Sport Pilot Talk

How about that ...
http://www.cruiseraircrafteu.com/en/new ... ser-family

If I am reading it right , there will be a 4 seater, certified sport cruiser version with 200 HP engine , IFR certified ...

Warmi wrote:How about that ... If I am reading it right , there will be a 4 seater, certified sport cruiser version with 200 HP engine , IFR certified ...

Good luck on trying to obtain any LOA's.
That company is a mess.
Lots of marketing . . . no support.

Warmi wrote:How about that ...
http://www.cruiseraircrafteu.com/en/new ... ser-family

If I am reading it right , there will be a 4 seater, certified sport cruiser version with 200 HP engine , IFR certified ...

Last I heard at a trade show across the pond it's still just a prototype. They are "testing the waters" so to speak. They tried this a few years back with a tail dragger and some other plane that to me looked like a toy, neither one made it into production.

I own a SportCruiser, E-LSA now of course for the same reasons Wm.Ince pointed out, ZERO support. I couldn't agree more with his post.

Who knows ... it may end up being another Flight Design 4 seater type of vaporware or may turn out to be quite real ...

ShawnM wrote:. . . I own a SportCruiser, E-LSA now of course . . .

Smart move on your part, Shawn.
If I owned one, I would have done the same thing.
That withstanding, the SportCruiser is still a sharp looking airplane.

Pretty little thing, if it ever comes to fruition.

The cruise speed - 149 kts - seems a little slow for such a sleek plane with a Lycoming 540. I wonder why that is. A Cirrus SR20 does a bit better than that - 155 kts - with a much smaller engine, a Continental 360. An SR22 with a similarly-sized Continental IO550 easily does 170 kts plus.

I’m honestly shocked they didn’t utilize and build this airplane around the 915 iS. Seems like the perfect engine for this airplane given the weights as they are similar to the Sling 4.

I read another article that said they also intend on expanding into a twin engine aircraft also. Really?

It also said that "performance has yet to be proven" on the Quattro Cruiser so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Meaning it hasn't flown yet. And it'll be released here in the US as a 4 seat "experimental" with a price tag of $400,000. Again, really?

I can buy TWO gently used Cirrus for that much money and I dont have to spend 3 years building either one.

Oh, and as Eddie pointed out, go faster in the Cirrus.

If Czech Sport Aircraft would FOCUS on the SportCruiser and it's CUSTOMERS they really could be a dominant player in the LSA market. They have consistently been in the top 3 manufacturers of light sport market share for as long as Dan Johnson has been doing his survey. Flight Design and CubCrafters are the other two big players. Cessna is in there but out of the LSA business anyway. Sorry Cessna.

CSA keeps putting bandaids on issues that pop up instead of actually listening to its customers and really taking care of the issues. The complete lack of support for its customers also steers people in other directions and into converting to E-LSA. They dont listen to customers, they dont allow ANY changes (LOA or MRA) and they won't address the current issues, instead they push it to the back burner and design a 4 seat aircraft.

I LOVE my airplane, the SportCruiser is beautiful in many ways, I just HATE the company. Is that obvious?

jetcat3 wrote:I’m honestly shocked they didn’t utilize and build this airplane around the 915 iS. Seems like the perfect engine for this airplane given the weights as they are similar to the Sling 4.

915iS is 135hp. The IO-540 they are using is 350hp. The lowest powered engine they are using is 200hp. The 915iS is not even in the same galaxy for what they are trying to do.

ShawnM wrote:
I can buy TWO gently used Cirrus for that much money and I dont have to spend 3 years building either one.

I take your point, but it's not really fair to compare a new airplane with a used one, given how much they depreciate in the short term. A new Cirrus SR22 is easily $550-700k. So you could say you are "saving" $150-300k by building...

It's cool if you think the airplane is a turd, just trying to keep you honest on the apples v apples.

To be frank, all of the low wings I have tried , SportCruiser was my least favorite ... it does look very cool from outside but just didn't feel right - very subjective I know and I only can claim 30 minutes flight time but I preferred Evektor , Sting and best of them all , Sling 2.

Warmi wrote:To be frank, all of the low wings I have tried , SportCruiser was my least favorite ... it does look very cool from outside but just didn't feel right - very subjective I know . I preferred Evektor , Sting and best of them all , Sling 2.

I did not love my one checkout flight in a SportCruiser. It was super light on controls and very "floaty" on landing. But I'm sure once you get used to it it's fine. A lot of "liking" a particular airplane comes down to what you're used to I think.

MrMorden wrote:I take your point, but it's not really fair to compare a new airplane with a used one, given how much they depreciate in the short term. A new Cirrus SR22 is easily $550-700k. So you could say you are "saving" $150-300k by building...

Are you really saving $150-300K? Are you telling us your time is worth nothing?

MrMorden wrote:

Warmi wrote:To be frank, all of the low wings I have tried , SportCruiser was my least favorite ... it does look very cool from outside but just didn't feel right - very subjective I know . I preferred Evektor , Sting and best of them all , Sling 2.

I did not love my one checkout flight in a SportCruiser. It was super light on controls and very "floaty" on landing. But I'm sure once you get used to it it's fine. A lot of "liking" a particular airplane comes down to what you're used to I think.

Yeah ,I am sure I would get used to it as well ... there is got to be a good reason why SportCruisers are so popular ...

And I agree that our preferences come down to what we are used to. I only have time in a Remos and my SportCruiser. I love how responsive it is and early on I did have some floating issues during landing but those go away with time. After a couple hours I was completely comfortable in the plane.

My instructor had an Evektor but I never flew it. I was able to train in my own SportCruiser.

30 minutes in a SportCruiser? Does that really count? Was that one trip around the pattern? I wouldn't say you actually "flew" a SportCruiser then. Just sayin'

The Sling 2 is a nice looking plane, looks a lot like the SportCruiser, but I've never flown one.

If my pockets had no bottom or weren't just filled with lint I really love the new Tecnam P2002 Sierra MkII. Never flown on though.