Barry
Meek's Letters
June 2007
New Kids on
the Block
(John Richardson's
TURBO PELICAN parked under the wing of a
747.)
Light Sport
Aircraft, the newest category of machines
for the recreational flyer, have
seemingly given aviation a huge
boost. There was a time when there
were dozens upon dozens of airplanes to
browse as we walked the ramp at local
airports. Over time, most disappeared. Or
did they? The Canadian Civil Aircraft
register shows a steady increase in the
number of planes in Canada since
1959. The early to mid 1990’s
saw a levelling off in that number, but
since 1999, there’s been an increase
every year. This is in contrast to the
numbers when we talk about pilots. The
number of private pilots peaked in 2003,
but that’s been in a freefall ever
since. It would be even lower if not for
the recreational pilot category.
Since 2004
when the new rules for LSA (in the U.S.)
took effect, it seems there’s news
of new models being introduced on a
monthly basis. There’s a new
frontier to explore and at this point,
the total number of pioneers is up around
forty. That’s right, forty
different, new planes, from different
manufacturers available now to choose
from. Most are from European
countries. No longer are we limited
to Cessna, Piper, Taylorcraft, Mooney,
Citabria, and the tiny handful of others
we’ve grown up with. Practically
every aviation publication you pick up
has articles about how they fly, how they
perform, the fuel consumption and so
on. There’s no question that
these tiny, two seat planes offer many
remarkable and revolutionary design
ideas. This is the time in aviation
history, with the change in some rules,
when designers and builders are
introducing some new and exciting
products. Today it’s almost
impossible to find a new aircraft
constructed of tube and fabric. Even the
gold standard “all aluminium”
is passe. New tougher, stronger and
lighter Kevlar and glass products have
replaced them.
It’s a
feeding frenzy among the magazines as
they scramble to fill their pages with
the great news of this
revolution. If you were to believe
all the hype, you’d expect to look
out the window and see the sky literally
full of spiffy new sport airplanes.
But sadly,
I don’t think so. These new
airplanes might very well be the vehicle
that pilots have dreamed about owning,
however the big question is ..... who can
afford to buy them? All referral to
price in the advertising, the articles
and websites, is a casual mention.
But the fact remains, you’ll not
soon be flying in one for less than about
$100,000 bucks!
In all my
travels last summer, I was fortunate to
see just one of the new planes in the LSA
category. It was a model from the
Czech republic and was being used as a
working aircraft rather than for simple
recreation. If the Katana qualifies
as an LSA, you’ll notice there
aren’t too many around apart from
those owned by flying schools. But
clearly, private ownership isn’t
impossible. There are surely some
pilots out there who are able and willing
to lay down that kind of cash for a
weekend airplane. I would suggest
another idea could be a shared-ownership
arrangement.
Forty
different manufacturers are now competing
in a market that will not be able to
support them all. History is on the
verge of yet another repeat
performance. Just like the
automobile. That highway is littered
with the remains of carmakers who for one
reason or another, failed.
Duesenberg, Packard, Blackhawk,
Studebaker, Crosley, Elgin, DeSoto,
Avanti, Auburn, Cord, the list goes
on .... and on. Most people have
never heard of, or have long forgotten
the stories and promises. The same
process of elimination occurs with almost
any product or service through a period
of time. The process of elimination,
consumer acceptance and rejection is a
normal part of the cycles. The
“dot com” period is now the
“dot gone” era. And it
didn’t take long.
Don’t
get me wrong. I’m an
enthusiastic pilot, and one who thinks
this time for revolution and change in
our industry is long overdue. But I
believe it will be over, long before
we’re tired of it. The products
out there today are undoubtedly superb,
the technology far superior to what we
could buy in the early airplanes from the
major manufacturers. But is it that
much better? Are there enough
pilots who can afford to spend $100,000
for a recreational vehicle? There may be
enough to support a small number of
companies building these
airplanes. The strongest will
survive, there will be mergers, the rest
will dry up and fly away.
Meantime, I
look forward to opportunities to fly a
few of the new breed of sport
airplanes. They’re classy,
clean and fast. Most appear to be at
cruising speed even when they’re on
the ramp standing still. The sports
cars of the air. I think it’s
still early in this revolution.
Manufacturers claim big sales figures
over the past several years in their home
countries. I searched for several
hours attempting to find some North
American numbers, but was unable to come
up with anything to report. However,
it may just be too early in this whole
affair.Time will tell. It’s a good
time for optimism. We haven’t seen
anything like this in decades.
Barry Meek
at bcflyer@hotmail.com
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As
published in the newsletters of the Thompson
Valley Sport Flying Club
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