LSA Safety Alert Archive In The Works

The members of the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association will work with EAA to produce a new website where safety alerts -- the LSA equivalent of airworthiness directives -- will be posted to ensure that all owners, mechanics and pilots have timely access to the information, LAMA announced at EAA AirVenture on Wednesday. The site will also provide an archive for the data to ensure it remains available for aircraft owners even if the manufacturer is no longer in business, LAMA chairman Dan Johnson told AVweb. "The FAA was extremely keen on that," Johnson said. The information mainly is already available online at manufacturers' websites if you know where to look, Johnson said, but having a central site should be useful to shoppers, mechanics and others. He said the site should be up and running by September.

At a later stage, the site will also compile service difficulty reports that are filed by mechanics, Johnson said. The plan was developed in various meetings this week at AirVenture, Johnson said. In other LSA news, Johnson said the LSA Mall is filled to capacity, showing that the segment is continuing to hold its own despite the long economic downturn. A few manufacturers have stopped production, though. "As of now, there are 72 manufacturers and 108 models of Special LSAs," Johnson said. For that many new models to be approved in so short a time -- just five years since the LSA rules were finalized -- is unprecedented in aviation history, he said.