LSA

[hihosland]

Is my understanding of an LSA aircraft correct in that it is essentially a GA aircraft as regards needing a LAME to approach with a screwdriver.

 

but

 

can be flown by a holder of a RAA ultralight certificate

 

and

 

has a MTOW of 600kg and some other design limitations.

 

thanks

 

Davidh

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Pretty close.

 

You can have a GA registered VH-ABC Jabiru for example which must be maintained by a LAME

 

or

 

You can have an RA-Aus 24-1234 Jabiru which can be L2 maintained.

 

The licence / certificate is not interchangeable.

 

The biggest bonus for the consumer /pilot is the increased 600kg limit.

 

The biggest bonus for hire and reward operators in GA is that they can buy a cheap 'certified' aircraft under LSA at a much reduced cost over traditional certified aircraft. Once the company manufacturing meets ISO9001/2 (or similar) etc they can self certify the aircraft and not require the full millions of dollars worth of certifications. Restrictions include fixed undercarriage and fixed-pitch prop.

 

That being said, I have a question for an expert. Is the J160C actually 'LSA' certified or is it traditonal 95.55 certified? (Personally I thought it was 95.55).

 

 

[TechMan]

Pretty close.Restrictions include fixed undercarriage and fixed-pitch prop.

That being said, I have a question for an expert. Is the J160C actually 'LSA' certified or is it traditonal 95.55 certified? (Personally I thought it was 95.55).

Pretty close - the fixed pitch requirement is for the USA. Australia does not have that requirement - only fixed gear. We also do not have a speed limit of 120kts like the US. The only speed limit we (Aus) have, is for gliders.

 

The Jab J160C factory built is Type Certified (CASA) and accepted under CAO95.55 1.6, 1.7

 

To date we only have the J230C as SLSA registered and one J230 as ELSA (experimental LSA, built from a kit) from Jabiru.

 

Chris

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Oops. Pretty close. Oh well. Must have been reading something from the US. That means the Freedom will go well with reversible prop as it can probably be LSA.

 

 

[Guest pelorus32]

As I understand it the other thing to remember about LSA is that the manufacturer takes responsibility for the airworthiness and ANY change to the aircraft requires their sign-off.

 

This means that you can have an aircraft in S-LSA and if you change something - add an instrument say - without manufacturer approval then it can fall out of S-LSA and end up in E-LSA....for ever.

 

Methinks Part 103 will be the death knell for LSA here if we ever get it. It seems to deliver the benefits of LSA - 600kg - without the disbenefits. And as we already have had a proper rec aviation administration system here we have few of the drivers for LSA that they have in the States. Personal view.

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[TechMan]

As I understand it the other thing to remember about LSA is that the manufacturer takes responsibility for the airworthiness and ANY change to the aircraft requires their sign-off.This means that you can have an aircraft in S-LSA and if you change something - add an instrument say - without manufacturer approval then it can fall out of S-LSA and end up in E-LSA....for ever.

 

Methinks Part 103 will be the death knell for LSA here if we ever get it. It seems to deliver the benefits of LSA - 600kg - without the disbenefits. And as we already have had a proper rec aviation administration system here we have few of the drivers for LSA that they have in the States. Personal view.

 

Regards

 

Mike

Hi Mike,

 

You are correct in saying that an aircraft under LSA can only be modified with the manufacturers approval.

 

A SLSA which falls down to ELSA can go back to SLSA, though the manufacturer needs to sign off compliance that the aircraft meets the standard and that they are happy with it. With pretty much all of the manufacturers being overseas, my guess is that that would be an impossibility to achieve.

 

LSA will never be the 'bee's knee's' in Australia because we have had a system here that has worked and our weights have been incremented over time. The US has not had that which is possibly why LSA is the rage over there.

 

LSA in Aus will be of most benefit to manufacturers as they can self certify.

 

Chris