Re: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: Are LSA impractical?

So sport aircraft are no good and a waste of money then?

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4GLTE smartphone

----- Reply message -----
From: "circicirci" <acensor@fastmail.fm>
To: <Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group Re: Are LSA impractical?
Date: Sun, May 15, 2011 12:06 pm


In a certain sense MANY general aviation aircraft in the under, say, the $100K price range unless fully loaded for IFR and with a good IFR pilot are "impractical for travel."

That includs in my opinion the popular 172's etc.
You simply can't count on being able to get where you want to when you want too, and back when you want to because flying conditions change.

The vast number of single engine aircraft private pilot owners (non-LSA) after an initial period of heavy use when the owner was a newbie enthusiastic pilot fly less than 30 hours a year. (I got that number from AP mechanics who do the annuals on these planes)
Most people drive their cars more than that in a month I imagine.
Seems like that alone makes the case that most of these aircraft prove impractical for travel for most owners.

As one pilot friend with 1000 hours and an IFR rating and his own conventional popular single engine 130mph aircraft told me when we were discussing flying from Oregon to southern California:
"If you HAVE to get anywhere, let alone at any particular time, Drive, don't fly."

LSA's even in the under $50K class differ GREATLY in their stability and flyability. Some trim up perfectly and you can let go of the controls and point them where you want to go, and practically sit back and read a book. Others are touchy and have to be constantly flown and will fatigue the pilot. Some have better cross wind capablity than others.  The same is probably true for a number of aircraft outside the LSA class.

What IS true is that if ANY aircraft has a cruising speed of only 95mph (and there are several non-LSA aircraft that do that or less r not much more) your cross country travel plans can be significantly more negatively impacted and impaired by a 30 mph headwind than if your plane cruises at 135mph.
 Many LSA's out there, particularly those that evolved from the ultralights, do have low cruise speeds such as 70 to 90mph.
That said there are some LSA's that cruise near or at the LSA limit of 138mph and many non-LSA and traditional aircraft that CFI's gladly use for traing that don't cruise slower than the top LSA's do.

So a broad brush criticism of ALL LSA's as "impractical" seems to me that the person saying that is not being really specific or not knowledgable about the full range of LSA's out there.

My two cents.

Alex















--- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, "Mark IV" <markiv200@...> wrote:
>
> Seriously, is the wing loading too light to use an LSA for travel? I like the Technam Sierra, Czech Sportcruiser, FK Polaris, or Arion Lightning style crafts. The instructors I deal with don't like LSAs much because they're "extremely touchy" or "aren't much use on windy days" or "are very unforgiving". They tell me LSA will "beat you to death".  So...are they impractical to rely on for travel?
>
> Thanks, Mark
>









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