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Quoting a year-old article on LSA Show in InFlight USA, by Michael Leighton:

I did not get the opportunity to fly the new Remos as the demo plane was book solid on Thursday, the opening day of the show. Unfortunately a Remos GX crashed on Sunday morning, the last day of the show. The accident killed a British photographer covering the event for a U.K. publication and sent the pilot to the hospital. The NTSB said it would release a preliminary report in 10 days and the final report could take up to nine months, so we won’t know the exact cause for a while. But the accident does serve to highlight the Light Sport Aircraft industries dirty little secret. That is the fact that the insured loss rate is “absolutely horrid” to quote Mike Adams from Avemco Insurance Company, who spoke at an LSA insurance forum during the show. He explained that loss of control accidents on takeoff and landing in LSA type aircraft have compelled Avemco to require five hours of dual instruction from a type current instructor before a pilot can fly the aircraft on his own. He went on to say that though this requirement has helped, there was a long way to go. His comments can be heard on an excellent podcast on Avweb.com.

So, while nobody is saying that LSAs are unsafe as such (consireding that Piper J-3 is an LSA), the proficiency of their pilots is an issue. BTW, note the 5 hours on the type requirement.

UPDATE: The NTSB preliminary report for the accident on 2009/1/25 hints a mechanical malfunction rather than lack of training:

Control continuity could not be established to the left aileron. Examination revealed that there were no mechanical failures of the bell crank or push pull rod, but it was discovered that unlike the elevator's and right aileron's quick release rod-connectors, the left aileron's quick release rod-connector was not connected to the quick connector release fork.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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