The Wall Street Journal discovers Light Sport Aircraft

[MarcGreen]

This weekend's paper had a big spread on LSA, focusing on a few particular aircraft, including the Icon A5. It was a very positive story and was the front page of one of the weekend lifestyle sections. Definitely caught my eye.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/forget-flyi ... 1444330932

[HAPPYDAN]

As I understand, the FAA developed the Light Sport Aircraft/Pilot program in an attempt to revitalize general aviation in the USA. While I'm sure each has his own opinion, for whatever reason I don't think it's working. Perhaps some more positive publicity thru non-aviation media can provide the spark the FAA was seeking.

[drseti]

I have a more cynical view, Dan, of the FAA's motivation to establish the LSA rules. I think it was so they could reign in those scofflaws operating unregistered aircraft under Part 103, without benefit of pilot's certificates.

[ct4me]

for better or worse, those guys at Icon have the magic touch when it comes to PR. Here we are a decade into LSA, with something like 135 certified planes, and they're described as "one of the first" LSAs. Also described as the only recent design that can take off on water.
Regardless, this one article will probably do more to promote LSA that all the Press from all the other companies combined. It's too bad, though, that the article misrepresents much about LSA and GA in general.

[Edgefly]

I tend to agree with Paul that the whole LSA/Sport Pilot objective was to address a problem the FAA saw as a "need-to fix" area which has proven to be more successful than originally expected. It happens that the aircraft fitting this new classification are basically of foreign origin and far too expensive to spur substantial growth and interest. On the other hand, there have been enough dollars available to support sales and flight activity in LSA's along with an enviable safety history to make the approach probably permanent. The ICON itself wil probably not have a significant impact but has to have positive value if for no reason than appearing while not a lot else is new in our community.

[designrs]

LSA category came about as a way to license "Fat Ultralights" (2-seaters). They were having a very high number of casualties. There was some loophole where if the pilot were an "instructor" they could carry a passenger (or something like that). Ironically and tragically the very lightly certified "instructors" were having the greatest number of casualties. Thus the LSA licensing category to get all the ultralight pilots up to traditional training and licensing standards.

Then all of these European "microlights" jumped on the bandwagon and became LSAs here in the USA.

* Affordability is relative.

My SportCruiser is "expensive" compared to a 30-year old Cessna... but "cheap" compared to a Cirrus.

Icon has mainstream news looking at LSA again.

[Jack Tyler]

I guess we each have our own version of the Sport Pilot/LSA history. Paul's identified the initial motivation of the FAA in my view, but we can't ignore how the member organizations & advocacy groups (including those who could see the potential for new aviation profits) morphed that motivation into a much broader class of aircraft performance capabilities. Put differently, the 'fix' ended up doing much more than addressing 'fat ultralights'. In part, the FAA's initiative also got co-opted by the also-emerging trend to normalize standards internationally, where European licensing and certification standards already had a similar-to-LSA class in place. Add in some American investors and you end up with a whole new industry, altho' one that has had only limited commercial success when you compare the number of aspiring entrepreneurs to the actual number of success stories and the actual number of SPL issuances. And there's been lots of prior discussion here whether the glass is half full or half empty.