Model Airplanes

After a rough couple of years for Icon Aircraft, the California maker of the A5 light sport amphibian, the company now says it’s ready to turn its attention to high-rate production that should see as many as 200 airplanes produced and delivered in 2018.

Icon handed over the first six airplanes in June and July to customers in Washington, California, Montana and Texas, all of them part of the original 22 aircraft Icon built before halting production and announcing a one-year delivery pause in 2016 as it laid off workers, brought composite production work in-house and shifted its focus to pilot training.

Icon CEO Kirk Hawkins told Flying the 2018 model year A5 will appear in September, and by January the company plans to be building 10 airplanes a month.

“We’ll start ramping up production by the end of the year. We’re still running slow right now, but 2018 will be the year,” he said. “We will ramp as far as demand takes us. We’ve laid the foundation of the manufacturing infrastructure and process and tooling to be able to build a few hundred airplanes a year.”

Hawkins said Icon has about 1,850 deposit holders for the A5, a number that has held steady through the recent turmoil that included customer anger over a restrictive purchase agreement that has since been relaxed, the production halt and move of composite work to Mexico that followed and two A5 crashes, one in Miami early this year after a hard water landing and a fatal crash in

Article source: http://www.flyingmag.com/icon-says-a5-is-ready-to-enter-full-rate-production

Is model airplane rule unneeded?

By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

A model aircraft landing strip recently completed at Marion County Lake technically violates a Federal Aviation Administration rule regarding model airplanes within five miles of an airport.

Under FAA rules, operators of drones and model airplanes flying within five miles of an airport must notify the airport operator before flying.

However, Marion pilot and model aircraft enthusiast Terry Chizek says the rule is unnecessary here.

Chizek helped build the model plane strip at the lake. Before it was built, model enthusiasts flew at the airport.

“It’s better out there than flying at the airport,” Chizek said. “At the lake it’s just a way to get away from the real airport.”

Chizek said the FAA rule was for large airports like those in Wichita and Kansas City, which have control towers.

“They’re more concerned about the commercial traffic,” Chizek said. “At our airport, we only get one or two planes a day, so it’s not a big concern.”

If a model plane were to get caught in an airliner’s engine, it could cause major damage, he said. But planes flying into Marion’s airport are smaller.

“With a smaller plane it would do some damage but it won’t ruin the engine or anything,” Chizek said.

Don Hodson, another Marion pilot, said there were no problems before the model airplane landing strip was built, when model airplane pilots used the airport.

“We never had any issues at any time,” Hodson said. “They’re

Article source: http://marionrecord.com/direct/is_model_airplane_rule_unneeded_+4844model+4973206d6f64656c20616972706c616e652072756c6520756e6e65656465643f

BRUSSELS – Tucked into the farmland of Brussels in southern Door County is a tree-lined road named Lovers Lane. It’s barely wide enough to support two-way traffic much less anybody thinking of parking along the roadside taking advantage of its namesake.

Lovers Lane, however, is where homebuilt planes are parked. It’s the location of an airpark for passionate aviation enthusiasts.

The Crispy Cedars Airfield drew about 50 people and a few planes on Saturday for an open house celebrating the beginning of Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture Fly-In Convention this week in Oshkosh. The fly-in is expected to draw a half-million people.

The aviation visitors marveled at Jan Eggenfellner’s hovering-style landing of his home-built two-seater. Unique on the market, it is a Super STOL (Short Take Off and Landing) aircraft. It features larger tires, big shocks and powerful lifting capabilities. The aeronautics engine designer flew in from Edgewater, Fla., for the EAA convention and to meet up with Jon Croke, who creates how-to videos internationally through HomebuiltHELP.com and is a columnist for Kitplanes magazine. Croke is also home/hangar owner on the Brussels airstrip.

OSWEGO — Labette County Fair 4-H small engines judge Wayne Blaes listened as 16-year-old Lane Manners with the Livestock Challengers 4-H club talked to him about the twin-stroke, air-powered Briggs Stratton motor he created.

Manners’ only competition in the category was himself, but it was tough competition.

Despite it being the only small engine entered in the category, Blaes said Manners would likely have been at the top in the competition given the ingenuity of his project.

“Had he had more competition, it would have taken a lot to beat that project,” Blaes said.

Understanding how machines, such as model airplanes, lawn mowers and other small engines operate and how to keep them running are what the small engines projects demonstrate. Manners showed his understanding runs a little deeper than the average youth.

Daydreaming in his English class last year, the idea for his project came to

Article source: http://www.parsonssun.com/news/article_7e8214a0-71a9-11e7-9043-3f26fd17a230.html