What Say The "Old Guys" About New Regs?
By ANN Correspondent John Ballantyne
FAA produced a new airworthiness mechanism named Light-Sport
Aircraft partly to resolve the perpetually issued exemptions for
flight of two-seat ultralights. Also targeted for resolution was
the existence of "fat" single-seaters and the inability for
American pilots to fly two-seat trikes and powered parachutes for
fun and recreation.
But how has the new rule, now just one year old, performed for
long-time manufacturers who have survived, occasionally thrived, in
past decades before FAA changed the regulatory environment? And how
do these veterans of regulatory shifts and twists see the
future?
To find this out, ANN interviewed three manufacturers, one from
each aircraft category: airplane (three-axis control), powered
parachute, and trike (weight-shift control).
Airplane (Three-axis LSA)
The following words paraphrase an interview with: Todd Ellefson
of Quicksilver Manufacturing, Inc.
Quicksilver had as good a month for sales as we have ever done
as people seem to be content to keep on going as were going. There
is some talk of how Quicksilver might use Light-sport Aircraft
rules, so there are three ways Quicksilver could go. They
could:
-Revive the Primary Category certification for our planes that
Quicksilver gained from FAA many years ago;
-Quicksilver could wait for ROTAX to get their letter of
compliance with the LSA consensus standard for two-cycle engines
which would allow Quicksilver to sell Special LSA (turn-key from
the factory); or third,
-Quicksilver could redesign for ROTAX 912 four-cycle engines
(already stated compliance with consensus standard), which would be
a longer road.
Ellefson concluded that, for now, Quicksilver is just observing
the trends and will probably do a strut-braced Sprint
(single-surface wing with ROTAX 503 or 532) for floats and hang
glider towing.
Powered parachute
The following words paraphrase an interview with: Ralph Howard
of Buckeye Aviation, Inc.
What we have noticed is that since FAA released sport pilot we
have had a tremendous number of folks who want to buy, but have
become confused and are waiting on the fence to see what happens.
So, in some ways, the new regulatory environment has hurt
sales.
The other problem is in the many rumors about the details of the
new rules. For example, having to pay $400 - $500 per year for an
annual inspection. There are other examples of rising costs
associated with LSA certification, too. Procrastinating customers
may think, "Hey, this may not be what I want to do." And Buckeye
feels a lot the same - it is not clear exactly what Buckeye will
do.
About 6 years ago Buckeye went through the major effort of the
FAA certification process. Howard reports that Buckeye spent in
excess of $125-150 thousand dollars on that project. No
certification was granted.
Instead FAA said that they wanted to hold-off until the
upcoming rule came out, which we now know as Light-sport aircraft.
Howard said it still was a valuable education and that the product
produced today is improved because of it. This experience has made
Buckeye somewhat apprehensive about doing it all again. So Buckeye
is carefully observing and will do whatever they have to do in the
future.
Trikes (Weight-shift Control)
The following words paraphrase an interview with: John Kemmeries
of Air Creation USA
Kemmeries said that the highly anticipated influx of SUV-level
customers for Light-sport Aircraft better hurry up and happen.
There is little crossover activity from Ultralighters into sport
pilot, so far. He hopes all the publicized expectations for growth
become real.
He said that the leather chairs at long tables in Washington
don't have to worry about "sink or swim" of the light end of
recreational flying. Not, at least personally. It is the flight
instructor and manufacturer who is neither cheer leader nor fear
monger, but simply knows that when bills are due at month-end, that
there must be some real inflow of students and aircraft purchasers
to keep this area of action vibrant.
Kemmeries noted that the new regulations originated from FAA in
Washington, DC. However, he said, FAA is made up of layer upon
layer of bureaucracy, from the individual field inspector to the
FSDO and MIDO to the regional level and finally up to national. Not
all from within FAA are onboard. They all say they are overworked,
and some of them seem to not want to help much.
Kemmeries reiterated that he hoped the promise of a flood of
aviation growth becomes real -- real soon.
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