Let's face one fact - the vast majority of private pilots have never been able to afford a new airplane of any type. Most of us are renters, and those who do own airplanes typically buy used aircraft. It's always been that way.
Even now, some of the "new" LSAs are starting to show up on the used market, at prices in the $80K neighborhood, far off of the $120K+ they sold for new. The LSA market has been slow to develop for a few reasons: 1. The lousy economy for the past 2 years; 2. Pilots who are unfamiliar with Rotax engines, and who have an unfounded bias against them. Heck, even BMW motorcycles now use Rotax made engines. While they are different from your 60 year old Continental C-85, they are decent engines. Unless something has happened in the past few months to change this statement - we still haven't seen a catastrophic in flight failure of a 4 cycle Rotax in the U.S. The old 2 cycle ones were awful, but the 912 is a very reliable engine, and it makes 100 hp while burning under 5 gph. Yes, some of the European manufacturers will fold their tents, but if Cessna gets the Skycatcher sorted out, it and a few others like CT Design, Remos and Tecnam will be around for a long time. Jerry E. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]on Behalf Of James B. Brennan Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 11:35 AM To: Jerry Eichenberger Cc: Bill BIGGS; [email protected] Subject: Re: SPAM-LOW: [ercoupe-tech] legal LSA we wouldn't see any of the new and exciting airplanes now being sold, and others now being developed. Never mind the $100,000 price tags these new and exciting planes seem to sport. (kind of takes the "sport" out of it for me and "Joe The Plumber") JBBrennan
