Wondering What Light Sport Can Do For You?

On 25 Jul 2006 13:33:46 -0700, "CB" wrote:

Retractable landing gear are not permitted on Light Sport Aircraft.

Supposedly the FAA has approved at least one exemption for
an amphiban and may extend that to all amphibians.

Otherwise, someone needs to work on designs for retractable
floats...

IIRC (Ron, back me up on this?) dual-position gear are permitted for
amphibian LSAs. You don't need a case-by-case exemption.

As a couple of other folks have mentioned, the FAA approved *repositionable*
gear, not retractable gear. If you took off in the float mode, you had to land
in the float mode.

This has ticked off a number of people, especially those selling the little
amphibs. As another poster mentioned, the FAA recently approved the Czech
Aircraft Works' "Mermaid" as an LSA even though it has the retractable gear.

http://www.sportaircraftworks.com/exempition.html

It's likely that the FAA is going to make this a general policy...if not, the
other manufacturers are likely to quickly apply for the same kind of exemption.

Ron Wanttaja

Ron Wanttaja wrote:
On 25 Jul 2006 13:33:46 -0700, "CB" wrote:

Retractable landing gear are not permitted on Light Sport Aircraft.

Supposedly the FAA has approved at least one exemption for
an amphiban and may extend that to all amphibians.

Otherwise, someone needs to work on designs for retractable
floats...

IIRC (Ron, back me up on this?) dual-position gear are permitted for
amphibian LSAs. You don't need a case-by-case exemption.

As a couple of other folks have mentioned, the FAA approved *repositionable*
gear, not retractable gear. If you took off in the float mode, you had to land
in the float mode.

I heard a couple of times at my local EAA chapter (maybe
both times from the same person) that the FAA would allow
gear that could be repositioned *once* in flight. I suppose
that could be accomplished by designing gear that would
automatically lock in either the up or down position but
could only be unlocked from outside of th ecockpit.

But one would be hard pressed to find a designer stupid
enough to design such a thng, at least on purpose.


This has ticked off a number of people, especially those selling the little
amphibs.

As well as anyone comtemplating taking off from water and then
having to make an emergency landing on land, or vice versa.

IIUC this came about as a result of trying to avoid 'complex' systems
in LSA. Retractable landing gear were considered to be 'complex'.
And so more pavement was added to the road to hell.

--

FF