Got to fly a light sport aircraft

At our 2-day Big Kids Toy Show fly-in last weekend, I had the pleasure of
flying a "CT" with their demo pilot.

If you're not sure what a "CT" is, see:
http://www.fly-flightstar.com/pages/ct.htm

You can also see some pix of it he www.BigKidsToyShow.com

I'm here to tell you, this thing is an *airplane*. For some reason I had
the impression that an LSA would be fragile, slow and more like an
ultralight than a certified aircraft. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The CT looks like an egg with wings, sorta like a pregnant Cessna 150 made
out of carbon fiber. I figured it would be tight inside, with two nearly
200 pound guys -- but I had as much or more shoulder and hip room as in my
Pathfinder. The seats were semi-reclined, but adjustable fore-and-aft,
which was nice. (I hear some LSAs have fixed seats, and adjustable rudder
pedals.)

The plane has dual sticks, and I was in the right seat, so I was not only
flying right-handed, but with a stick -- neither of which I'm used to doing.
Luckily, I'm ambidextrous, and always fly video game joysticks right handed,
so I quickly got used to flying from over there.

Visibility is nothing short of spectacular. The windows come down to your
hips, and the high wing gives the impression that you are just sitting in
space. Climb performance was very impressive, with a solid 600 fpm
climbout, even with 400 pounds of people, plus fuel, on board. We were able
to sustain zoom climbs of over 1500 fpm for over a minute, so you can get up
pretty quickly once you're at cruise speed.

The controls were very well harmonized, and felt very crisp and clean. I
needed very little rudder, and the ball stayed centered. It's just a nice
flying machine.

We did slow flight and a stall or two, and the thing literally stands still
before it stalls. I think we saw 38 mph before it broke! Landing was
simple, and it's got electric flaps -- something I didn't expect in an LSA.
Again, this is a real airplane, and seems quite ruggedly designed.

And it's pretty fast, too. We trued out at 130 mph, burning something
absurdly low, like 6 gph. And it burns car gas, too!

I'll tell ya what -- when our kids are grown and gone, I can easily see us
owning a CT. It does everything I want in an airplane, and uses less than
half the gas Atlas burns. It's a great flying bird, and Mary thinks it's
cute!

Finally, the CT gave more demo flights at the show than the Columbia, the
Travel Air, and the Pitts *combined*. Everyone seemed intrigued by it, and
that demo pilot must've put 10 hours on it over the course of the Toy Show!
I think LSA planes like this one will really have a shot in the market --
once they change the minds of previously-prejudiced people like me.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"