suggests Peter Harlow of Foxbat.
Simple intransigence may be one
reason for not accepting LSAs, but
are there substantive reasons not to
consider them? The main power
plants making the noise in LSAs
in Australia are Rotax and Jabiru.
Both makers now enjoy healthy
respect from increasing reliability,
although the recent restrictions
CASA applied to Jabiru is casting
a shadow over this engine type.
Contrasting CASA’s approach,
Bill Kiernan of the NorthernRivers Aero Club, a keen advocate of
RA-Aus, is quite comfortable with the
Jabiru engines in his fleet.
“Our new engines are fine. We
don’t operate them as a GA engine,
we operate them per the Jabiru
specifications, and overhaul them
every 1000 hours and specifically
budget for this every hour.” CASA’s
restrictions do not appear have wide
support within the industry, and
whatever the correct position is, given
the extent of technological innovation
and ability today, it is difficult to
believe any issue with Jabiru engines is
not capable of being solved.
Maintenance and support of
airframes is also a consideration. As
the usage of LSAs in Australia is
relatively new, it is reasonable to say
a corporate knowledge base of both
dealer networks and operators is still
being established. Consequently, it
may be a number of years until all
maintenance and operating issues
are fully bedded down.
Another drawback is simply due
to the significant number of products
on offer: up to 80 around the world.54 Aero Clubs
AUSTRALIAN FLYING March – April 2015ABOVE: Ballarat Aero Club added RA-Aus
aircraft to their fleet of GA planes, including
this Tecnam Sierra.
R IGH T: Several aero clubs adopted the Skyfox
Gazelle as their first recreational aircraft.
OPPOSITE PAGE: The Pioneer 300 is exactly
the type of Light Sport Aircraft that aero clubs
are beginning to embrace.C13428 FLY Tecnam.indd 1 23/01/15 3:21 PM