Europe's AERO in Full Swing

Aero Friedrichshafen, Europe's big annual GA convention, has more than 600 exhibitors showing their wares and innovations right now through tomorrow. 
Sub-titled The Global Show for General Aviation, if you want to see what's happening and what's coming down the pike, you'll not find a more intensely focused representation than at Aero.
The show spreads displays from many big names and newcomers alike, up through bizjets, across its 14 big hangar-style display areas. 
I like this show, although lamentably I've yet to go, because it never fails to draw cool new stuff, in particular Microlight/LSA developments and electric and solar powered birds.  Thousands of visitors flock to the "e-flight Expo" at Aero, in its third year as part of the show.
Two big events will highlight the show this year: the Berblinger Flight Competition and the awarding of three LEAP prizes from Erik Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy's grandson).
The Berblinger event involves 36 teams, most of them from Germany (23), although none from the U.S., and two parts: a technical award (and €100,000 prize) to be awarded today at Aero; and a flight competition later this year in the city of Ulm in which teams fly a specific course while being judged by several environmentally significant parameters including noise level, energy use and overall performance.
The Lindbergh LEAP prize will award the most notable electric advance, best electric design, and best electric systems and technology, similar to its Oshkosh 2010 awards.

And now for Something Completely Different: Flynano, a kind of...well, stay with me here.  Look at the pic.  Now, do you agree with me that it looks like a personal flying watercycle?
This no-cargo, one-person, fun-flying, joined-biplane ultralight will take off and land in the drink.  Wow!  What a hoot this thing could be...or a complete boondoggle.
Call it Icon-Light:
[] Empty weight (it's mostly carbon fiber-built) will be under 155 lbs.,
[] gross weight 485 lbs.,
[] wingspan 15.7 ft., nose to tail 12.4 ft., height 5 ft.,
[] cruise 87 mph, landing speed 43 mph, nearly 600 fpm climb rate,
[] 18,000 foot ceiling, and a range of 21 miles.
Power comes from a pylon-mounted 20kW electric motor (24hp and 35hp gas motors also available. 
Deliveries projected for summer of this year.  Prices range from € 25,000 to €27,000, around $40,000 USD.
I'll be watching to see how this takes off in Europe, where you don't need a license to fly because of its weight.
Could this be the market-killer fun-flying jetski concept that Icon's much-ballyhooed amphib, still in development after three years, has yet to deliver to the market?  (Latest delivery projection from Icon: late this year)
If Flynano does what it claims, even though it only carries one pilot, heck, people could buy four for the same price as one Icon and have money left for gas...a lot of gas.
And in the U.S., it would qualify as an ultralight -- no sport pilot license needed as with the Icon, since it's well under Part 103's max 254 lb. ceiling -- except for a couple things old friend Michael Bradford pointed out that I'd, ahem, kinda forgotten about: ultralights have a top legal speed of 55 knots and must stall under 24 knots.  Used to know that.  So Flynano, and this is of course a good thing, just sayin', would require a Sport Pilot License.
Of course, these are two decidedly different aircraft...but Icon's stated mission -- to create a fun-flying, easily portable flying water craft -- well, that's kinda the same.
Stay tuned on this one.  I want to see one of these puppies fly.
Tomorrow, I'll have a report on the Elektra One electric monoplane I blogged about a few weeks ago: it's at Aero also.

Electric Motorglider For Sale

Catching up on some particulars with Randall Fishman of ElectraFlyer after our chat at Sun n Fun, he told me he's selling his prototype C model for $49,000.
Here's what he had to say about it and other aspects of his electric powered aircraft pioneering efforts:
"We have sold trikes since 2007. Most of our sales are propulsion kits, batteries and chargers for people either building something new or converting to electric."

ElectraFlyer C

 "The first two of the new motors are in my shop now and we will be mounting them for testing."
"The C is a one off conversion of a plane I already owned (a Moni kit motorglider).  I want to sell it now to help finance the new projects. It is really the first successful electric airplane other than some exotic million dollar science projects such as the solar planes.  Hope there is a collector out there."
"The ElectraFlyer X is running now. Have to button up all the details and get the airworthiness cert. Had made arrangements to bring it to Sun 'n Fun but the weather and field conditions prevented this. Lucky for me, probably saved the plane."
"The original ElectraFlyer trike...(is) I believe...the very first successful electric aircraft of any kind that can be bought, stored and flown by a regular guy. Had its first flight of  over one hour May of 2007. Shortly after that I had flights of 1.5 hours in calm air and then 2 hour+ flights in Ellenville (renowned NY hang gliding site) with the help of lift."

 So now of course, I'm thinking of getting an electric trike conversion for my Wills Wing Sport 2 hang glider, as my bod doesn't tolerate the strain of flying prone very well any more.

LSA Tour #2 Is Underway

Hard on the heels of their prototype LSA Tour after Sebring last January and the recent Sun 'n Fun 2011 in Lakeland, Florida, the 2011 Georgia LSA Tour gang is at it again.
Three makes of Cubalikes alone will be there, as well as the other LSA you see in the mailer above.
This time they're swinging north from the Sunshine State to bring The Word to several Southern airports.  
Here's a great way to avoid the airshow crowds and have some meaningful one-on-one with top industry reps.

Specifics below: be sure and call in case of changes due to weather.

Respect for Opponents and the Postgame Handshake

I've been thinking some lately about the practice of shaking an opponent's hand after a game, and wondering whether--as Randolph Feezell and Craig Clifford put it in Sport and Character--"...at the end of the game, should we always, without exception, attempt to shake the hands of our opponents (p. 36)?"

