www.PSFmagazine.com | December 2018 - January 2019 | 11 10 | December 2018 - January 2019 | Powered Sport Flying Light Sport Aircraft Gyroplanes Are Big Overseas — First Market Share Info for the USA Over many years, you have found lsa market share information on my website. Many have found this of interest …from businesses learning more about their market; to customers doing careful investigation before paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new aircraft; to government fulfilling its task of regulating industry; to insurance companies assessing risk of providing their product; and many other actors in the blockbuster movie that is light, recreational aviation. I will have more to say about the broader lsa market share reports below but now I want to present the best information I have seen for Light Sport Aircraft Gyroplanes. …uh, except for one problem. No such aircraft category exists, slsa gyroplanes, that is. FAA has denied fully-built Special lsa status to rotary-winged aircraft such as gyroplanes. LAMA thought this was on track for a solution as recently as two months ago, but today, the matter is back in doubt, truly a shame as these aircraft are thriving around the world. Rotax has reported for some time that they sell more 9-series engines to gyroplanes as a specific category than to other groups. Indeed, sellers like Germany’s AutoGyro have more than 2,500 units flying. faa’s rotorcraft personnel are living in the past, remembering the problems of early machines like the Bensen Gyrocopter. Before training and before design evolution, those aircraft did have an undesirable safety record. However, that has been remedied… long ago, actually. Our new associate, Steve Beste, wrote an excellent article for his club newsletter and I will summarize that piece elsewhere. In his article, he wrote, “[Along with better training] the other change since those days is the large horizontal stabilizer, mounted well aft. Some machines were prone to pio, pilot-induced oscillations in pitch. The pilot would chase the oscillations, only making them worse until the gyro did a fatal bunt over. The large tail that Magni invented – as is used on all modern gyros – has fixed that.” Welcoming Steve Beste “I’m a retired computer guy and trike pilot who loves databases,” Steve told me. He used his special set of skills to download faa’s aircraft registration database to compile statistics on gyroplane registrations, focused on the new European-style gyroplanes. As you can see, AutoGyro is the clear market leader at 52% with 163 aircraft of 312 gyroplanes registered with faa. The German builder is trailed by Magni in the #2 slot at 18% with 56 registrations. A new American manufacturer, SilverLight Aviation, has quickly tied Spanish producer ela for third at 8% with 26 aircraft registered for each. After that it trails off more quickly as Steve’s chart shows. More details about other brands will be chronicled in an article to follow. For 2018 through July 23rd, Magni shows its strength by slightly beating AutoGyro U.S. registrations. As always, note that confirmed sales and registrations may not match precisely. In addition, much more of 2018 remained when the data was reviewed. In slightly more than half a year, gyroplanes registered 58 aircraft putting them on track to exceed 100 for the year. To offer perspective, this figure is approaching half as many as slsa fixed-wing registrations in recent full years. So far this year, Magni has 15 registrations to AutoGyro’s 14 for 26% and 24% shares totaling half of total U.S. gyroplane registrations. SilverLight has registered 8 aircraft in 2018 for a 14% yearly share of 2018 to date. A less well-recognized U.S. producer, Tango, is having a respectable year, with 9 registrations accounting for 16% in 2018 so far. Tango is trailed by ela with 6 registrations by Dan Johnson (10%), Australia’s Titanium and Italy’s Brako tied at 3 for 5% each. One interesting point: only Tango and Brako offer a single-place gyroplane; all others are two-place machines. Much More Data to Follow! Steve Beste and I have been discussing him providing database research to allow my website to continue providing lsaMarket Share Info. Many visitors have written to ask; indeed, we are way behind on this effort. The delay is ending. After Steve gets time to study the previous work and methods, he has proposed some wonderful improvements. About the special skills he can offer, Steve wrote, “I’m a retired computer guy and trike pilot who loves databases.” Well, that certainly sounds perfect to me. “I’m also the president of Flying Club 1, which was the original usua Chapter 1,” Steve added. “Regarding the faa database, I’d very much like to reach beyond just [fixed-wing] airplanes, partly because I’m a trike pilot, myself. I think that ’s entirely possible.” Given this background, his obvious enthusiasm for this work, and the keen interest of many in light aviation, I am exceedingly pleased to welcome Steve to my website. “[However, faa’s] data is not clean,” Steve observed. I am well aware of this problem. Uncertainty about data accuracy of ‘alternative’ lsa is why we have reported fixed-wing Gyroplane Market Penetration in the USA Make & Total Number # # Enclosure Seating Registered in the US Model Reg'd Seats Open Closed Tandem Side by Side AutoGyro 163 MTO 65 2 � � Calidus 49 2 � � Cavalon 49 2 � � Magni 56 M-16 35 2 � � M-22 6 2 � � N-24 Orion 15 2 � � Silverlight 26 AR-1 26 2 � � � ELA 25 ELA 10 Eclipse 20 2 � � � ELA 07 Cougar 3 2 � � ELA 07 Scorpion 2 2 � � Celier 13 Xenon 13 2 � � Titanium 9 Explorer 9 2 � � Brako 3 GT 2 2 � � � Sprint 1 1 � n/a n/a DTA 1 J-Ro 1 2 � � Data assembled in July 2018 by Steve Beste
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