Got to fly a light sport aircraft

Jay Honeck wrote:
At our 2-day Big Kids Toy Show fly-in last weekend, I had the pleasure of
flying a "CT" with their demo pilot.

If you're not sure what a "CT" is, see:
http://www.fly-flightstar.com/pages/ct.htm

You can also see some pix of it he www.BigKidsToyShow.com

I'm here to tell you, this thing is an *airplane*. For some reason I had
the impression that an LSA would be fragile, slow and more like an
ultralight than a certified aircraft. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The CT looks like an egg with wings, sorta like a pregnant Cessna 150 made
out of carbon fiber. I figured it would be tight inside, with two nearly
200 pound guys -- but I had as much or more shoulder and hip room as in my
Pathfinder. The seats were semi-reclined, but adjustable fore-and-aft,
which was nice. (I hear some LSAs have fixed seats, and adjustable rudder
pedals.)

The plane has dual sticks, and I was in the right seat, so I was not only
flying right-handed, but with a stick -- neither of which I'm used to doing.
Luckily, I'm ambidextrous, and always fly video game joysticks right handed,
so I quickly got used to flying from over there.

Visibility is nothing short of spectacular. The windows come down to your
hips, and the high wing gives the impression that you are just sitting in
space. Climb performance was very impressive, with a solid 600 fpm
climbout, even with 400 pounds of people, plus fuel, on board. We were able
to sustain zoom climbs of over 1500 fpm for over a minute, so you can get up
pretty quickly once you're at cruise speed.

The controls were very well harmonized, and felt very crisp and clean. I
needed very little rudder, and the ball stayed centered. It's just a nice
flying machine.

We did slow flight and a stall or two, and the thing literally stands still
before it stalls. I think we saw 38 mph before it broke! Landing was
simple, and it's got electric flaps -- something I didn't expect in an LSA.
Again, this is a real airplane, and seems quite ruggedly designed.

And it's pretty fast, too. We trued out at 130 mph, burning something
absurdly low, like 6 gph. And it burns car gas, too!

I'll tell ya what -- when our kids are grown and gone, I can easily see us
owning a CT. It does everything I want in an airplane, and uses less than
half the gas Atlas burns. It's a great flying bird, and Mary thinks it's
cute!

Finally, the CT gave more demo flights at the show than the Columbia, the
Travel Air, and the Pitts *combined*. Everyone seemed intrigued by it, and
that demo pilot must've put 10 hours on it over the course of the Toy Show!
I think LSA planes like this one will really have a shot in the market --
once they change the minds of previously-prejudiced people like me.

Can someone give a few words about the difference between an ordinary
ASEL such as a PA-28-161 or C-172 and a "light sport aircraft". I
understand there is a difference in the pilot ratings but this post
implies there's a difference in the aircraft. TIA

"Stubby" wrote in message
. ..



Can someone give a few words about the difference between an ordinary ASEL
such as a PA-28-161 or C-172 and a "light sport aircraft". I understand
there is a difference in the pilot ratings but this post implies there's a
difference in the aircraft. TIA

In general:
max fo 2 persons
1320(land) or 1430(water) MGW
max airspeed 120K
max stall speed 45K
fixed prop
fixed gear
nonpressurized

Stubby wrote in
:

Jay Honeck wrote:
At our 2-day Big Kids Toy Show fly-in last weekend, I had the
pleasure of flying a "CT" with their demo pilot.

If you're not sure what a "CT" is, see:
http://www.fly-flightstar.com/pages/ct.htm

You can also see some pix of it he www.BigKidsToyShow.com

I'm here to tell you, this thing is an *airplane*. For some reason I
had the impression that an LSA would be fragile, slow and more like
an ultralight than a certified aircraft. I couldn't have been more
wrong.

The CT looks like an egg with wings, sorta like a pregnant Cessna 150
made out of carbon fiber. I figured it would be tight inside, with
two nearly 200 pound guys -- but I had as much or more shoulder and
hip room as in my Pathfinder. The seats were semi-reclined, but
adjustable fore-and-aft, which was nice. (I hear some LSAs have
fixed seats, and adjustable rudder pedals.)

