Actually Mike, you are pretty much right about promising not to fly the plane too fast. ?My hangar mates (father/son) built a Sonex with the 6 cyl Jabiru engine. ?When the son flies it (commercial PL with lots of ratings), he can fly it at whatever speed and altitude the plane is capable of doing. ?When the father (Sport Pilot) flies it, he is required to comply with the placard on the panel that states something to the effect of limiting the engine RPM to 2700 after 5 minutes to comply with Light Sport Pilot rules. ?Like many things in aviation, we are trusted to police ourselves. ?Some People do abuse the privilege of policing themselves, but in the FAAs eyes, if it is placarded on the panel, it will be flown according to the placards.
You can buy a used Sonex and if it will fly within the bounds of LSA, you can placard the panel and fly it as such. ?Your challenge with a KR is to get he stall speed low enough to make it fit within the Light Sport regulations. BTW, a Sonex isn't a bad choice for a LSA compliant plane. ?My hangar mate's Sonex will certainly outclimb my KR and get in and out shorter, but can't cruise with the KR. ?While I'm not impressed with the wind up spring trim for the elevator, the pitch and roll control is more harmonious than my KR, and it has HUGE flaps for landing. ?Overall, a pretty nice flying plane. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Mike T > Sent: 02/05/14 10:40 PM > To: KRnet > Subject: Re: KR> Building the Wing Off the Plane? > > I've seen these regs before and they're a little vague. For example, all > the Sonex designs are listed as LSA compatible > http://www.sportpilot.org/learn/elsa.html but I think most of them fly > faster than 138 mph (and Sonex sells the Jabiru and other big engines so > they can go faster). So Sonex's ads and the EAA make people believe a > Sonex is OK for sport pilots, but a lot of the ones on the market will be > too fast. > > So if someone buys a used Sonex or other amateur built plane that's on the > usual LSA list and it turns out to be faster than it should be, is he just > supposed to promise not to go faster than he should in it? Or is he out of > luck because the builder listed the top speed as faster (or does a builder > have to give the top speed to license an experimental? He may not even > know yet). ------- some of the post deleted-------------- > Mike Taglieri
