www.PSFmagazine.com | November-December 2019 | 11 10 | November-December 2019 | Powered Sport Flying Light Sport Aircraft One-Five-Oh! — Newest Special Light Sport Aircraft: InnovAviation’s FX1, SLSA #150 If you are an ultralight enthusiast (as I certainly am!), then you are probably celebrating with me as FX1 joins the Special lsa fleet —which it does as Number 150 on our popular slsa List. Here’s a secret: the slsa List is one of the most-visited features on ByDanJohnson.com. Those who frequent that page know they can find all the Special lsa that have been accepted by faa with links to the manufacturer, their importer if appropriate, contact info and all our content about any of the long list of aircraft. You can find it yourself at www.bydanjohnson.com/slsa-list/. We are at the 15-year anniversary since faa released the regulation for what is now known as Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft; the rule came out in early September 2004. It was grandly previewed at Airventure Oshkosh that summer. The first approvals —Evektor‘s SportStar and Flight Design‘s CT2K—were granted in April of 2005 at the Sun ‘n Fun event. In those 15 years, the industry has risen to gain acceptance* for 150 new aircraft models from nearly 100 manufacturers. Aviation has seen nothing like this profusion of new aircraft in all its history. Thoroughly Modern Ultralight; Now a SLSA We knew the FX1 from its ancestral JetFox series culminating in the JetFox 97, well… in 1997. The older JetFox models were more clearly ultralights. These were European ultralights, which are somewhere between a Part 103 ultralight vehicle and the lsa of today. The design always caught my eye and I very much enjoyed flying the late ’90s model. However, I did not enjoy worming my way into the cockpit around tubing structure and throwing a leg over the stick. You needed to be something of a contortionist to enter and I did not do so very gracefully. Times change. Along came modern lsa in all manner of aircraft and along came carbon fiber, digital instrumentation, crashworthy designs, and modern engines like Rotax’s 912iS. Longtime JetFox/FX1 designer Alfredo di Cesare made incremental changes to the JetFox series but he stayed aware of the changing design of light aircraft and moved forward with an entirely fresh creation. Virtually every part of InnovAviation‘s FX1 is new compared to JetFox 97. What FX1 retains is a similar shape and configuration. If that shape looks familiar to you, it should. In the JetFox 97 days, the Italian aircraft significantly resembled the Flightstar series, which had evolved from designs by prolific Swiss designer Hans Gygax. FX1, the SLSA Alfredo and his team took the advice of Videoman Dave and me to take FX1 to Mt. Vernon, Illinois after Oshkosh. We assured him he and his airplane would be taken care of in the professional and enthusiastic manner of airport manager Chris Collins. Chris created the Midwest lsa Expo, an event entering its second decade. We tell all aircraft producers they should go, as this event is the No. 1 place for Dave and I to do Video Pilot Reports. These video productions are too demanding and time consuming to attempt at events like Sun ‘n Fun or Oshkosh but, thanks to Chris, we can do whatever it takes to make our popular vprs at his airport. You should attend some day. It’s laid back but that means you can get all the time you want with the aircraft representative. So back to our story, Alfredo and Team InnovAviation did much more than bring their airplane. Read what Chris had to report… “The InnovAviation FX1 made its inaugural flight in the United States at Mt. Vernon Outland Airport! “The long path to the air started with the aircraft on static display at Airventure Oshkosh last week, a late-night arrival at kmvn on Monday, nearly 40 straight hours of assembly and testing, and the inspection and sign off by the Federal Aviation Administration on August 1st.” “At the controls were southern California-based reps for the aircraft, Pete Schutte and Deon Lombard.” “The aircraft and assembly team hails from Corropoli, Italy. It was great hosting Alfredo, Umberto, and Paolo over the last three days. Thank you Deon and Pete for allowing kmvn this honor.” Lots of people get this wrong. We’ve been conditioned by many years of FAA“certifying” airplanes, like Cessna, Cirrus, Piper and so forth. However, Special LSA are not “certified.”They are “accepted” by FAA after proving in very detailed form that the design meets ASTM standards and the company uses standard “best practices” in the manufacture of the aircraft. Support Our Advertisers
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