At the Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring this week, we spoke with several manufacturers of light sport aircraft (LSAs) about their expectations for the newly announced FAA BasicMed rule. Behind some enthusiasm for any relaxation on restrictions to flying, some commentators have expressed concern that pilots who were buying LSAs so they could benefit from the driver’s license medical rules that are currently applicable to LSAs would move on to more capable aircraft. The people who spoke to us for this AVweb exclusive podcast acknowledged that there are buyers for whom avoiding a medical is the key criterion and who might prefer a larger aircraft but felt most of their buyers were pilots who wanted a safe and modern two-seat aircraft.
Paul Randall, a representative for Pipistrel, is excited that BasicMed could lead the way for the return of middle-aged pilots to general aviation, “A lot of people have been waiting in the wings, and they think they might get into an old aircraft, but in their heart, they want something new and different and fun. That’s what light sport offers,” he said.
Shannon Yeager, director of sales for Tecnam US, stressed that pilots are buying Tecnam LSAs because they want modern two-seat airplanes. “The current buyers that I’ve seen that are looking for viable two-place aircraft, there is not an offering that is less than 30 years old in the regular market space. My competition for what would be a two-place aircraft is something like a Cirrus SR20. An SR20 still has double the cost,” he said.
Chip Allen, a distributor of Cub Crafters aircraft, worried about the market for LSAs in general but believed the Cub Crafters aircraft exist in a short-takeoff and rough-field performance niche that would exist independent of the LSA category, “We found that most of our customers have bought our airplanes because of their performance. What’s the impact of all this going be on light sport business, especially the guys that are making these little two-seat, plastic airplanes? It may get real interesting,” he said.
