Light Sport Aircraft

One of the things that happened in aviation since I got my license is the light sport aircraft or LSA (and its corresponding special license, the Sport Pilot license.) Like the Recreational license and the ultralight aircraft that preceded it, the light sport aircraft is officialdom's response to the spiralling cost of aircraft ownership and the resultant decline in the pilot population. A light sport aircraft is of limited performance capability with only two seats and a modest top speed of about 120 knots in level flight. Gross weight is also limited to about 1200 pounds. In exchange for these limitations, manufacturers are able to follow a streamlined certification process that does not involve actual FAA inspections of the aircraft or most parts used in it. This is supposed to result in a less expensive certification process.

But what does it mean to the pilot? Is an LSA as safe as a Part 23 approved airplane, and how much utility do you give up? On Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, I took a lesson in the LSA pictured. I wasn't particularly trying to answer these questions. The FBO I'm now flying with, Trident Aircraft at Bay Bridge Airport, has somewhat stricter standards than the FAA for currency. They like you to fly at least every 60 days (the FAA requires 90, and that's only if you carry passengers) or you have to do a mini-recurrency with an instructor, which adds considerable expense without, I felt, returning much in the way of either recreation or skill-building for someone who has had a license for more than a decade. Since the LSA at Bay Bridge airport is considerably less expensive per hour even than a 172, reflecting lower capital, maintenance, and fuel costs, I figured I could use it for local flights to maintain currency. In addition, it is suitable for going to Ridgely Airport where the ultralights and hang gliders fly on weekends. The LSA's short landing and takeoff runs and light weight would make it easier to taxi off the pavement onto the grass without getting stuck; there's no paved parking area in Ridgely.

This particular LSA, a Remos GX, is made in Germany and it is tiny. The instructor took one look at my flight bag and suggested I leave it behind because there was no room for it! I found this was true. The plane has 2 seats and a small, maybe 2 cubic feet, cargo space that has a 60 pound capacity but can't be accessed in flight because the pilot's seat covers the door giving access to it when the seat is occupied. Head room is ample but leg room is tight for someone my size. Just as well there are no toe brakes because I probably couldn't engage them. Outward visibility is excellent, however, and controls are feather light and hyper-responsive. There's a little mini-PFD in front of each seat and a GPS with an extra large screen in between those two PFD's, plus standby conventional airspeed and altimeter instruments. All 3 electronic displays have their own batteries so they don't go dark immediately when you turn off the airplane master switch. The wings fold so you can push the plane onto a trailer to tow home behind your car. Anyway, it was about as different as it's possible to be from a Cessna, so I had an interesting flight. I expect I'll need one more lesson to be able to fly it by myself.

Is it as safe as a Part 23 airplane? I think it probably is. It's stressed for +4 and -2 G's, which is somewhat beyond the "Normal" category requirements from the FAA, and in addition, it has a Ballistic Recovery System with a parachute that can lower the whole airplane and occupants to the ground should something break that makes the plane uncontrollable in midair.

How is it to fly? In a word, it's weird. Its designers evidently started from a clean sheet of paper. In general layout it resembles a Cessna in that it's high wing, strut braced, and conventional tail. It's also tricycle gear with very effective, precision nosewheel steering that works through the rudder pedals. Beyond that, controls just go their own way. A World War II-style stick is used for roll and pitch control, with a button on it for electric pitch trim (no mechanical trim at all). This trim acts on a section of the elevator whose upper surface is smooth composite with no hinges. The linkage from the trim motor slides a link fore and aft on the lower surface of the tab to produce aeroelastic forces on the elevator. The seats don't slide; to adjust them for your size you lift them out of the airplane, releasing a linkage first that retracts rods from a series of holes in the Kevlar and carbon fiber airframe. then you move the seat to the correct position and re-engage the rods into the appropriate holes. Needless to say you can't adjust it in flight. The doors are gullwing, retracting up against the lower surfaces of the wings. Visibility ahead and to the sides is excellent, almost bubble canopy good, because of the size of the windshield and side windows. The doors are almost all Plexiglas. The brake lever is between the seats, and for those who drove sports cars with a handbrake in that position, you might as well recognize you need total re-training, because the lever must be pushed, not pulled, to stop the landing roll. To facilitate using this brake, there is an auxiliary throttle on the upper left of the panel that the left-seater can manipulate with his left hand while his right is busy stopping the airplane.

Speaking of sports cars, getting into the Remos resembles what those of us of a certain age remember in connection with the 1966 Austin-Healey Sprite. Except, you need to step up, rather than down, to get into the cockpit, and after you're in, you still need to move one leg over the stick. There isn't much room between it and the underside of the dashboard so if your legs are long they'd better not be too fat.

The engine is weird too. It's geared, screaming at 5200 RPM on takeoff, and produces 100 shp. However, that's enough, with the sophisticated, 3-bladed propeller with swept tips, to allow very rapid climbs. It has both air and liquid cooling systems and therefore coolant level must be checked as well as oil during preflight. It's a Rotax 912, a common ultralight and LSA powerplant that has also powered many homebuilt and experimental aircraft. It sounds about like a lawnmower. It has an oil cooler with a flap to close it off, and that's used for temperature control in flight, not just applied for warmup. It even has a choke, but it pops back in instantly when the engine fires, probably a safety feature to avoid its becoming engaged in flight. There is no mixture lever, just the two throttles, because something in the carburetion adjusts for air density changes with altitude. Indeed, where it can differ from an ordinary airplane, it does.

Handling continues the weird theme. Rudder must be used sparingly, because the ailerons have been rigged so that most of their effectiveness is in dumping lift off the "down" wing rather than adding it to the "up" one. this means very little adverse yaw. Stalls are rather abrupt wing drops to the right with power off; I expect they will be even more abrupt to the left with power on. there's no stall alarm and I couldn't feel a pre-stall buffet, but maybe you need more familiarity with the airplane to detect the buffet. Vy, best glide, and approach speed are all the same, which makes for not so much to memorize. since the airplane is not approved for flight in IMC, there is no pitot heat, even though this one had enough instrumentation that you could practice approaches in it. Takeoffs and landings are extremely short but otherwise conventional. Of course you have to wait to flare till you think you must be about to hit the ground, because the seating position is a lot lower than anything I've flown before. Nevertheless my first landing was nearly perfect; the second was a little hard (flared too high).

LSA's seem to be gaining fast in popularity. Most are imported; even Cessna's new one is made in China. But, they are much less expensive than "real" airplanes; a Remos costs about half of a Cessna 172 and has almost as much performance if you think in terms of speed and climb rate. The 172 can carry 2 additional passengers, and maybe even more important, you can file IFR with it. However, for many flight "missions" in a general aviation aircraft neither the extra seats nor instrument capability is really needed. I think the LSA is here to stay.