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Congratulations Beachcomber! Let us know how you enjoy the GDL-39! And class act, Crusader16! Positive Karma credits!

Ditto from me too, Bob! Thanks for all your legwork and chasing down an answer for us. Sad as I was looking on Cruiser Aircraft's Facebook page (I am the 6th person in the world without a Facebook account after Shawn. I had to borrow one) and saw that CSA's CEO is at Oshkosh as well. I don't understand why, with all the "big wigs" at the show, an answer couldn't be made available. I know the question has been asked for a while now.

I'm jealous!

Thanks Shawn! May be into Aug or Sept before I get out there with the WX being what it is. Will let you know!

Thanks Bob! Appreciate you braving the entrance fee, crowds and hunting down someone that could provide some information. Disappointing as I was expecting the announcement during this show from what I was told. And this will mean that those of us with legacy CRUZ aircraft will need to put in for the rebate by September 18th as Shawn advised, hoping that the announcement in occurs sometime between October 1 and December 18th, 2017 (end of the 90 days to get your equipment installed.) This is also barring any kind of (further) delay in announcement. So... Shawn, PM inbound. Would love to know who your DAR was. Bob

Shawn, you are such an instigator! I mean that in jest... sort of. Bob - it was Thomas Schrade that told me that he would have some news at Oshkosh. If you happen to go back, I agree... see if Tom might have some news. I saw that Cruiser Aircraft had updated their website and added photos of the aircraft, some young ladies, and a $10K special on a new SportCruiser, but still no news on a LOA. I am in strong agreement with Shawn... if no announcement is made, I'm reserving the rebate before Sept. 18 and I'm converting my aircraft to E-LSA as soon as... well, as soon as the wings are back on!

LOVE this quote! I will most definitely need to steal it from you!

Are you SURE you're not getting married at some point? LOL - I'll have thoughts to wake up early and go for a motorcycle ride or go for a flight, but my wife will beat me out of bed in the morning to go for a run while I keep an eye on our 10 year old son. Then we do "family stuff" when she gets back since everyone's awake. Hence, no motorcycling, and no flying that day. Not sure if it's the same place or not... but it is a shared hangar. Wings are off. Dave spoke with Patrick Arnzen and the suggestion was to remove the fuel level sensor and flush out the tank. But with all the baffles, other A&Ps are recommending replacement. Sigh. One thought that crossed my mind was the revenue side of owning a SLA. I suppose one might keep it a S-LSA if you were to lease it back to a flight school and allow the aircraft to earn revenue. But as 2020 rolls around, if there's no LOA from CSA, I would imagine the ability to lease your S-LSA ends since it's no longer compliant with the 2020 regulation. So that's bad for existing LSAs since they're all either going to be converted to Experimental if the manufacturer doesn't issue a LOA. And I wonder if one of the plans is to NOT issue a LOA so those legacy aircraft owners will be forced to either convert or purchase new, compliant S-LSA. Sometimes I hurt my own brain...

Wow... it looks like the next 10 days is filled with thunderstorms in the Dunnellon area! Not within my comfort zone, but it appears there might be the opportunity to get up and fly between storms... especially if you have ADS-B and WX. (HUGE hint to CSA and Cruiser Aircraft!) My aircraft is safely snuggled into a shared hangar space at X35. Dave (LSRM-A) is working through the hose change and I'm glad that he's looking everything over carefully as the plane has been sitting for a few years on the ramp. It will be virtually a brand new plane when he's done with it. Probably the biggest concern is the foreign material in one of the tanks. My thoughts are that it was intentionally done, but we're trying to see if it can be cleaned out, or if a tank replacement is in my future. Will hopefully know in the near future.

I wonder if selling that RV-12 outside of the US might "reset" things? Maybe to a Canadian pilot as an "Advanced Ultra-Light" aircraft? Of course this is assuming that Shawn's friend would sell. It seems that he or she may be keen with the idea of an E-AB with all the features / equipment that he can add himself. Oshkosh isn't too far away... and I've not heard anything about the CRUZ and ADS-B solutions. I suppose Cruiser Aircraft will wait until the show rather than drop hints. And even then, there's no telling if it will apply to the legacy CRUZ aircraft. Fingers crossed for a positive result, but plans in place if not.

