Increased LSA weight rules

I agree Don. I'm not too worried about it really. It's not like they're going after my 401K or anything. My plane has a 1200 hour engine in it so it's not real valuable anyway and as TBO approaches, I have some hard decisions to make about how to approach it. It seems like the FAA is creating a lot of niche bureaucracy and things will get complicated and confusing but that's what govt agencies do. Guess we'll just have to wait and see. In the mean time, just got it out of shop after best annual so far. No squawks except for a crack in the muffler which my mechanic buddy welded for free!

Chris
Sioux Falls, SD
N87335

I welcome it. It is something I wished for before I bought my CD coupe. I would have liked to buy a Cessna 150, a Piper Colt, a Cessna 120 or 140 or the Luscombe E & F models.. I doubt that 172s and Cherokee 140s will become LSA. While I have not read anything authoritative either, I have seen info on other aviation forums that the proposed new gross weight will be in the 1650# range and that will let in a lot of other so called legacy aircraft into the LSA category. I am unsure if stall speeds and top speeds will increase under the new proposal.

Letting in more legacy aircraft as LS is, I think, good. However, I consider the proposal a day late and a dollar short in that Basic Med allows most private pilots now flying as sport pilots the opportunity to move up in aircraft performance and seating capacity, if desired. Still, the new proposal is good for those with only the sport pilot certificate as it will offer a wider range of legacy aircraft and the potential of more speed in new LSAs.

It may cause the price of my CD model to drop, but there will be a lot of legacy aircraft available so I expect there will be quick leveling and settling of prices in the legacy LSA category.

Don
N94634

Here's an article from Aviation Week magazine. They're kind of the 'industry standard' when it comes to engineering and legal issues.

aviationweek.com/awinbizav/change-ahead-lsa-aircraft-rules

I agree Kim. May be only viscous rumors. If it happens, I think market values for 415C and CD models would be more significantly effected depending on how high they go on the increase. If all the 150's and Cherokee 140's out there were included, the market would be pretty open and saturated so that LSA's would probably lose quite a bit of value.

I had heard this,but other than two AVWeb articles I have not been able to find any additional info or any hard data as to what the new limits would be. Or any time frame. Do you have any other sources of info?

As to affecting values, based on complete lack of expertise in this area, I think it would slightly decrease the current LSA Ercoupe values and increase the current non-LSA coupe values.