describe the morning on Thursday, Day Two at 
Some, like Scott Severen of 
L600 importer Deon Lombard said he expecting his first with the 
Sebring 
I attend seven or eight airshows every year. I’ve done this for many years. I’m here to assure you that the night before opening, the place is utter pandemonium with no possible hope in sight of having everyone in position and ready for business by morning. It can’t happen. …yet it does!
“This variation will now be reintroduced to the Americas,” reported Tom Peghiny, President of 
“The approval allows the company to deliver certified aircraft for delivery in Europe and the rest of the world,” said Joerges.