EAA Reports That A Bigger, Better LSA Is Still On Track

This Kitfox III, a light, two-seater, is very LSA-like. New rules that are in development, however, would allow larger, faster planes to be built and certificated much as LSA are today. Photo courtesy of Armchair Aviator’s.

Have you been wondering what's happening with the proposed LSA expansion into a rule that encompasses a class of aircraft that more closely resembles the four-seat Part 23 models most of us are now flying? Or have you completely forgotten that such a movement had even been proposed?

We get it. The pandemic has side-tracked so many good things that it's only natural to assume that good stuff has gone off the tracks and into the weeds, perhaps never to be put back on the rails. But such is not the case with this proposed segment.

The EAA said in a press release on Thursday that meetings are once again happening and there is progress. Both are great to hear.

Like LSA, which conform not to FAA regulations but to industry consensus standards, the new breed of bigger LSA-style-certification aircraft would be available as user-built kits or as fully manufactured aircraft. It would not only greatly improve the utility of planes (and more types of aircraft) that make up this segment, but it would give pilots with a Sport Pilot or better certificate the option of flying planes that did more for them.

EAA is on board with all of this, and as a major player in the movement is happy to report to us that progress is being made, though it stopped short of saying exactly what that progress is. But it does report that a proposed FAA rule on the subject is on track for getting published for public comments in about a year, with a final rule coming as soon as the fall of 2023.

Plane & PilotStaff