Yet as demonstrated by broad participation in art, music, or sport, individuals seek more than practical solutions. Sometimes the activities that inspire us most are those which free our minds and lift our spirits.

The aircraft in this portion of FLYING’s Buyers Guide this year might be called “joy machines,” for their mission is to elevate you—physically and emotionally.

Welcome to recreational—and, yes, affordable—aviation. To offer a taste of the 158 aircraft the FAA has accepted as special (fully built) light sport aircraft (LSA)—plus more than 100 kit-built models—I’ve divided the subject aircraft into several categories, with three outlined here. These aircraft are good representatives but between them account for just a small percentage of the models available.

Buyers enjoy many diverse choices, one of which might be perfect for them. I encourage you to explore the segment more fully at ByDanJohnson.com (to become AffordableAviation.com), now a member of the FLYING family.

Our Favorite LSA

Light sport aircraft have been part of the aviation firmament for almost 20 years, and over that time, some models established themselves even as newcomers regularly arrive. The way the FAA accepts (not “certifies”) these airplanes allows rapid improvement, which has stimulated surprisingly fast progress. What will happen as the Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification’s (MOSAIC) recent rulemaking comes to conclusion looks like it will only serve to expand upon the grand variety and capability we witness on the market—such as expanding the envelope of the Bristell SLSA featured in our opening spread, and in the April 2023/Issue 936 edition of FLYING.

• READ MORE: We Fly: BRM Aero Bristell SLSA

The Evektor Harmony is a next-generation model following its SportStar, which will forever hold the title of the first special LSA accepted by the FAA in April 2005 only weeks after the new sport pilot/light sport aircraft regulation was released. Flight Design’s CT was accepted the same day.

Being first often conveys some advantage, but in an industry where new ideas often emerge, a successful producer cannot long rest on past achievements. Based in an aviation-rich area of the Czech Republic, Evektor steadily upgraded its SportStar through a series of alterations. Later, the company introduced the Harmony with added sophistication.

The Harmony uses a more advanced compound wing—the leading edge does not form a straight line—to bring performance up to the top of the category (restricted by present regulation, which may change with MOSAIC). Pilots who fly the Harmony say it feels like a legacy GA airplane.

The Jabiru J-230D, hailing from Australia, is the result of years of development, beginning long before light sport aircraft came along. When FAA’s rule hit in 2004, the Down Under designer and manufacturer was quick to adapt its kit products to the new market.

The J-230D resembles the company’s J-400, a four-seater. That many seats aren’t permitted on LSA, so out they came, leaving an aft interior bigger than a Cessna 150. A third door sized for people brings the easiest luggage area loading among LSA—you can easily take your pet along. Jabiru is a rare airframe manufacturer that also makes its own engine. When you hear the word “Jabiru” (a large bird), you need to think airplane and powerplant, though the engines are also used on other airframes. A J-230D with the 6-cylinder Jabiru 3300 can readily hit the top speed among LSA.

The 2020 FLYING Editors’ Choice Award-winning Texas Aircraft Colt relies on the great success of a predecessor Brazilian design, but the Colt is all American. One of the newer aircraft to the LSA fleet in the U.S., developers had the advantage of seeing what pilots were buying…and what they were requesting.

With its conventional yoke control, the Colt breaks a familiar mold in LSA, an overwhelming majority of which use joysticks in various forms. A refined aircraft, the Colt is beautifully appointed inside and out, attracting pilots seeking a legacy GA airplane look in a ground-up-new design that can be operated by a sport or higher-certificated pilot exercising the no-medical privileges of LSA.

Built in Hondo, Texas, with local support, the Colt joins the best of an experienced Brazilian aircraft designer with American airplane-building capability in the U.S.

Seaplane LSAs

Seaplanes quickly earn a special place in some aviators’ hearts because of their unique ability to land on water and for the versatility that amphibious gear affords. The FAA recognized this interest and allowed 110 pounds more gross weight for qualifying seaplanes and also permitted amphibious gear. With a water-going craft, you have vastly more places to make a landing, whether for a pleasant visit or an emergency.

