Sport Pilot Talk

Their new Piper 100, just announced at Sun-n-Fun, is essentially a 2-place, VFR Archer. It's priced at $259k, and is being marketed to flight schools.

Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said the new models are designed for smaller flight schools who want new airplanes. He said the training market is “no place for a light sport-derived anything.” Flight schools, he said, wanted an airplane with the durability and reliability of the Piper products, but at a price point affordable to local flight schools.

Let's see, now... twice the price of a well equipped LSA, which is also a 2-place VFR trainer. The guy (and maybe flight schools?) just don't get it.

The only thing going for them is the fact that the plane is certified , runs a legacy engine and is a know bran - and to be honest , it probably handles better with a sturdier gear that doesn’t have to compromise with 1320 lbs limit.
Will that be enough for flight schools - I suspect it will ...

Another "advantage" of the Archer is that it can be flown onto the runway at just about any speed. So the student need not bother with learning airspeed control or even stabilized approaches.

Warmi wrote: . . . Will that be enough for flight schools - I suspect it will ...

It is for UND. They already have a zillion of them. Ordered 2 years ago to replace the C-172.
All well equipped with G-1000.

Let's hope it is a success. Diversity is a good thing, even in aviation.

TimTaylor wrote:Diversity is a good thing, even in aviation.

Especially in aviation.

Wm.Ince wrote: Cut the political crap!

I didn't see that as a political statement at all, Bill.

Well, I would certainly expect a CEO of a company competing with LSA planes to say that LSAs have no place in training schools ( and probably anywhere else as far as he is concerned ) ...

I can appreciate that there is a market for new aircraft for Private Pilot flight schools at what some might call "affordable" prices. This new Piper offering may indeed fit that market. Can't say it can do anything for Sport Pilot schools though.

As a wanna-be flyer myself, I am saddened when anyone in the aviation industry bashes another segment of that industry. News flash - if it flies in the skies it's ALL good..... IMHO.....same goes for all industries.

Warmi wrote:Well, I would certainly expect a CEO of a company competing with LSA planes to say that LSAs have no place in training schools ( and probably anywhere else as far as he is concerned ) ...

Obviously, this particular CEO doesn't subscribe to the Rising Tides philosophy (lifts all boats).

chicagorandy wrote: I am saddened when anyone in the aviation industry bashes another segment of that industry.

I share your sadness.

I learned to fly in what would today be considered an LSA if only it didn't have that pesky nose wheel. Got my Private in it also, a Champion Tri-Traveler 7FC.

TimTaylor wrote:I learned to fly in what would today be considered an LSA if only it didn't have that pesky nose wheel. Got my Private in it also, a Champion Tri-Traveler 7FC.

It wasn't the nose wheel that kept it from being a LSA. The 7FC was based on the 7EC which had a 1450 or 1500 pound gross weight depending on serial number range.

3Dreaming wrote:

TimTaylor wrote:I learned to fly in what would today be considered an LSA if only it didn't have that pesky nose wheel. Got my Private in it also, a Champion Tri-Traveler 7FC.

It wasn't the nose wheel that kept it from being a LSA. The 7FC was based on the 7EC which had a 1450 or 1500 pound gross weight depending on serial number range.

I was referring to the additional weight versus the LSA eligible aircraft.

TimTaylor wrote:

3Dreaming wrote:

TimTaylor wrote:I learned to fly in what would today be considered an LSA if only it didn't have that pesky nose wheel. Got my Private in it also, a Champion Tri-Traveler 7FC.

It wasn't the nose wheel that kept it from being a LSA. The 7FC was based on the 7EC which had a 1450 or 1500 pound gross weight depending on serial number range.

I was referring to the additional weight versus the LSA eligible aircraft.

While it is true that the ancestry of the 7FC goes back to a LSA eligible airplane the nose wheel is not the reason for it to not be LSA eligible today. The nose wheel was added to a later version of the Champ that was already to heavy by the current LSA definition.