Warmi

This year at Oshkosh I found a similar class plane that imho looks better than SportCruiser - Tucano replica. It is a kit plane with Rotax 915is and I am now seriously considering getting their quick build kit …

It is interesting … looking at Vans forums RV12 seems to be the most popular , at least in terms of forum postings..

My worry would be not so much some kind of FAA ramp check but rather, in hopefully unlikely scenario ,that if I crash the plane or somehow need to fill out insurance claim , there may be issues related to the plane not being in compliance.

I do follow pretty much all the rules even though I do think a lot of it is nonsense , at least in terms of non intended outcomes … I do draw a line sometimes for trivial stuff ( for instance I would not give a crap about getting LOA to fly without wheel pants( something that is apparently required for Flight Design owners ) and stuff like that … at the end of the day it is my plane. Of course it is easier for me as I can pretty much install any avionics I want , my list of allowed ADSB equipment looks very open 🙂 If I owned a SportCruiser I would simply go ELSA - life is too short for dealing with nonsense like that … What’s even more interesting , I am apparently allowed to install aftermarket Rotax engine mods to add extra power - not sure about doing that , especially given how expensive it is but hey, I would still be legal 🙂

… won’t comment on idiotic legal/paper nonsense but just on merit alone these were excellent upgrade choices 🙂

That’s all you really need - a decent GPS and a decent instrument that can drive your autopilot (G5 certainly qualifies )

That’s the point … there is never any excuse available when flying - it is always on you , one way or another. As far as flying in windy conditions, I find slowing down from landing right after touch down probably the most dangerous part of the whole ordeal … frankly, it is not as bad in a low wing plane ( less likely to get picked up by the wind ) but still , it is kind of unnerving as at that point the only thing you can do is keep the controls into to the wind and hope for the best.

I would think even if you crash with 2 knots crosswind FAA would put the responsibility on you anyway …

That red and white SportCruiser up there in the first picture looks just stunning… and Happy New Year !

My Sting is like that - the bubble canopy may not look as sporty as in SportCruiser but it offers superior visibility - it feels like you are sitting on a wing spar with almost 360 degree visibility. I guess, to each his own 🙂

I have the same TruTrak Efis and so far it has been running flawless since 2017 ( when I got the plane, the unit is older than that ) and feature wise it is about the same as D100 series from Dynon ...but , indeed, it is a dead end product - if it dies , you got to pull it out and replace the stack entirely.

Another thing is that there just aren't that many (frequented) forums for Light Sport/Rotax folks out there to begin with ...

Welcome, That's an interesting take... VL3 Aircraft surely appears quite fast ( I presume you are looking for the 915is version ) and I am sure they a lot of fun to fly for your typical local flying ( I mean hundreds not thousands of miles ) but I am not sure how you gonna manage the gross limit which is still only around 1322 lbs and that's a lot less than DA40 which will translate into pretty slim useful load not to mention the fact that it surely won't be any better in turbulence than DA40. I mean, it does look and sound like a another fun Czech plane ( I personally don't have a SportCruiser either but another Czech plane, Sting S4 ) but it is not a replacement for a plane like DA40 imho. BTW.. there is another , non-plane specific forum for Light Sport planes - https://sportpilottalk.com/ - may want to ask around there as well.

Yep, that’s why I don’t want one 😀 Btw. Arion Lightning planes have nothing in common with Lancair planes except maybe it looks kind of similar ( but so does SportCruiser to some degree ) Arion Lightning legacy includes this plane - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerocomp_VM-1_Esqual

Lightning is much more docile plane than the Lancair - I think of it as “Lancair for dummies” , which is for me 🙂 - I don’t need all that ultra speed that comes with Lancair and don’t want to fly a plane with 80 knots landing speed.