From its first announcement, pilots could see ICON’s A5 LSA seaplane was something distinctive. Its hull and fuselage blended form and function to retract gear invisibly while providing stability on the water. When its wings were electrically folded, jaws dropped; many envisioned how to launch A5 at their local marina.

The California developer went on to a long development period where every detail was sussed out to an intricate degree. The resultant aircraft that emerged addressed FAA’s current counsel to industry: “Make these aircraft easy to fly, operate, and maintain.” Three checks for ICON engineers and company leadership. They forged ahead while maintaining the smooth lines of early prototypes.

By 2022, ICON rose to be one of the leading suppliers in the LSA industry, and those of us lucky enough to have operated its well-located controls quickly acquired large smiles. A5 is simple and responsive, stall resistant, and stable. The modern sports car cabin is comfortable and spacious. Amphibious gear makes the A5 versatile and puts America’s many waterways on the list of available landing areas.

Vickers Aircraft closely observed ICON after it made a big splash with the A5. Vickers, based in New Zealand, saw an opportunity to achieve even more with its Wave. And engineers took a different approach to creating it. Using modern CAD methods and software similar to Boeing or Lockheed Martin, Vickers worked for years before unveiling a product but, when it did, it flew “right out of the box.” The company remains in testing as it works toward FAA acceptance but believes it can swiftly move to manufacturing because of the detailed preparation work. Indeed, elements are already being produced. The Wave first tempted buyers with prices substantially below ICON’s eye-watering $394,000, although continued improvements and the latest engine from Rotax have pushed up its costs. All told, the Wave is an intriguing amphibian loaded with features and boasting a large interior complete with sliding doors.

Scoda Aeronautica’s Super Petrel started its life in France. It was much different before the team at Edra, now Scoda Aeronautica, took over in Brazil. Here’s another seaplane entry from the South American nation that is very big in aviation. The Super Petrel sets itself apart from all others with its biwing construction. You may not think that’s logical in the modern world, but the Super Petrel is a highly efficient aircraft. Plenty of wing area helps it leave the water faster. The shorter the water run, the less strain on an airframe. LSA seaplanes are masterful at this task, jumping off the water in a few seconds. The higher power-to-weight ratio helps, but Scoda wanted to go even further.

Scoda’s XP designation for the Super Petrel means extra performance, but you also get more airplane. The airframe was extended by 10 inches, bringing with it a bounty of benefits, including more luggage area. With Rotax’s 141 hp 915iS engine atop the center of gravity, Super Petrel leaps out of the water with great energy.

Niche Buys

The Airplane Factory’s Sling HW, or High Wing, is an all-new design clearly aimed at FAA’s coming MOSAIC regulation. A quick glance at the specifications below illustrates that Sling HW is well outside the current regulation for light sport aircraft. That’s OK for now. It can start with a kit or import a few aircraft in the experimental/exhibition category.

• READ MORE: We Break Down the State of MOSAIC By the Numbers

Numbers are bigger than for a present-day LSA, and that’s great if you seek extra capability. Be prepared to pay for it. Most MOSAIC-targeted LSA unveiled to date are often well into the $200,000s. Several exceed $300,000. Still, that’s much less than a comparable legacy GA aircraft, and Sling HW is big, comfortable, and well equipped. A sleek composite exterior helps it outperform comparable models.

These MOSAIC light sport aircraft (MLSA) are going to greatly expand the LSA range, and Sling producer TAF has long been an innovator.

It is also supremely confident in its designs and loves to demonstrate that by literally flying a new design all the way around the world. In fact, it has done so several times.

Kit-Built

Building your own aircraft involves much more than just saving money—just ask the experts at Van’s Aircraft, who offer both SLSA and kit versions of the RV-12. For most, it is a learning experience, a use of craftsmanship, or simply an absorbing hobby. When you’re done, you will know it in a way few pilots know their aircraft. You can also put in it precisely what you want.

