AJ wrote:
I missed this article when it first appeared.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Flyin...=949148&page=1

Is it possible for the Light Sport category to revive that old slogan
of "An Airplane In Every Garage" in order to bolster the number of GA
pilots?

AJ


Not sure whether to respond with "no" or "hell no" here....Hrm... Ok,
yeah, I'll go with "hell no"....

The darlings of the Sport Pilot rule - SLSA and ELSA - are already
priced well beyond affordability even in 2005 dollars and even beyond
acceptable bang/buck.

Bottom dollar for an SLSA is about 70 large already and I don't see that
figure coming down in the forseeable future (and it'll likely go up!).
ELSA are going to be around the same price......

In fact, some manufacturers/dealers (such as Kolb aircraft) have already
withdrawn their initial offerings into this market due to low demand.
Some are stepping out and trying it out such as Rans who are now
offering an "LSA" version of the S7 Courier (not clear from the website
exactly what certification it has tho. Might be worth a phone call to
find out). But it's 75 grand (I think you could get a quick build of the
same plane for a little more than half that). Zenith has an actual SLSA
on the market now (genuine SLSA certification) but it's 80 grand too.

Slim pickin's indeed........

Instead, most aircraft that will be flown under the rule at least in the
visible future will be standard category a/c and experimental A/B a/c
that fit within the LSA limitations.

I don't see Sport Pilot or LSA making much headway here at least not for
a long time, and even then it still looks like solidly the domain of
rich people only.....

LS
N646F