Get your 3rd class medical - to me that is a no-brainer. You can fly anything with it - SC , Lightning - whatever ... Personally, I was kind of looking at the new Lightning as my next plane ( either that or Sling 4 TSI - but I don't need 4 seats). With the Titan engine it will cruise faster but the main thing for me is 17XX lbs gross which is what I am having problems with on my Sting S4 - not enough gross. I am 6 feet 210 LBS , my wife is almost 6 feet and while she is pretty thin , at 6 feet she is still heavier than most women + BRS and we are maxed out with fuel. With 17XXX lbs , I can add a BRS installation to the Lightning ( Nick mentioned that they do offer it if you want it ) , load it with fuel and still have enough for decent size baggage.

Just curious ... so what happened to yours and what are you flying these days ?

This. When I stress about various costs of maintenance ( floats price etc ) my wife always likes to remind me - “this thing is flying us around , pay for it !”

That’s ok .. I have no problem owning a LSA plane and are more then happy to fly it regardless if there are better options available but, still, I think having all the facts and potential risks of purchasing an LSA plane in market that is about to completely change - it can’t hurt to point it out. And no, market driven innovations generally take years and generations of products before they become the norm - plenty of time to adjust - the current LSA market was created basically overnight with a stroke of a pen and can be destroyed/completely changed just as quickly. PS. I own a plane ( TL Ultralight Sting S4 ) that is max rated at 1320 lbs without any option to go higher ( the design gross ) but one way to guard against the coming change, is to purchase a plane like the Airplane Factory’s Sling 2 that is rated at 1560 lbs ( or a Bristell ) - where manufacturers have already indicated that they will issues LOAs for new gross as soon as new rules are in effect.

Well, my point is , keep in mind that if you do buy a plane , say for $140k , and the new rule becomes effective 2-3 years down the line it could be entirely possible for prices for these planes to drop 50% or so as soon as new models with higher gross and fewer limitations hit the market. This is a risk that we all assume participating in a market that is not driven by technological boundaries but rather by artificial bureaucratic limitations where entire product lines can be made obsolete with a single stroke of a pen.

I would not go for a new one or anything above 110 - used , a few years old with around 200 hours for about 100-110 k would be what I would consider a sweet spot. I keep hearing that LSA sales are going to hell ( supposedly it is combination of new Basic Med rules and FAA LSA limits change proposals ) so there is no point buying anything new, unless money is no factor , of course 🙂

I was told during rotax training to be careful and make sure not to try to force the bowl up because , it is is misaligned , you can do some damage to the floats - not saying that is what happened , since I cannot tell for sure, but the float was clearly chipped at the corner exactly where it would line up with the metal edge if misaligned. It maybe be that ,after 6 years , they started flaking but it was only that edge and nothing else - I replaced them anyway.

I couldn't - you may be more lucky but personally I no longer take any chances... I had my plane serviced at a known Rotax mechanic in Chicago area and ended up with the following maintenance induced issues : A leaking carb fuel line after 5 year rubber replacement ( either a bad clamp or re-used clamp , could't tell but it failed ) Carb bowl debris after annual ( I presume it was due to hastily installing the carb bowl which caused the float to chip away ) which resulted in takeoff time engine trouble - A cracked oil tank that ultimately failed catastrophically as soon as I attempted to open the drain . This was due to my mechanic installing a quick drain valve with not enough clearance over the exhaust which , over time, due to engine start/stop vibrations caused the drain plug to fail ( banging on the exhaust system ) Maybe I was just particularly unlucky but ... anyway, nobody will care as much about your plane as you do so trust but verify 🙂

What is required in an annual should be listed in your AMM manual

If a part gets replaced and it is done properly where you can’t tell the difference then it wouldn’t matter to me - frankly , that’s added value to me since it will most likely last longer than if it was the original but ,yeah, it all needs to be documented. I had my upper front gear strut replaced because it cracked at the weld point due to vibration ( the nut was loose and the strut was vibrating on takeoff ) and it got replaced with a newer strut design that is completely solid without any welds - but I have it documented in the book along with pictures of the weld that cracked , how it cracked etc ...