TEXAS AIRCRAFT COLT

CAN THIS LSA BECOME A REAL 21ST-CENTURY TRAINER?

- ROB MARK

Dan Johnson told me, “The first light-sport airplane arrived in the US in April 2005. The first two FAA-accepted special light-sport aircraft were announced…almost exactly 15 years ago.”

Johnson reviews recreational aircraft and posts those reports on his site, bydanjohnson.com. A flight school needs to use an S-LSA in order to operate a light-sport aircraft in commercial operations—and that’s one of the target markets for Texas Aircraft Manufacturing’s new Rotax-powered Colt S and SL models.

The simple approval to operate the new two-place airplane at a flight school is not the only hurdle Texas Aircraft is facing. Johnson added, “Outside of the LSA world, many pilots I’ve spoken to believe these aircraft are too lightly built to hold up in flight training—one of the most demanding of all flight activities.”

Texas Aircraft Manufacturing, based at the former Hondo Army Airfield—now known as South Texas Regional Airport—about 35 miles west of San Antonio, remains focused on winning orders from flight schools. Considering the Colt is a brand-new design created with a modern glass cockpit and comfortable cabin, I had to wonder why a flight school wouldn’t consider it. After all, the primary new training airplanes being sold in the US today—the Cessna 172, designed in the 1950s, and the Piper PA-28, created in the early 1960s—took shape decades ago, though the avionics, engines and interiors have certainly been updated. To date, Piper has built nearly 40,000 of the four-place PA-28 model, which remains in production, while Cessna created about 31,500 of the two-place 100 hp 150s. Production of the 150/152 model ceased in 1985.