So-called light sport aircraft (LSAs) are gaining in popularity and while much of this increase could be attributed to the current state of the economy and the costs associated with learning how to fly and maintain an aircraft, LSA have always had their admirers – even among non-LSA pilots.
These non-LSA pilots include Steve Tupper who, along with a group of his friends, had the opportunity to test-fly the Remos GX light sport aircraft at Oshkosh and he has written about his experience in entries on both the Let’s Go Flying! and the Airspeed blogs. This was actually his first time to fly a LSA and he sums up his experience by saying:
I enjoyed flying the airplane. It was responsive, it met all of the book numbers, and struck me as meeting all of the promise of the LSA category. I need to fly a couple of other LSAs in order to have a real feel for how the Remos GX stacks up, but I’m a confirmed fan of LSAs if the GX is at all indicative.
However and I have to admit (and let me also admit that I have no experience around LSAs) that when I first saw the picture of Steve standing in front of the aircraft (and perhaps this is also due to the camera lenses and the angle of the shot), I wondered how he could comfortably fit into such an aircraft and let alone get off the ground in one! Not that Steve looks to be a particularly large guy but that appears to be one SMALL aircraft – smaller than a Volkswagen bug (Let me also note that I’m 6’4” and I have trouble fitting comfortably into really small cars!). Nevertheless, looks can always be deceiving – especially when performance is considered…
Hence, I would like to ask all other non-LSA pilots out there whether or not you have flown a LSA before and if so, what do you think of their overall performance and how they compare to other aircraft? Would you fly one again and on a more regular basis? And finally, would you recommend learning how to fly a LSA to non-pilots thinking of learning how to fly?