Lockwood Aircraft’s AirCam is no light sport aircraft, but it might qualify as a MLSA. The AirCam has been such a hit that 200 have been built as kits. It looks somewhat unorthodox with its twin aft-mounted Rotax engines on a half-open-cockpit design, but you need to know why it looks this way.

The AirCam was custom designed and built for one job—taking National Geographic-grade cover story photos of Namibian jungles and African wildlife. The country’s terrain is utterly unforgiving. Clearings are few and small. The photographer, seated up front for photo missions, needs huge visibility and no obstructions. Plus, they wish to fly at the speed of nature, that is, slowly. The AirCam accomplishes all this like it was designed for it—because it was.

This story first appeared in the September 2023/Issue 941 of FLYING’s print edition.

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Today’s Top Pick is a 2000 Lockwood AirCam.

The Lockwood AirCam takes “low and slow” to a new level. Some pilots with experience in the aircraft describe flying at 50 feet agl and 48 knots while smelling the flowers below. Sitting in the AirCam’s open cockpit can give you a rare peek into how it must have felt for many aviation pioneers during the first years of powered flight. Unlike those early aircraft, though, this tested design built with modern materials and two reliable engines is a safer, more practical machine.

This AirCam has 1,285 hours on the airframe and both of its Rotax 912 ULS engines. There are 1,146 hours on each of its overhauled Warp Drive propellers. The aircraft also has a third seat that can fit in the baggage area.

This airplane’s new panel features Dynon avionics, including a 10-inch Skyview Classic EFIS display, Dynon com radio, transponder, ADS-B out and In with traffic and weather, and a PM 3000 audio panel with intercom. The rear-seat panel includes a 7-inch Dynon Skyview Classic.

Pilots looking for a pure expression of flight that includes wind in the face and nearly unlimited visibility should consider this 2000 Lockwood AirCam, which is available for $129,000 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinancial.com.

• FLYING Magazine: Air Cams Descend on Jekyll Island
• FLYING Magazine: Amazing Video: Water Skiing Behind an AirCam
• Plane & Pilot: AirCam Gen-3 Boasts More Power
• Plane & Pilot: Beyond ICON: 5 Seaplane Alternatives
• KITPLANES: The AirCam Experience
• KITPLANES: AirCam Close to Shipping 300th Kit

The post A 2000 Lockwood AirCam Is a Versatile Top ‘Aircraft For Sale’ Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

FLYING took a deep dive into all things Rotax with Phil Lockwood, considered by many to be the resident U.S. expert on their powerplants. 

Lockwood runs the Lockwood Aviation Group based in Sebring, Florida, a wide-ranging company which includes an AirCam kit aircraft division, aircraft supply, and service divisions, a repair facility, the Sebring Aviation flight school, and a Rotax mechanic’s school.

Rotax Engine Development

Lockwood has been in and around the ultralight business since the early 1980s when many users flew with Rotax two-stroke engines. 

“With the two-stroke engines,” Lockwood explained, “if you knew how to maintain them, and knew when they should be overhauled in a preventative way, they could be run quite reliably. Most of the problems were from people who just didn’t know what to do except put gas and oil in them and run them until they blew up. We didn’t even know the TBO of the engines because we didn’t know how long they should or would last.”

As Lockwood worked on nearly every available model of ultralight engine in his early flying years, he said it became evident that Rotax was making the highest quality product. 

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“They came on the scene out of nowhere and very quickly were dominating the ultralight industry,” Lockwood said. “Their engineers were putting in the work to produce different configurations to accommodate pusher-type and tractor-type airframes, very well-configured exhaust systems, and all different types of installations. It was pretty clear to me early on that these guys were going to be the leaders they are today.”

Dominating the LSA Market

Lockwood said Rotax is the undisputed leader powering the light sport industry today, with an estimated 80 percent market share in new LSA models sold in the U.S. Other estimates put their market share as high as 90 percent. 

That successful run with their reliable four-stroke engine line started in 1989 with their 80 horsepower 912UL engine, which is still available to purchase. A 100 hp version, the 912ULS, is also available. As the company’s market share grew, so did their product line, and now, OEMs and experimental builders can choose not only the carbureted UL and ULS versions of the 912, they can pick the fuel-injected 100 hp 912iS Sport, the 115 hp 914UL, or the company’s largest powerplant, the 141 hp turbocharged 915iS.