The plane has dual sticks, and I was in the right seat, so I was not
only flying right-handed, but with a stick -- neither of which I'm
used to doing. Luckily, I'm ambidextrous, and always fly video game
joysticks right handed, so I quickly got used to flying from over
there.

Visibility is nothing short of spectacular. The windows come down to
your hips, and the high wing gives the impression that you are just
sitting in space. Climb performance was very impressive, with a
solid 600 fpm climbout, even with 400 pounds of people, plus fuel, on
board. We were able to sustain zoom climbs of over 1500 fpm for over
a minute, so you can get up pretty quickly once you're at cruise
speed.

The controls were very well harmonized, and felt very crisp and
clean. I needed very little rudder, and the ball stayed centered.
It's just a nice flying machine.

We did slow flight and a stall or two, and the thing literally stands
still before it stalls. I think we saw 38 mph before it broke!
Landing was simple, and it's got electric flaps -- something I didn't
expect in an LSA. Again, this is a real airplane, and seems quite
ruggedly designed.

And it's pretty fast, too. We trued out at 130 mph, burning
something absurdly low, like 6 gph. And it burns car gas, too!

I'll tell ya what -- when our kids are grown and gone, I can easily
see us owning a CT. It does everything I want in an airplane, and
uses less than half the gas Atlas burns. It's a great flying bird,
and Mary thinks it's cute!

Finally, the CT gave more demo flights at the show than the Columbia,
the Travel Air, and the Pitts *combined*. Everyone seemed intrigued
by it, and that demo pilot must've put 10 hours on it over the course
of the Toy Show! I think LSA planes like this one will really have a
shot in the market -- once they change the minds of
previously-prejudiced people like me.

Can someone give a few words about the difference between an ordinary
ASEL such as a PA-28-161 or C-172 and a "light sport aircraft". I
understand there is a difference in the pilot ratings but this post
implies there's a difference in the aircraft. TIA



A "special" light sport aircraft is NOT certified under FAR 23, it is
certified under the "concensus standards" much the same way even the
aluminum it's made out of is, and your coffee maker, and just about
everything else.

an sLSA meets, by definition, the criteria required for a Sport Pilot to
fly it, but doesn't have to have the same restriction as to night
flight, altitude etc.

Also, you only have to have at LEAST a Sport Pilot rating to fly it, the
Sport Pilot lic is the lowest on the totem pole, so a Rec or PPL can fly
it no problem.

Most of them cruies at 110-115knots burning less than 5gph of premium
auto fuel.

Most of them have some what would otherwise be considered experimental
equipment like the Dynon 1000, etc.

--
-- ET :-)

"A common mistake people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools."---- Douglas Adams

T o d d P a t t i s t wrote in
:

ET wrote:

A "special" light sport aircraft is NOT certified under FAR 23, it is
certified under the "concensus standards"
an sLSA meets, by definition, the criteria required for a Sport Pilot
to fly it, but doesn't have to have the same restriction as to night
flight, altitude etc.

Don't confuse the limits on the Sport Pilot with the limits
on the types of aircraft he can fly. A "Light Sport
Aircraft" does not have limitations on night flight or
altitude capability . Those are limits on what the Sport
Pilot can do when he flies it. The LSA aircraft itself
*does* have limitations on speeds (stall and cruise), gross
weight and number of seats.

So, a Sport Pilot can fly an aircraft *capable of* going
higher than 10,000' with lights for night flight, but he
can't fly it at night or above 10K'. OTOH, he cannot fly an
aircraft with a max gross higher than 1320 pounds or more
than two seats, even if he takes out the seats or flies at
an actual weight less than 1320.

All of the aircraft limits (speeds, gross weight) apply
regardless of whether the aircraft is a consensus LSA, an
experimental LSA or a kit. The SP limits (altitude night
flight) do not apply to the aircraft.


i'ya... said that....

--
-- ET :-)

"A common mistake people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools."---- Douglas Adams