Budget Buy: Speedy for a sportplane

As Light Sport expert Roger Lee of Tucson, Arizona, notes, you might pay an extra $10,000 for one just because the maintenance records are accurate and in great detail. Lee not only works on LSAs in his shop, Roger’s LSA Service, he also teaches others about the Rotax engine used on the Flight Design, and he is considered an engine expert.

THE REAL WORLD

Lee offers this advice. “When I do a prebuy inspection I open the logbook and want to see the frequency of oil change and type of oil. You look for any leaks on the engine, whether it’s fuel or oil. Another good place to look is the belly of the airplane. If you have a tiny fuel or oil leak, it will be on the bottom of that plane unless somebody has cleaned it. Look for stains. I look at the landing gear for cracks and see if someone has replaced the gear,” he said. “On the tail there is a trim tab. If someone has left this outside, you have this sunken deformed mess there and the stabilator itself. Another place to look is on the wing-tip strobes. If they are milky, it has sat outside and the sun has hazed them.”

Lee also finds “lead mud” in the oil tank from airplanes that use 100LL without changing the oil every 25 hours as required. If you find lead mud you know you need to clean the gearbox, too. Rotax has a five-year rubber-hose change, so check to see that scheduled maintenance was done. Lee estimates an hourly cost for operating a CTSW or CTLS is $45 considering hangar, fuel, maintenance, scheduled maintenance, engine fund, insurance, and other expenses. He normally sees 115 to 118 knots true airspeed. The biggest problems high-time pilots have are slowing down the airplane, and trying to flare too high. It needs to be at 60 knots for landing. Don’t try to stall it on landing. Carry a couple of extra knots of speed and leave a little power in to aid in flattening the aircraft descent. The propwash gives you better control.

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