That 141 hp turbo Rotax is now being used in the Sling TSi, with excellent results, according to Lockwood. “The TSi is a very good four-place airplane, and Sling is seeing nearly a 1,000-pound useful load in that model by using the 141 hp Rotax engine,” he said.

Physics and Engineering

How Rotax engines came to be the gold standard with LSA manufacturers really comes down to engineering, Lockwood said. 

“Right from the very beginning, Rotax has been focused on making lightweight engines with great power-to-weight ratios,” he said. “They’ve designed engines that can cruise at 5,000 to 5,500 rpm all day long and go to TBO like that. From the metallurgy to the lubricants they use, it is all designed to allow the engine to run at high rpm.”

Lockwood explained that pure physics is behind the success Rotax has found. 

“You look at a 100 to 125 horsepower Lycomings or Continentals, and the Rotax engines are making that kind of power on about half the displacement, allowing for much lighter and more compact engines,” he said. “Many legacy aircraft engines do not have tight control over mixture cylinder to cylinder, so they must run rich of peak. The Rotax engines are very smart, with dual-path [engine control units] controlling the fuel injection. This allows for fully automated precise control over the fuel mixture which improves fuel efficiency, reliability and longevity providing super-efficient lean of peak operation.”

The flight school Lockwood operates has been running “nine series” Rotax engines for a long time, he said, and they typically run to their 2,000-hour TBO. “We go 100 hours on our oil change intervals. And as long as you’re using unleaded fuel, we don’t do much to the engines in between the 100-hour service intervals.”

Austrian Quality and Future Developments

While Rotax has factories in China and Mexico that can build the engines for some of their other applications, Lockwood said all their aircraft engines are only manufactured in their Linz, Austria, plant. 

“The build quality of the Rotax engines coming out of Austria is very high. If you ever have a chance to go to the main factory in Austria, do so, because it is very impressive,” he said. 

As to what is in development for the Rotax aircraft engine line, Lockwood only said “they seem to be quite committed to the aircraft engine market. And now they have quite a long history and are continuing to develop new engines. So exactly what is coming? I don’t know. But it appears they’re moving forward with higher horsepower engines.”

Lockwood and His AirCam

It is hard to write about Phil Lockwood without discussing his AirCam kit airplane. Let’s recap quickly how this open-cockpit, twin-Rotax kitplane came into existence. 

After becoming known for his bush flying in the world of conservation and wildlife photographers and filmmakers, Lockwood was approached in early 1993 by a National Geographic photographer and another conservation photographer who asked Lockwood to fly them on missions in the Congo region of Africa. 

“I had done my previous Africa bush flying in Namibia, which is mostly desert with places to land everywhere,” Lockwood said. “These Congo missions were over dense rainforest in the northern part of the country with 100-foot-high mahogany trees and very little opportunity to land. I made some initial drawings of the prototype AirCam using two 64 hp Rotax 582 engines for redundancy; they liked the safety of the two engines, and we completed it in six months.”

Lockwood shipped that first AirCam to the Congo in five DHL shipping crates, and it was so successful, he decided to put more than 22,000 engineering hours into developing the AirCam as a kit. By 1999, he began selling AirCam kits, and the popularity of the design continues today. The first AirCam prototype flown for the Congo missions is now in the EAA Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

The post A Deep Dive into Rotax LSA Engines appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: How AirCam designer Phil Lockwood transformed his career and influenced aviation with his unique experimental aircraft.

DETAILS: FLYING’s Thom Patterson talks with Phil Lockwood about how he became interested in aviation, as well as sharing the story behind the creation of the AirCam.

SPEAKER: Lockwood is CEO at Lockwood Aircraft Corp. He oversees production of the AirCam fast-build kitplane and its production. Lockwood also serves as president and CEO of Lockwood Aviation Supply, the largest service center for Rotax aircraft engines in North America.

