Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: Low wing LSA with high useful load?

Well said. I don't know how many times the topic has come up that LSA was supposed to bring affordable flying (and how does one define affordable anyway) to the masses. It is all in what the buyer wants and is willing to pay for. The typical $100K+ aircraft is comprised of:

* Rotax 912 ULS $25K
* BRS $7K
* Garmin SL40 $1700
* Garmin 327 $1800
* Garmin Aera 550 (although 696 seems to be the default for another 1.5K)$2K
* Dynon Skyview with EMS (Duel 7") $8K
* 406 MhZ ELT $1500
* Intercomm $500
* Woodcomp Prop $2K

This is basically $50K without the airframe itself or wheels, brakes, tires, wheel pants, lights, linkages, canopies or doors, sticks/yokes, rudders, etc. Oh, might want to pay the actual craftsmen to assemble the aircraft.

Do you NEED all this? Nope. There are factory-built aircraft that don't build in all the high-end features and take an entirely different approach than the high-dollar LSA's. Nice planes and fun to fly. Take a look at the Savage Classic (Cub-clone nicely equipped). $60K+ less than planes like the Flight Design CT. And I'm not bashing the CT -- it's a great airplane. The choice is the buyers.

The same complaining arose when Cessna resumed production of piston singles back in the late '90s. Seems some people were expecting prices that were from the early '80s with no accounting for 15+ years of inflation.

--- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Pitcher" <lightflyer@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> >>I wish you guys would get real about costs. Maybe they might sell two or
> >>three of these.
>
> >>LSA should stay in the range where people can afford
>
>
>
> >Naw, thats back when Sport Pilot was going to replace Ultralights. ...
> ><snip>
>
> You can still buy an ultralight-type SLSA for the same price as the 2-place
> UL trainers.
>
> It's up to the BUYER to decide what they want... and I LIKE it that way!
>

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