----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----I have to take exception to the statement that Cessna's LSA entry is a sign that American made LSAs are coming. It turns out the Cessna plane is made in the Czech Republic and is powered by a Rotax engine made in Austria. So much for an American made LSA!
The only true American LSAs are the Zeniths and the Cub wannabes.
Larry
N99340
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Ed Burkhead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Date: August 10, 2006 11:24:13 AM CDTTo: "'Fred Lamkey'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Cc: "Cflyin" <[email protected]>Subject: [COUPERS-FLYIN] LSA gross weightsReply-To: "Ed Burkhead" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----Fred,You may be right that the FAA won't up the gross weight for LSA. And,you're right that we've been begging for an upgrade in the ultralight weightlimit for 25 years. And the FAA has certainly rejected any increase in thepart 103 weight limit and they've rejected an increase again, recently.There's pressure for them to up the LSA gross weight limit. 10,000 FBO/CFIoperations have Cessna 150 or 152 trainers they'd like to use for sport butcan't. Since the number of Sport Pilots is barely 342 after almost twoyears, the FAA is getting abuse for having created a failure.(Though the FAA may well feel like SP is a total success because it'sbringing the BFI program to an end.)But the second part of SP is to revitalize the production of aircraft. Sofar, it's partly a failure since almost all the SLSA aircraft are foreignmade. But it's getting started here as exemplified by Cessna showing aproof of concept SLSA aircraft at Airventure.If the LSA rules revitalize aircraft production, then there's pressure forthe FAA to not change the gross weight in a way that would include all thoseused C-150/152s that can't provide any manufacturing jobs.You mention that the weights chosen for the various new rules seem odd.But, the weights do make sense. Even though America did a Luddite, dumbthing 30 years ago by not adopting the metric system, we have (sort of)adopted the metric system. The regulations are written with metric andantique-British units. The weights were chosen metrically.115 kg ~= 254 lb. or exactly 253.53 lb.600 kg ~= 1330 lb. or exactly 1322.77 lb.650 kg ~= 1430 lb. or exactly 1433.00 lb.Since the rules explicitly include the metric measurements, you can make useof the extra couple or three pounds if you need to.Ed Burkheaded -at- edburkhead???.com (change -at- to @ and remove "???")==============================================================================To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm
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