Why Light Sport Airplanes Suffer So Many Crashes

[HiFlyer]

Hmmmmmmmmm....... This doesn't look good........

 

[Guest John_Cillis]

Funny, being a former Light Sport student I was going to post this myself.  I agree with all the points raised in the video.  Lack of hours, since Light Sport aircraft proved much more costly to own and buy than the hype suggested, with used general aviation aircraft coming in cheaper, lack of hours is one factor.  Weight is another, the aircraft get tossed around thru chop so much more easily than a heavier aircraft like a 172.

 A sim pilot for a long time (twenty years before) I found that Light Sport aircraft did not handle for real like their heavier general aviation cousins modeled in the sims.  I flew a Luscombe once, and an Evektor Sportstar, and they were heavy enough for me to feel safer compared to the very light TTail, Allegro 2000 I took lessons in.  When my CFI said I was ready to solo, I though honestly about my skills, about the aircraft, and decided it was not a safe outcome ahead for me. 

Maybe I would have landed alright, but an aircraft should not stress the pilot out.  And the Allegro 2000 was among the first Light Sport aircraft to log a crash, the one other Allegro aircraft I had considered purchasing to advance my lessons, due to lack of availability for flight time, later also crashed back east and lost its gear and was sold on the cheap.  These LSA aircraft were rushed into the market to soon, too fast, and too uncontrollable in choppy conditions requiring the skills of a fighter pilot and nerves of one as well.  The Zenair LSA had a wing spar issue that caused at least one fatal crash, it too was rushed into the market as a prebuilt LSA.

So I turned to Trikes for a while, which I will go back to someday, despite their light weight the control forces are just right to hold them in the sky, and I have flown twice with unforecasted winds of twenty knots aloft, caused by TStorms collapsing at some distance from where me and my CFI's were flying.

Glad you posted this, if pilots are considering Light Sport, learn and research first the cost there should be no  "easy" way into learning to fly, it takes skill and patience.  As they say "There are old pilots and bold pilots but no old bold pilots"

John

[Murmur]

8 hours ago, Cactus521 said:

So I turned to Trikes for a while, which I will go back to someday, despite their light weight the control forces are just right to hold them in the sky

Hmmm... Isn't the wing loading of trikes much lower than that of even an LSA? Shouldn't they be even more tossed around in chops?

[Guest John_Cillis]

9 hours ago, Murmur said:

Hmmm... Isn't the wing loading of trikes much lower than that of even an LSA? Shouldn't they be even more tossed around in chops?

The wing loading is higher, trikes have a much lower glide ratio than just about every fixed wing aircraft.  The wing loading is less with a single place trike which my CFI warned me about, but I always, always flew with a CFI, two place trikes are just much safer with four stroke engines as well, in most instances vs the rather unreliable two strokes.  My other fixed wing CFI had a two stroke on his Challenger, he offered me free lessons in it but I balked, did not trust the engine and I was proven right when his experimental LSA challenger had an engine failure, totalling the Challenger when he brought it down on Lake Pleasant highway and his wing hit a road sign.  He and his passenger were unhurt, dope and fabric LSA's are generally safer in a crash because their wings and body crumple and absorb the physics of a crash.

John