Sport Pilot Talk

For anyone who owns a Tecnam aircraft (or who is considering buying one), be aware that Tecnam has issued the following Notice of Corrective Action: "Tecnam informs operators and owners that the fuel, oil, and coolant flexible hoses service life is fixed, now on, at 5 years for all LSA Tecnam m...

Robinson?

Having owned a Skyhawk and logged some time in an Allegro, normally I would say this is a no-brainer - flying the Allegro was the most unpleasant flying experience I can remember. However---what nobody has mentioned is that the 172N has the dreaded H engine that gave all kinds of problems when first...

In an article in the current issue of Midwest Flyer Magazine Carol Carpenter of Rainbow Aviation Services says she thinks the FAA may be going to rule that Rotax can not require that mechanics working on Rotax engines have Rotax certification, because that would be inconsistent with one or more of t...

I see the the Chinese are buying Cirrus. How about that?

If anyone's interested, I understand there is an Ercoupe 415C for sale at the Watertown WI airport (KRYV). I don't know if they are offering Sport Pilot training. When it was based at the Reedsburg airport (C35) the FBO there was doing Sport Pilot training.

KSCessnaDriver - check-out accident report ERA10LA098

It doesn't say how these people got out of the aircraft.

SportairUSA used to have a dealer network, including a dealer in WI and one in southern IL, but apparently not anymore. There is a Tecnam Authorized Service Center in Reedsburg, WI that doesn't yet show up on the tecnam.net Web site. I hear he's had a lot of experience working on Tecnams and other R...

What did the Tecnam importers have to say at Oshkosh about their plans for establishing a support network for the P2006? As I understand it, any Rotax-trained A&P can "annual" a S-LSA, but I'd guess you have to find a Rotax-certified A/I to inspect a P2006.

I see that about 12% of the U.S.-registered Sierras (P2002s) have crashed so far, but only a couple of the high-wing Tecnams have been involved in accidents. I wonder what it is that makes the Sierras so much more accident prone.

The EAA members in any chapter are quite aware that the "E" in EAA stands for Experimental, and one of the areas in which they like to experiment is powerplants (the guy on the street behind me is building a Kitfox with a Honda Civic engine). A Rotax 912 is just too expensive (and much too...

Tecnam's are great airplanes, but troublesome to own. Dealer support is virtually non-existent in most of the country, and has a tendency to come and go abruptly without warning. Two dealers in the upper mid-west have been through the cycle twice! Almost all airframe parts have to be imported from I...

It will be interesting to see what happens once Cessna starts delivering Skycatchers. Presumably these have already been pretty much "pre-sold".

Take a look at the Tecnam factory photos on CSP's facebook page. I had no idea Tecnam was such a major operation. Pretty impressive!

Can you legally change your own oil as a Sport pilot? By strict reading of the Rotax Line Maintenance Manual for the 912, I question whether anyone can legally change the oil in a Rotax without some form of Rotax-approved training. Check out the "Authorized personnel" section of that manu...