BIO: Lockwood began his aviation career as a graduate of Florida Institute of Technology’s specialized School of Aeronautics in 1982 with a bachelor of science degree in air commerce and flight technology. He has been an active pilot since 1978 with more than 2,500 hours accumulated in more than 100 different types of aircraft. Lockwood has attained deep experience in evaluating and improving the performance and control harmony of light sport aircraft. Drawing on his experience as a wildlife photo platform pilot, Lockwood designed and built the first AirCam, an innovative twin-engine airplane, as a photo platform for a special National Geographic research project about the Ndoki Rain Forest in northern Congo. In 2006, Lockwood founded Aero Technical Institute, which teaches light sport aircraft and Rotax engine maintenance. A seaplane pilot for 25 years, Lockwood holds commercial single- and multi-sea ratings and serves the Seaplane Pilots Association as a director.

KEY QUOTES FROM LOCKWOOD:

“A group came to me wanting to do a special research project in the Ndoki Rainforest in north Congo. That was a different environment that was really no place to land where they wanted to operate and no chance of rescue if you went down. They wanted to use the same kinds of planes that I had been using, which was a plane called The Drifter and I told them, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. I mean, single-engine airplane, you’re telling me that there’s no place to land other than where we might take off and land out of the base camp, and no chance of rescue if we go down.’ Those aren’t the kind of odds that I really like. So I showed them some drawings I had been working on for the AirCam and they said, ‘OK, build the first one for us.’ I gave them a price, which was probably unrealistic, and they gave me their timeframe, which was also unrealistic, and not knowing any better I bid on it and in six months we had built the first prototype.”

“The engines really made the AirCam possible. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. They’re very reliable engines. It’s quite unusual for you to hear of anybody having an engine failure in an AirCam. The engines work really well. So having two super-lightweight engines that have a great power-to-weight ratio—of course, the gear reduction drive—gives you a very slow prop rpm. That helps make it quiet. We have a good exhaust system. So as you overfly people on the ground—sparsely populated, at least 500 feet away—I mean, they can barely hear you. The airplane is whisper-quiet especially at low speeds.”

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The company set up shop at the show with four of the twin-engine fliers on display, most of which were supplied by AirCam owners who built the airplanes themselves. The aircraft were tied down and secured beneath the AirCam tent when ominous clouds began to coalesce over Lakeland, followed by a Level 1 tornado that ripped through the fly-in grounds. The storm lasted only a matter of minutes and luckily caused no serious injuries, but nonetheless left vast devastation in its wake.

All in all, more than 60 aircraft were damaged because of the tornado, many of them irreparably so. The AirCam community was among those hardest hit, finding wreckage of its exhibition as far as five displays away, and all four of its aircraft were severely damaged. After surveying the devastation, the group, like so many others, quickly began the heartbreaking work of removing the wreckage. Bringing the destroyed aircraft back to life, however, was a much larger task.

Of the four damaged AirCams, three required an entirely new kit, no small undertaking with 1,100 man-hours required to put together the 22,500 pieces that go into each aircraft. The AirCam demo, while the least damaged aircraft on display, still needed new wings, forcing the company to borrow another airplane in the interim so that introductory rides could continue.

The company’s founder, Phil Lockwood, and president, George Weber, pitched in much of the restoration work themselves, putting in their own time to replace the demo’s wings and to oversee the quick repair of the remaining aircraft. With their effort and the time put in by AirCam factory workers, the homebuilt aircraft that were piled into one large heap of wreckage just one year ago have now been fully restored and are back in the air.

As companies and aviation geeks alike prepare to descend upon Lakeland once again, Weber didn’t hesitate to affirm AirCam’s continued presence at the event.

He says visitors can find his company and its unique aircraft in the same exhibition spot as last year, in fact, despite the unfortunate circumstances of 2011.

Check out our Air Cam photo gallery here.

The post A Tale of Restoration appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Andy Atkins, his wife Jenny and four-year-old son Logan, the story reported, were on an air tour of the island of Roatan near Honduras when, the story claims, “disaster struck: The engine cut out and the seaplane crashed into the water.”

