EAA Chapter 145 Meeting: Friday July 14, 7:00pm

NO  MEETING FOR AUGUST

August 11/12: No meeting scheduled this month. Oshkosh, vacations and hot weather are enough. Chapter officers are working on the next month's meetings.

September 8: Tentative program scheduled on light sport aircraft.

Contact Hugh Eisen (616-446-2441) if you have questions or information
on LSA.

October 14: Tentative Chili-RV fly in planned. Contact Bill Willyard
(616-460-6397) if you have questions, information or would like to help.

If any one has questions, comments or information about future EAA145 meeting, please contact Dick Foster (616-538-8849)

 

Largest kit builder working on LSA

With Cessna, one of the world’s largest general aviation aircraft manufacturers, expected to enter into the S-LSA market, it only seems reasonable that the largest manufacturer of kit airplanes would enter it, too.

Van’s Aircraft Inc., of Aurora, Oregon, is showing components of a proof-of-concept version of their RV-12 here at AirVenture. The RV-

12 is Van’s first effort to build a kit conforming to the LSA standard.

Projected features for the kit include removable wings, full-span flaperons, and an all-moving stabilator.

Power for the RV-12 will come from a Rotax 912S 100-horsepower engine, the same engine expected to power the Cessna offering, and the engine of choice for many of the available S-LSA models.The airplane likely will be offered first as a standard Van’s kit, then progress to a fast-build kit option. An S-LSA kit option, where the builder is not required to complete at least 51% of the construction, also is under consideration the company says. According to Van’s, factory built, fly-away versions of the airplane will not be available.

Pricing for the kit will be similar to prices for other Van’s kits.

A prototype airplane is expected to fly in September or October of this year. Kits likely won’t be available until late 2007.