DaveLeonard wrote:

Dale, very sorry to hear.  I bet you could still come up with an anircraft that meets the Light sport aircraft rules and uses the 13B.   Or not I guess.

 

Good Luck,

Dave Leonard

Thanks Dave.  I am not sad about anything, other than maybe the loss of the opportunity to go very fast ... and spend a lot on fuel in the process?  The view is the same, no matter how fast you are going.  I consider myself very lucky that the grand "Sport Pilot experiment" has come around when it has.  The DMV will  let you drive in CA if you are a diabetic with heart problems and have one eye, one leg, and one arm as long as you can pass the extremely rigorous "chart on the wall" eye exam with corrective lenses and speak Vietnamese .... opps, wrong side of the form ... most of the time you just return their stuff in the mail anyway!  Arnold really doesn't care as long as your check doesn't bounce.

I don't think the concept of "driver's license medical" has really sunk into people's minds yet, as to how it will loosen up the requirements for old duffer pilots like myself.  If I can fly until I am too feeble to drive ... probably another 20 years of flying as plot in command has opened up to me.  Do I care a lot that it will have to be DAY, VFR?   Not really.  That's when I enjoy flying the most anyway!  I will pass on those night ILS approaches down to 200 ft & 1/4 mi thank you very much.

As to using a 13B?   I doubt it, except maybe as a single rotor incarnation with aluminum end plates.  The FAA, in it's infinite wisdom ... has clamped the weight down to 1320 lbs for a two passenger light plane - that is BELOW Cessna 140 weight.  It does not qualify.  That is downright stupid in my estimation.  A lot of classic old birds should have been given a "grandfather exemption" and included, but that is not the topic here.   About all that the weight mandate will do is put a premium on weight saving materials no matter how high the cost.   I predict that Sport Pilot aircraft will soon get "FAT" just like a lot of ultralights did ... I should hope that the feds are too busy chasing terrorists to be running around with a set of scales.

The Norton (Midwest) rotary would seem to be a good fit ... but cost and availability remain concerns.

The goods I have for sale (not the 83  RX-7)  were selected carefully from almost 3 years of monitoring both lists.  I picked the 3rd gen turbo engine w/ single large (yet to be specified) TO-4.  I stopped at the point where I would have had to send the major money to Tracy for his fine products.  Without his reliable PSRU, ECU, and damned near essential EM2 ... we would all just be dreamers.  If ever there is a "rotary aviation hall of fame" ... I nominate him - first up!   Also, now that quality craftsmen such as Jerry Hey and others are offering well engineered products at reasonable cost ... it will be very soon that you will be able to assemble a FWF package of your own pretty much "off the shelf".  Once that is truly the case ... the rotary will "spin em down", just wait and see.

Keep em flying,

Dale Smith