The pilot, identified on the NBC video only as Mr. Brown, pulled Andy Atkins from the submerged airplane, and told Atkins, while the two bobbed in the water next to the submerged aircraft, that the floatplane had lost an engine. Brown and Atkins dove back down and were able to pull Jenny Atkins and their son from the submerged airplane. All four on board survived the crash.

The airplane shown in the NBC spot is an Air Cam, a twin-engine kit airplane that is configured typically to carry two occupants in a tandem-seating configuration. The Air Cam in the footage is outfitted with straight floats (as opposed to amphibious floats) and with a third seat. There have been a few Air Cams modified to carry three occupants inline—one that operates in the United States reportedly gives “free” rides after passengers pay for a boat ride out to the ramp.

The accident airplane was apparently a three-place modification of an Air Cam, in which the owner puts an additional seat and restraint in an area that as originally an open baggage area. Lockwood Aircraft owner Phil Lockwood told Flying that prospective customers will sometimes ask him about creating a third seat in an Air Cam and he tells them “without exception” that such a modification is not recommended, as it encourages pilots to overload the aircraft. Because the Air Cam is an amateur-built kit, however, there’s nothing in the regulations to prevent customers from modifying a kit in any way that they wanted, regardless of what Lockwood says.

Reports are that the accident Air Cam was operated by Bay Island Airways, which advertises sightseeing tours in Roatan. Its two Air Cams are outfitted with three seats and three seat belts. How a fourth occupant could have been carried is not known. Bay Island Airways could not be reached for comment and its website is down.

So, why would the loss of an engine in an Air Cam cause a crash? And why would a float plane “crash” into the water in light seas to begin with? One eyewitness reported that the Air Cam was flying very low and a wing “clipped” the water, causing the crash. Whether that sequence of events, if accurately described, was related to an engine failure or not is unknown.

As outfitted normally, the Air Cam is an excellent single-engine flyer. Its engines are so close together that there’s little asymmetrical thrust. With a very heavy load, Lockwood said, the pilot would have had trouble maintaining altitude but would not have a hard time maintaining directional control, even if the craft were heavily loaded. Why the loss of an engine would necessitate anything but an uneventful water landing on the floats, remains a mystery.

Lockwood also commented that on the video one of the floats is submerged, indicated that it had been damaged. Whether that damage as a result of a hard landing (a possibility) or it had been damaged previously is yet another question in this mysterious crash that has yet to be answered.

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When Phil Lockwood, the young man who would one day create the AirCam, graduated from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1982, the aviation industry was already looking grim as it prepared to enter what would turn out to be a 10-year downturn, during which time light plane manufacturing came to a near halt. The prospects looked anything but promising to a young man with a dream of making a living working with airplanes.

But as fate would have it, at the same time as Wichita was entering its protracted funk, the ultralight and kitbuilt craze was just gathering steam, and Lockwood was lucky enough to catch on with one of the new companies, Maxair Aircraft Corp., that was riding the wave. Maxair built a lineup of light airplanes based on its Drifter model. The Drifter was and is a well-regarded design. You can still buy a Drifter today. At the time there were single and two-seat models, and there was even an ultralight-legal version. All the models featured the classic single aluminum tube “fuselage,” onto which the seats were bolted, and a high-mounted pusher engine just behind the wing. Lockwood got hired as marketing director, and was soon selling lots of Drifters.

Maxair eventually changed hands, and Lockwood reluctantly parted ways with Maxair. About two years after Lockwood left, the company went belly up, and Lockwood bought the rights to the Drifter and the tooling to make it at a bankruptcy sale. And just like that, he had an airplane company. Hundreds of Drifter owners were very happy for that fact.