I really like what Shawn has done with his center panel, and I'm very anxious to have ADS-B installed. Thus, if I want to make flying my aircraft safer through enabling the AoA feature on the Dynon D100 EFIS, adding ADS-B, and equipment that reduces my workload, I currently have no choice but to go E-LSA. I don't know why I'm waiting for Cruiser Aircraft's announcement at Oshkosh... maybe because that's my mental "line in the sand." But I think I'm already 95-99% convinced that my plane is headed toward a future as an E-LSA. Ideas I'm playing with if (when?) I go E-LSA include the Zipper Big Bore kit for the 912 ULS. Since I will be flying reasonably close to gross weight with full fuel (and definitely at gross weight with a passenger), and I have a desire to frequent Phoenix and Prescott, Arizona, having extra power to help with high density altitude is a plus. 15% increase (to 115 horsepower) is a good bump in power, and I understand the billet aluminum cylinder heads do a better job at cooling than the stock, cast aluminum heads due to the greater density of the material. And as an added bonus, the assembly will be 3 - 4 pounds lighter than the stock Rotax parts.

I am SOOOO (unashamedly) copying that center panel! Thanks for posting the pics, Shawn! I can't believe how much bigger the Aera 660 display area is over the 396! I knew the display was wider, but the touch screen really does a nice job integrating the buttons onto the screen and enlarging the map and other features. I think this is the way I'm going too...

I'm right there with you, Bob. Thought I'm not likely to wait that long. I'm hoping to hear from Cruiser Aircraft after Oshkosh to see what was worked out with CSA. If there's no announcement, or something that won't work for the already sold SportCruisers out there, I'm going E-LSA and following Shawn's lead. I like the reduced pilot workload, and I want an ADS-B solution in/out sooner rather than later. I've already had one extremely close call in towered airspace, and have no intention of ever getting that close to another aircraft again. The "other" Bob

I too am waiting to see if there's an announcement either at Sun n Fun, or at Oshkosh regarding LOA from CSA. But if there isn't (or I'm not keen on the presented solution), I'll go E-LSA at my next annual. I suppose I'm just delaying the inevitable as I'd want many of the things that Shawn, David and Karen have mentioned (AoA pitot tube, Garmin Aera 660, etc.) or even replacing my D100/120 with dual 7" Skyview screens. (Let's see if my corporate bonus next year will support that!)

Probably a controversial topic, but if I were a buyer, i'd be a bit more concerned about an experimental aircraft unless I knew the owner. I'd have less concern about an owner built or converted CRUZ aircraft as the design is well proven, but I'd have a lot more concern if it were an aircraft requiring a lot of owner build-time. For example, I'd have more concern about a Velocity aircraft than I would about a Vans RV aircraft. (The skills required for composite construction, vacuum bagging to ensure good resin penetration, etc. would be of concern to me.) I've seen some aircraft that were S-LSA that, quite frankly, were frightening. Undocumented changes to the aircraft and non-descriptive service entries into the logbook are things that I saw that really introduced considerable concern and reduced my offer price. Conversely, I think there are some Experimental aircraft out there where the logs were meticulous. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with those aircraft than the above S-LSA. Ultimately, I do think that going E-LSA would reduce the number of buyers that would be interested in your (or my) aircraft. But in my opinion, so long as you maintain complete logbook entries, it should be fairly easy to overcome most buyers' concerns. To come back around and answer your question about "value to you" regarding an E-LSA with safety equipment vs. a S-LSA without: absolutely. To me, the value of an aircraft having the latest safety equipment (ADS-B, synthetic vision, harmonized avionics to reduce pilot workload) is greater than a factory S-LSA sporting basic equipment. Note that some manufacturers are willing to listen to the "voice of the customer" for new and legacy aircraft, so those aircraft manufacturers are going to start leaching away customers from established manufacturers like CSA.

Welcome Tom! Hope to meet you at one of the air shows (especially any West Coast shows), or at Oshkosh!

Many thanks for the explanation and history, DavidKarenVV. I was wondering what the variable was, and I think you may be spot on that it comes down to builder competence and quality rather than materials. From what I've seen and read of the Sportcruiser, it is indeed a well built and capable aircraft (at least the factory built versions).

From my read of the article, it sounded as if the elevator folded around 125 knots IAS? Maybe that folding of the elevator caused the "bang" sound and ejected the fire extinguisher? Out of curiosity, is there a difference in materials or structure on kit built Sportcruisers versus factory built Sportcruisers? Wondering why the LAA chose to limit the kit-built version to Vne of 120 knots and factory built remains at 138 knots?