My intuition is to say that there can be morally justified exceptions to this practice. For example, as a player I would think it would be justified to refrain from this practice if an opponent has clearly intentionally injured one of my teammates. Or if an opponent consistently displays deep disrespect for the game, officials, and her opponents, is there something disingenuous about shaking her hand after the game?

Or take a case that is less clear, but one that I've been thinking about lately for personal reasons. As a coach in youth sports, am I obligated to shake the hand of my opposing coach if he or she spends the entire game berating their own players, criticizing the referee, and engaging in other patters of disrespectful behavior?

The bottom line question is this:  Is the respect that is communicated via the postgame handshake dependent in some sense on how an opponent conducts themselves, such that there are times when it is appropriate to refrain from this tradition? Thoughts, anyone?

Let There Be Light

After the disastrous tornadic storm that blew through the area last Thursday, Lakeland was blessed with warm, then hot, picture book Florida weather and good crowds, right up through final day Sunday, as the fabulous Blue Angels, a stunning demo by the Air Force F22 Raptor, Patty Wagstaff's always-incredible acro routine, and the Aeroshell T-6 squadron doing its thing: always great to see those (noisy but iconic) big old WWII trainers do such graceful, precision loops and rolls in formation through the sky, leaving billows of white smoke to mark their path.

The One, The Only, The Blue: 100 Years of Naval Aviation

Garmin's new touchscreen GPS

I was a bit under the weather last night so no blog...knew I shouldn't have eaten that chicken...but back at it today to fly with Bill Cox as he previewed Garmin's exciting new GTN touch screen technology.
Then pounding the sneaker rubber to finish up the rounds of the five exhibit hangars and survey new products and gadgets.  I even bought myself some oil-filled insoles to calm my throbbing tootsies...one ends up walking miles and miles at these airshows, unless you can pop $60/day or more to rent a small personal electric cart.
And riding around in those little carts invites derogatory digs from friends, so maybe it's better just to suffer.  Manly honor and all that.
Caught up with Randall Fishman to divine the latest on his ElectraFlyer X two-seat LSA, which didn't make it to the show (and a good thing since the tent it would have been in was destroyed by the wind storm).
We swapped old hang gliding and ultralight stories - like me, he flew several Seagull gliders back in the day - and I met his very first customer, an 87 year old pilot, still current, who bought his first prototype electric trike...which Randall told me now gets up to 1.5 hours of endurance with a 70 lb. battery pack.  I had made a slip in an article I wrote a couple years ago saying the trike had "limited" endurance so let me correct that mistake now, and sorry Randall.

Randall Fishman's ElectraFlyer C

I'll be working on an electric aviation article after Aero finishes in Europe next week.  Exciting developments in the electric aviation field to be sure, so stay tuned.
I also met lots of good people who introduced me to their aviation products.  Photos and links of a few below for you to explore.
I'll have more details in the Sun 'n Fun roundup article I'm doing for the mag.

Kannad's XS4 Personal Locator Beacon

Dave Gustafson models the new Lightspeed Zulu headset

All told, it felt like a three-day show.  My late arrival in the Dakota Cub Super 18 due to weather, the storm, 69 (at last count) damaged airplanes and the cancelled show day made for lots of running around playing catchup.
Some disappointing sales results for several LSA companies, not to mention folks like Lockwood Aviation which lost four display aircraft and Aviat's extensive Huskie losses, put a bit of a damper on the hopes of vendors. I'll survey more companies soon for the overall picture.
Now, assuming the weather doesn't have different ideas, it's about time we had some decent spring and summer flying.
On to Oshkosh.
And Sun 'n Fun 2011 be done: Long Live Sun 'n Fun!

Trail Of Tears

I was just leaving So. Lakeland AirPark (X49) today, bemoaning the lack of activity down there -- LSA dealers used to bring their aircraft down there for demos but not many people seem to do that the last couple years, and I don't know why.
That's a shame because it's a long grass strip with a wonderful country ambience...a great place to try out an LSA without the hussle and bustle of the airshow a few miles north.
Departing the field, I came across the Dakota Cub folks.  They were finishing the unhappy task of bringing the wreckage (fuselage on one trailer, wings on another) to a hangar at X49 until they could get a determination from the insurance people as to whether to rebuild it or write it off as salvage.

Back at the airshow later, I talked with Amy Gersch and Speedy Richardson, my companions on the interminably long (weather-delayed) trip out to the show all last week.  They were both understandably blue about the loss of the airplane Speedy had flown down, and the damage to Amy's favorite "Little Airplane" as she affectionately, and constantly, calls it. 
She talks to it like it was her personal teddy bear...and Speedy reportedly had a few tears himself when the 180 he flew was trashed.

But nothing holds these folks down for long.  As we watched the opening of the airshow, they both spoke of the Cub enclave at New Holstein, where I hope to meet up with them during Oshkosh this year.

Komet Acrobatic SLSA Biplane Wows Crowds

Jon Hansen and twin brother Ron, and sons Mike and Mitch and probably some other Hansens I missed, all of Hansen Air Group (must be why they call it a "Group") were besieged by excited showgoers eager to learn more about the new FK12 Komet.

 It's made by the same German company that has produced so many fine microlight and LSA aircraft, including the FK 9 Mk IV and ELA, and should satisfy that niche of sport pilots eager to fly acro, since there are few such light sport birds out there.
You can get more details on the German site, but here's a quick taste of what you can expect flying this acrobatic SLSA from Jon Hansen and son Mike.