Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Talk about airplanes! At last count, there are 39 (and growing) FAA certificated S-LSA (special light sport aircraft). These are factory-built ready to fly airplanes. If you can't afford a factory-built LSA, consider buying an E-LSA kit (experimental LSA - up to 99% complete).

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MrMorden
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Re: Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Post by MrMorden »

3Dreaming wrote:
Andy, you are right in that is what the maintenance manual says, even the parts catalog says the same thing. The thing to remember is the MM and PC for the CTLS was largely copied from the CTSW, instead of a complete rewrite. There are quite a number of inaccuracies. Having changed nose tires on both the CTSW and CTLS I can assure you that the CTLS uses a 6" wheel with a 6.00x4 tire. Here is a good article explaining the changes between the CTSW and CTLS.
https://flightdesign.com/files/Ed%20Dow ... S-0508.pdf
The information in that article is a bit suspect. It's an article in EAA Sport Pilot, and is not an official FD document. I think the line you are referring to is: "The nose wheel is now the same size as the 6.00-4 main gear". Except the mains on the CT have *never* been 6.00-4. They have been 4.00-6 for standard gear and 6.00-6 for Tundra gear. So far I have not found any reliable, official source that states that the CTLS standard nose wheel is larger than than that on the CTSW.

Maybe somebody with a non-tundra gear CTLS could chime in with their nose wheel tire size? It might be hard to find one since most CTLS (and CTSW for that matter) came with tundra gear.
Andy Walker
Athens, GA
Sport Pilot ASEL, LSRI
2007 Flight Design CTSW E-LSA
3Dreaming
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Re: Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Post by 3Dreaming »

MrMorden wrote:
3Dreaming wrote:
Andy, you are right in that is what the maintenance manual says, even the parts catalog says the same thing. The thing to remember is the MM and PC for the CTLS was largely copied from the CTSW, instead of a complete rewrite. There are quite a number of inaccuracies. Having changed nose tires on both the CTSW and CTLS I can assure you that the CTLS uses a 6" wheel with a 6.00x4 tire. Here is a good article explaining the changes between the CTSW and CTLS.
https://flightdesign.com/files/Ed%20Dow ... S-0508.pdf
The information in that article is a bit suspect. It's an article in EAA Sport Pilot, and is not an official FD document. I think the line you are referring to is: "The nose wheel is now the same size as the 6.00-4 main gear". Except the mains on the CT have *never* been 6.00-4. They have been 4.00-6 for standard gear and 6.00-6 for Tundra gear. So far I have not found any reliable, official source that states that the CTLS standard nose wheel is larger than than that on the CTSW.

Maybe somebody with a non-tundra gear CTLS could chime in with their nose wheel tire size? It might be hard to find one since most CTLS (and CTSW for that matter) came with tundra gear.
I kind of thought I was a reliable source, having been a Flight Design dealer, flight training center, and service center since 2007.
I don't think most have come with tundra gear. My CTLS does not have tundra gear, but it does have the 6" nose wheel. Both of the CTSW's I owned had the standard gear. I have worked on more than a dozen different CT's, and none of them had tundra gear. I don't know if you will consider this a reliable source or not, but check out Coppercity's first post in this thread. http://ctflier.com/topic/1988-tire-options-for-ctls/
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WDD
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Re: Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Post by WDD »

So...

The CTSW is lighter than the current CTLS, and a lot lighter than CTLSi?

Odd that an improvement would see a decrease in capacity. That could easily be 5 gallons of gas, or an extra hour reserve.

The rear quarter windows are a nice touch I would guess.

Can the / does the CTSW have the "reverse flap" that the CTLS has, to decrease drag?

From reading all the threads, looks like the CT is the most popular LSA out there. Curious as to why - good useful load? Availability? Good marketing? It does look like a great plane.
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MrMorden
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Re: Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Post by MrMorden »

3Dreaming wrote: I kind of thought I was a reliable source, having been a Flight Design dealer, flight training center, and service center since 2007.
I don't think most have come with tundra gear. My CTLS does not have tundra gear, but it does have the 6" nose wheel. Both of the CTSW's I owned had the standard gear. I have worked on more than a dozen different CT's, and none of them had tundra gear. I don't know if you will consider this a reliable source or not, but check out Coppercity's first post in this thread. http://ctflier.com/topic/1988-tire-options-for-ctls/
I would have trusted the source if he hadn't made an obvious error in tire size in the article. That's what makes the info suspect.

If you had a CTLS with standard gear and it has a 4.00x6 nosewheel from the factory, that's good enough for me. I just never heard anything about a larger nose wheel on a CTLS and I couldn't verify it through Google. What I know about CTLS primarily comes from reading, I have a lot more CTSW hands-on. If you have one with non-tundra gear and say that's how it is, I'm not about to call you a liar! :)

CASE CLOSED. :mrgreen:
Andy Walker
Athens, GA
Sport Pilot ASEL, LSRI
2007 Flight Design CTSW E-LSA
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Warmi
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Re: Dynon founder is manufacturing a Light Sport Aircraft

Post by Warmi »

WDD wrote:So...

The CTSW is lighter than the current CTLS, and a lot lighter than CTLSi?

Odd that an improvement would see a decrease in capacity. That could easily be 5 gallons of gas, or an extra hour reserve.

The rear quarter windows are a nice touch I would guess.

Can the / does the CTSW have the "reverse flap" that the CTLS has, to decrease drag?

From reading all the threads, looks like the CT is the most popular LSA out there. Curious as to why - good useful load? Availability? Good marketing? It does look like a great plane.
As with every product , it is hard to pinpoint the exact reason - it is some kind of combination of very decent specs ( speed, useful load etc), reasonable looks ( although I keep hearing people referring to CTs as Eggs with wings ) , reasonable aftermarket support and a bit of luck.
Flying Sting S4 ( N184WA ) out of Illinois
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