Oshkosh Saturday

Another beautiful day. Warmer, but humidity not stifling and a steady breeze was evident most of the day. Not a huge crowd compared to some earlier years but many LSA and GA exhibitors alike reported good, focused interest and not a few sales.

Pipistrel in particular seems to be riding the crest of ever-growing reputation. It's new Alpha Trainer, which I'm scheduled to fly

tomorrow morning, lucky me (I'm the first US journalist I think to have the privilege), is already selling and selling well, with at least a couple checks changing hands at the show earlier in the week and another sold by Rand Vollmer, the Southeast Pipistrel go-to guy, today, the $83,000 ($89,000 with shipping from Slovenia and U.S. set up and other costs factored in) is staged to make a big play for

individuals and flight schools who are ready for an aircraft that is truly cheap to fly (2 gph in training takeoff/landing circuits, 3-3.5 gph at 107 knot cruise...and all this on an 80 hp Rotax 912!) and representative of a progressive, brilliant design team that promises more exciting developments in years to come.

Exciting as in the Panthera 4-seat Ferrari-like cruiser that is currently in development for 2013 delivery as a certificated airplane in Europe...2015-6 in the U.S

Pipistrel is a bold, imaginative company of forward thinkers like company founder Ivo Boscarol, award-winning engineers like project leader TineTomazic and savvy marketers like U.S. importer Michael Coates and hard-working, professional dealers like Rand Vollmer. I love this company, I have no reservations about saying it. When I think of Pipistrel and the aircraft it has already produced, not to mention some still-secret electric-powered aircraft in the pipeline, I smell the future of aviation.

The paradigm has shifted, and visionary companies like Pipistrel will lead it.

Time to sack out. Even a breezy day in Wisconsin summer heat takes it out of you. Enjoy the pix. More tomorrow on the Alpha.

A brand new Sky Arrow on display in the Hansen booth in the LSA Mall. This 20-year-old design is ASTM-approved and a popular tandem trainer with the Able Flight program for physically challenged student pilots that's thriving at Purdue University.tomorrow on the Alpha.

James LawrenceWriter

"If it flies, it's cool" pretty much nails the ethos of James Lawrence. Milestones along the taxiway include boyhood obsessions with airplane models and science fiction; first flight lesson at 15 (Piper Cub); cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy, (class of '67); sailplane lessons in the California desert when he could afford it; built and flew his first hang glider (1973); magazine and book author and actor (TJ on tv's SWAT); former Editor (Ultralight Aircraft, Outdoor Photographer, Plane & Pilot); freelance writer/photographer since 1992; current LSA Editor-at-Large. Rents a local Piper Cub in Great Barrington; still loves the sky, from ground and air.