AOPA kicked off its annual Aviation Summit, in Tampa, FL this year, with a pretty cool announcement: it's annual Sweepstakes Giveaway aircraft will be an LSA: the Remos GX.
The news here is this is the very first time the pilot's membership organization has made their big prize a Light Sport airplane.
Remos is serious about becoming top dog in the LSA sales race as it continues to heavily promote its aircraft and support services far and wide. Although still #4 in overall U.S. LSA sales, Remos aircraft have been selling at a faster clip than any other manufacturer the last year or so.
Meanwhile, AOPA Prez Craig Fuller, Remos Mng. Dir. Corvin Huber, and our pal, LAMA Pres. Dan Johnson led the unveiling of the Remos before the attendees at Tampa's Convention Center this morning.
“Fun to Fly” is the theme of the sweepstakes. The winner will be announced at next year's summit in Long Beach, CA and should be a happy puppy: the Remos GX will include a ballistic parachute and air bags, Dynon MFD and autopilot, a panel-mount Garmin 496, leather seats and other upgrades to be announced down the road.
---photo courtesy Remos

Holy Economics 101, Batman!
X-Air LLC just sent out a release that caught my eye.
X-Air is the Bend, Oregon-based LSA manufacturer that makes an ultralight-style flivver directly targeted at those recreational flyers and wingabees (flight-dreaming wannabes, get it?) on a tuna sandwich budget.
The tube-and-fabric, fun-flying X-Air LS has a lot to offer for those less concerned with high-bucks style and more motivated by low-cost substance, in this case saving the Benjamins during flight training.
A new X-Air LS goes for around $60,000 and burns 4 gal/hr! That translates into low-cost flight training, as well as dirt-cheap recreational-flight renting or club/shared ownership flying.
The basic Sport Pilot license, with the minimum 20 in-flight training hour requirement, is already affordable when compared with a Private Pilot's license.
Now, students could find themselves spending 50 clams per hour instead of 200 in a Skyhawk. Cutting flight costs only increases the likelihood that students will fly more, or more often, making for better, safer pilots in the long run.
I flew the X-Air a year ago but we haven't run the pilot report in the mag yet...too many airplanes, too few pages. I'll hope to hop a ride in the LS at Sebring in Jan. 2010 and bring you the report.
The short tell is the X-Air does just fine working a good part of the LSA performance envelope, with a max cruise speed of 104 mph, 39 mph stall speed and a 574 lb. useful load.
---photo courtesy X-Air

Just talked with CubCrafter's PR head Jon Bliss to check out the haps on the left coast - Yakima, WA to be exact - with the company's Super SportCub and other Cubalike models.
"We're doing as well as we've done in a long time," says Jon. "We've even got a backlog of orders."
As I said some months ago:
Bad economy - bah!
CubCrafters expects to move 50 LSA total out the door next year (2010), with the ASTM-certified (spring of '09) Super garnering most of the orders.
If you've got a Cub in your dreams, it's worth checking out the Super, especially if eye-popping takeoff/climb performance is on your wish list.
The airplane sports the company's own CC340, high-compression, electronic-ignition engine. News here is, and it's allowed for in the ASTM spec, that the engine can be run at 180hp for as long as five minutes, then must be throttled back to 80 hp for cruise (around 5 gal/hr fuel burn) to keep it in the LSA-legal performance envelope.
The real-world effect of 180 ponies in a 1320-lb. gross weight LSA? Liftoff from a standing start in four to five fuselage lengths, and around 2,100 feet per minute climb!
Time to get me a ride on this rocket...
---photos courtesy CubCrafters

SportairUSA, North American distributor for Sting and Sirius LSA models, just launched an interesting sales/service program for "pre-owned" LSA that should prove attractive for buyers and sellers alike.
Here's the pitch:
SportairUSA will sell every pre-owned LSA that's certified for the program with a six month, 50 hour warranty.
Bonus: five hours of ground training and five hours of transition flight orientation will be included in the sale, including a biannual flight review.
Bennies for the buyer:
The flight training, and confidence that the bird has been "thoroughly inspected and maintained by experienced technicians." That includes any repairs needed for certification in the program, using OEM parts.
Bennies for the seller:
Excellent market exposure to potential buyers, SportairUSA's reputation and resources behind the sale, and free hangaring, maintainence and any needed repairs along the way - only with the seller's approval, and at no cost until the airplane is sold.
What I really like about the program: The inclusion of the flight training, a major concern of LSA insurers due to the high accident rate during first flights by new owners, including experienced GA pilots who tend to minimize the importance of thoroughly learning the LSA flight regime. By insisting on a standard for flight training at all stages of aircraft acquisition, SportairUSA is adding its vote for safer LSA flight, which portends lower costs for all in the long run.
Programs like this also promise a maturing LSA infrastructure that will help the industry grow and gain respectability as we climb out of the economic doldrums.
Contact for info on the program: 888-359-7572.
---photo courtesy SportairUSA

At this summer's Oshkosh fly-in, I had the pleasure to meet an inspiring new pilot, Michael Combs, who briefed me on his plans to fly a Remos GX to every state in the US of A, beginning next spring.
Good news: Michael just finished his check ride - that's him below with his CFI, Justin Shelley of U.S. Flight Academy- and is now a happily licensed Sport Pilot. Congratulations Mike!
The odyssey flight will serve as more than just an adventurous lark, although that would certainly be enough motivation for most of us. The intrepid fledgling pilot - and a survivor of a serious illness - will make 135 stops during the inspirational mission, dubbed “Flight For The Human Spirit”, to champion what he recently described as "...proof of human capability and of accomplishing what you are able to dream."
He intends to demonstrate, in dramatic fashion, that “a Sport Pilot license is a passport to unlimited adventure...a celebration of freedom.”
Mike estimates he'll have more than 100 flight hours under his belt by the time the 40-day trip launches. He'll have all the latest electronic nav gear, including XM weather and satellite tracking that will update his progress every two minutes, which you can follow on his website: www.flightforthehumanspirit.com.
---photo courtesy Remos Aircraft