Sport Pilot Talk

newamiga wrote:BTW hope to meet you in person this year Paul.

That would be really great, Carl. Best thing is to check the forum schedule, come to one of my Wings safety seminars (I am doing five of them), and be sure to come up and introduce yourself.

Same invitation goes for all my other friends on this site.

drseti wrote: Friday I will do two sessions of "If You Can Drive, You Can Fly" (an intro to LSA and Sport Pilot, primarily for non-pilots), one in the AM, one PM. preregistration is not required. Hope to see some of you at one or more of those seminars (all to be held in the t-hangar marked "Forum Area 2").

This sounds right up my alley-hope to meet you Friday night.

by the way-anyone flying into Seabring from orlando?-would love to hitch a ride...

Our plans have firmed up...

I have a friend who lives on an airport in Lake Placid, not far away.

The plan is for me to fly down a day before, with Karen driving down in the Element. Then flying in to the Expo the following day for at least one day there.

Then probably visit some friends we know in FL, ultimately leaving Karen in Tampa to stay for a few days with a friend, with me flying home and her driving home.

All terribly weather dependent, of course - if we can't fly we'll just make the whole thing a road trip.

Nice to have options!

I will also be giving a few forum presentations for Tecnam North America along with working the display. Hoping to meet a few of you in person.
Looks like Paul and I had the same thinking as both of us came up with the same topic "moving up to LSA". I hear so many people say they may have to step down to an LSA when talking to potential customers. I totally dissagree with this thinking and thats why I titled my discussion "moving UP to LSA".
For those who regularly fly with only one or two it is the way to go. I sold the 182 this year because the only time i flew it was when i took more than two and that was not very often. The tecnam was much more enjoyable to fly and used 75 percent less fuel. I just could not enjoy flying the 182 when I knew a couple hour flight was going to burn olmost $200 worth of fuel. It was just too hard to justify. Same trip in the tecnam would cost me $30-$40.

I will also be giving a talk on designing a good avionics package for your panel. My third presentation will be on Tecnam Aircraft.
Please introduce yourself if you can come. Would love to meet some of you.

Jake

This will be my first LSA expo-you can say I am a certified newbie--what sort of things can I expect-seminars, learning workshops, merchandise, ect. Is there any remote possibility of getting a chance to take a ride?

As to the newbie questions.. I really enjoy Sebring. Last couple years I have gone to Sebring, Sun N Fun and Oshkosh and I really enjoy Sebring. It sort of reminds me of going to the old Macworld Expo, everything there is for you. A show focused on sport aviation with mostly light sports there. At the other shows LSA's are just a small part of a large show. As a sport pilot I really enjoy seeing the diversity of LSA's out there. Sebring is smaller so you can actually get a chance to check out, sit in and even test fly the various aircraft. A lot of the vendors there do demo flights at various points through the day. I like the forums too as they are a bit more intimate than those at the other shows. All of the volunteers at the show are just great too. You will really enjoy yourself. If you are flying in to the show it is fun too.

Carl

jake wrote:I will also be giving a few forum presentations for Tecnam North America along with working the display. Hoping to meet a few of you in person.
Looks like Paul and I had the same thinking as both of us came up with the same topic "moving up to LSA". I hear so many people say they may have to step down to an LSA when talking to potential customers. I totally dissagree with this thinking and thats why I titled my discussion "moving UP to LSA".
For those who regularly fly with only one or two it is the way to go. I sold the 182 this year because the only time i flew it was when i took more than two and that was not very often. The tecnam was much more enjoyable to fly and used 75 percent less fuel. I just could not enjoy flying the 182 when I knew a couple hour flight was going to burn olmost $200 worth of fuel. It was just too hard to justify. Same trip in the tecnam would cost me $30-$40.

I will also be giving a talk on designing a good avionics package for your panel. My third presentation will be on Tecnam Aircraft.
Please introduce yourself if you can come. Would love to meet some of you.

Jake

Jake - Let me know if there is any thing that I can do to help with the Avionics packages forum. At this point, there isn't much our there in the LSA/Experimental side of Avionics that I have not installed and networked. Coming from the technical side of designing aircraft electrical systems and being that 100% of my work involves custom one off packages, I feel it is important that the end user understands the capabilities of their systems and trained properly in order to efficiently and effectively operate the systems.

Happy Holidays everybody.

I am contemplating attending Sebring this year, have not attended in prior years. Is anyone else from this prestigious group planning on attending? I have made a tentative reservation for a hotel in Winter Haven as it looks like it is halfway between Orlando and Sebring. My primary interest in attending is to look over the S-LSA model of the RV12, any thoughts on the best approach to ensure qualifty time with the Vans sales team and how to get a demo ride?

Would welcome any thoughts on Sebring in general and the value of this particular event.

Thank you all in advance.

We have another active thread on the 2013 Sport Aviation Expo. I will consolidate the two.

May want to check with Vans for sure but I do not believe any of the RV12 SLSA have been produced.

Jake

c162:

Vans has an East Coast rep (and 'multiple offender', as they call someone who's built more than one Vans model) in Mitch Locke. A really nice fellow and straight shooter who tries to demo the RV12 each year at Sebring, weather permitting. Viewing 'his' RV12 - the one he built and I believe owns outright - should be the same as viewing one of Van's sub-contracted S-LSA RV12's. The reason for this is that Mitch's E-LSA RV12 ends up being the 'proof of concept' RV12 every time that upgrades are designed and build instructions for the existing RV12 fleet are issued by Vans. Those instructions and the parts kits for the upgrade are sent to Mitch, who then proofs the instructions and 'bits in the kits' by 'rebuilding' his RV12 to the new standard. The integration last year of the new Dynon Skyview to the RV12 panel - along with a number of other changes - was a huge test of this process and took much longer than expected. But in the end, Vans had reliable retrofit instructions they could issue, they validated the retro upgrade parts kits, and Mitch had an RV12 that sported the new panel (plus some other tweaks) that the latest RV12 kit (and so, presumably, the subcontracted S-LSA RV12's) have.

In the past, Mitch would make reservations for test flights at the beginning of each day of the show, and this makes sense since he's had some weather challenges in the past that make attendance during the entire show a bit of a challenge. You can check with him to see if he plans to attend this year and how he will handle demo flights: [email protected]

Hey Doc,
Look's like the weather will be a challenge again this year getting to Sebring. Good Luck and have fun.

Well, gang, I'm at the airport now, awaiting my (commercial) flight to FL on a typical IFT PA winter day. Sure will be nice to get to Expo and warm up!

I see that the forum schedule posted to the Expo website has eliminated my previously scheduled Friday and Saturday afternoon seminars. If any of you signed up for those PM sessions on FAASafety.gov, I hope you can come to the 9AM sessions instead.

Anyone wanting to meet up for dinner Friday or Saturday night, drop me an email and we'll coordinate.

Safe skies,
Paul

Sorry guys...

...Karen and I are canceling.

After that LOOOONG trip to Page and back, we're still pretty much in "home in" mode. Weather has been problematical as well.

Maybe Sun 'n' Fun, or Sebring next year.

Have fun in our stead!

We'll miss you, Eddie - but I do understand.