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Diesel Maule: Alternative Energy For The Boondocks
One of America’s oldest, and too often forgotten, aircraft manufacturers introduces its answer to the ever-tightening supply of avgasI don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine a world without avgas....
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The "New" Old Centurion
Now out of production for 20 years, Cessna’s top piston single offers good range, excellent stability and reasonable, six-seat comfort for pilots with a yen for a high-wing speedster The step-up market...
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Kappa KP-5: LSA With A Difference
The Czech Republic continues to offer some of the most comfortable and capable LSAs in the industry Most of us who came to LSAs from the fully certified Part 23 side of the industry were initially a...
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Aerostar 702: Still The Fastest
Forty years after its introduction, the Aerostar remains the world’s fastest, general aviation piston airplane—period There’s something almost magical about staring out at your own reflection in the...
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Micco SP26A: Capable Aerobat
This is that rare machine: a fun gentleman’s aerobat capable of cross-country travel or a Saturday-afternoon hamburger flightTwo-seaters have a special place in general aviation. The most common...
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TL-Ultralight: Sting Sport TL-2000
Yet another Czech Republic LSA is showing the world how to build a true economy machineIt seems the Czech Republic is one of the world’s centers for LSA manufacturing these days. A multitude of...
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Cirrus SR22-G3: Brazil Or Bust!
After our first flight in the newest Cirrus over San Francisco, we couldn’t wait to fly one all the way to BrazilWow, now that’s a lot of trees. I’m 9,500 feet over the Amazon rain forest, and the only...
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SIAI-Marchetti SF.260: Bellisimo In Tre Dimensioni
Yeah, it’s Italian, and if you’re thinking “flying Ferrari or Lamborghini,” you’re ABSOLUTELY rightJust as I’m about to squeeze the trigger, the airplane ahead jinks into a tight, descending right...
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Gosh, It’s A Gobosh
With a name derived from the phrase, “Go big or stay home,” the Polish Gobosh is an LSA with attitudeIf there was ever any question regarding the viability of the LSA market, Cirrus and Cessna pretty...
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Seneca V: Little Big Twin
When most twins disappeared in the ‘80s, the Piper Seneca soldiered on. Twenty years later, it’s one of only five multis still in production.At the risk of compromising my alleged objectivity, I have...
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Cessna 195: Getting Down To Business
Cessna’s postwar, art-deco Businessliner neither outsold nor outran the model 35 Bonanza, but it outclassed practically every other lightplane in the skyThere’s no precise way to define taste, but it...
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Twin Commander 1000: The Ultimate Turbine Commander
The 1000 is the apex of the ultraluxurious Twin Commander line of corporate turbopropsTed Smith’s airplanes were nothing if not impressive. His final design, the innovative, midwing Aerostar 600, was...
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Cessna Skyhawk: Four-Seat Trainer?
When does it make sense to train in a $220,000, four-seater when you could use a $140,000, two-place model instead?I have a friend who recently began flight training in a Skyhawk. Pete is one of those...
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Ciao, Avanti
Fast-forward in the Piaggio P.180 Avanti IICleveland Center, ciao! Avanti 180PA checking in, flight level 280.”It’s almost too easy to call the Italian Avanti II the Ferrari of the skies, and from the...
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The Zenith Of LSAs
Zenith Aircraft of Mexico, Mo., builds durable, all-metal, light-sport aircraft with an emphasis on funIn some respects, Steve Smith is exactly the kind of pilot for whom LSAs were designed. Smith is a...
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Piper Matrix: The Pressure Is Off
Piper unveils its take on a turbocharged, four-place single—with two extra seatsMarathon Key gleams in the late-afternoon sunshine. It’s like an emerald in Florida’s highway of island pearls, which dot...
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Flying Into The Future
Behind the Bonanza’s anniversary makeoverBaby boomers can appreciate the urge to have a little work done as a milestone birthday approaches: tone up the body, smooth out a few wrinkles, all to reflect...
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2008 Cirrus SR20-G3: Don’t Call It A Comeback
The SR20 has been here for years, and now steps out from the shadow of the SR22Most pilots equate progress in flying with stepping up to bigger, faster and more powerful airplanes. When I earned my...
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Resurrecting A Dream
A restored Staggerwing fulfills a father’s wishBill Morrison, a pilot with now-defunct Western Airlines, was perusing the classified ads in the Los Angeles Times, back in 1974, when he erupted in a...
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Air Elite Storm Rally
This LSA is adapted from a European model that has been flying for years in Europe as both a four-seater and an aerobatic sportplaneAnyone who has followed the development of the LSA market in the...
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