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As things stand, Service Bulletin 569A is not mandatory for Part 91 owners who don’t use their aircraft in commercial service, AOPA said. But Lycoming has made clear it would like the FAA to issue an Airworthiness Directive based on the SB, as often happens, and then it would be mandatory for all owners. AOPA […]

When Lycoming originally announced in late February that owners of more than 5,000 aircraft must “retire” their crankshafts — at the owner’s expense — within three years, a bit of resistance seemed inevitable to the casual observer, even if it wasn’t acknowledged by Lycoming. AOPA made its resistance official this week with a letter to […]

Lycoming Tuesday issued a revision to its “this is the last one” Service Bulletin — SB 569A adds another 404 crankshafts to its list. The change reflects an omission from the original list, not a change to the total number of crankshafts affected, Lycoming said. (Affected owners made newly aware may dismiss that distinction.) “If […]

Two LSAs were missing from show exhibits due to accidents that occurred as they were heading to Lakeland. Aviation writer Dan Johnson, who has been working with EAA on the Sport Pilot Tour, was taking off in a CZAW Parrot from Palm City, Fla., on April 2 when engine trouble developed. CZAW CEO Chip Erwin […]

Ron Bertram, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia, died in a crash near Sydney on Wednesday. Bertram was taking a Lancair 360 homebuilt for a check flight at Bankstown Airport after some routine maintenance work, according to news reports. Bertram reported engine trouble on takeoff, then crashed near the runway. The […]

So far, many buyers of LSAs are already pilots, but a lot of effort is going into expanding the market by finding and training new pilots as well. Jeff Parnau, who is working with Sportsplanes.com in Wisconsin, said the company recently brought an Ikarus C42 S-LSA to an outdoor-sports show in Milwaukee and hung it […]

While many of the first S-LSAs were imports from the European “microlight” class, which is restricted to about 950 pounds gross weight, more of the newer models are designed from the ground up to meet the U.S. rule, with a limit of 1,320 pounds. This allows for bigger, roomier models with more features. Danny Defilici, […]

It was just a year ago that the first Light Sport Aircraft were introduced here at Sun ‘n Fun, and now the number of fixed-wing Special-LSAs is up to 30, with four new models approved just the week before the show. Sun ‘n Fun added 28 spaces in a new southeast exhibit area this year, […]

The maneuver began with Franklin’s Waco “chasing” LeRoy parallel with the crowd before climbing and turning toward Younkin, who was in a descending turn. But the report says Younkin was a few seconds late with his part of the maneuver and that eliminated visual contact between the two. Both pilots realized the maneuver had gone […]

As with NTSB reports, the Canadian authorities don’t determine fault in these reports so there’s no indication why the maneuver wasn’t carried out the way it had been originally conceived. As originally scripted, the maneuver looked like a near collision from the ground but both pilots were able to control separation safely. As performed that […]