Now, if you get to know Phil Lockwood, you’ll quickly realize that he’s the kind of guy who is nothing if not prudent. He is, in fact, the kind of guy for whom FAA regulations exist as a guideline for doing what he’d do anyway. When you market a kit airplane, as you probably know, there’s no requirement, for example, for you to conduct the kinds of safety testing that we take for granted with conventionally certificated airplanes, like load testing of the wings. But Lockwood, like many reputable kit makers conducts such tests anyway. In fact, he wouldn’t think of not doing it. He quickly established a reputation in the industry as a designer you could trust.

At one point in the early 90s, Lockwood got a call from Des and Jen Bartlett, a journalist team who were working on a story for National Geographic. The Bartletts had bought a couple of Drifters and asked Lockwood if he would come to Namibia and teach them how to fly the airplanes. It was an amazing opportunity. The Bartletts were responsible for a number of wildlife film specials for National Geographic, including Survivors of the Skelton Coast, which was an hour-long special and a cover story on the magazine. The experience would change Lockwood’s life.

“I doubt I taught them anything about aerial filming and photography,” Lockwood told, me, “but during my three trips to help them with the aircraft I was able to learn a lot about the art of photography. Des was a great teacher and photography had always been a passion for me. In the short time I spent with them I was able to learn a great deal but my job was to help them get the most from the aircraft and help out with the bush flying. My visits with them were most enjoyable.”

During his trip to Namibia, Lockwood found himself flying on several occasions at low level over terrain that was unlandable, and he started to seriously think about a twin-engine version of the Drifter. The extra powerplant, Lockwood reasoned, would make losing an engine little more than an inconvenience.

As fate would have it, the next National Geographic story for which Lockwood would get recruited would require the creation of that airplane. When he pitched the idea to National Geographic, they simply said, “Build it.”

He did. And he brought this new airplane (dubbed the AirCam, for its raison d’être) to Africa (a story in and of itself) and used it as a camera platform, helping National Geographic photographers capture remarkable footage of the Ndoki, including areas never before captured on film.

The Ndoki project was a special one. Renowned NGS Photographer Nick Nichols was working with Dr Michael Fay with the cooperation of the Wild Life Conservation Society to document the story of the Ndoki rain forest in northern Congo, a place they came to call “the last place on earth.”

The demands placed on the AirCam were great, but it surpassed Lockwood’s expectations. The airplane had to be able to operate from a makeshift 600 foot dirt strip in the jungle, and to be able to fly low and slow over the dense rainforest while using very little fuel, as fuel was incredibly scarce. There were, in fact, no roads that ran into Bomassa, the tiny village that was the base of operatoins, so all the fuel used by the AirCam had to be brought in 55-gallon drums, transported up the Sangha River in dugout canoes.

When the story appeared, the phones started ringing, and Lockwood realized he had a product on his hands. His company soon started producing kits for the AirCam, applying lessons he’d learned from the National Geographic project. He abandoned the aluminum tube “fuselage” design for a built-up aluminum monocoque structure, and he replaced the two-stroke Rotax 582 engines with four-stroke Rotax 912s. The resultant product was a thing of beauty.

I flew the AirCam soon after and was impressed by its solid construction, its terrific engine-out handling and its unsurpassed visibility. It handles like an airplane, albeit one with a lot of drag and a fair amount of adverse yaw, though nothing compared to many other ultralight-style designs. Bear in mind, that the AirCam weighs around 5 times as much empty as a legal ultralight, so even though it might look in some respects like a Part 103 design, it is anything but. Still, landing and takeoff distances are crazy short, just a couple of hundred feet when flown right, and the airplane can take off and land on a single engine, even on lightweight amphibious floats, if you can believe that.

There are today more than 160 AirCams flying. A complete kit for the airplane costs right around $100,000, and it takes a while to build one. But once you do, you’ve got an airplane that enables a pilot to do things that one couldn’t or, more often, wouldn’t do with a light airplane. Which was, as you’ve read, the original idea behind the AirCam.

Who knew it would turn out to be an idea that captured the imagination of so many pilots who just wanted to have fun. Then again, it also captured the imagination of a lot of pilots who saw whole new ways to take advantage of the AirCam’s three most desirable features: its remarkable visibility, its twin-engine safety and the rewarding flying experience it provides every time out.

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