Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes Cessna 150, 152 vs LSA

As most are aware here we decided to sell our 150 and replace it with an Experimental Light Sport Aircraft. Primary reasons were to get out from under the FAA's hypocritical regulations for doing maintenance and modifications. And to do away with the medical. The criteria was to find an airplane comfortable for two people. Under $30,000. And a baggage area large enough to carry a 27 x 20 x 19 (inches) kennel for Cheyenne.

What did we find? That we entered this venture with a very naive attitude. Though many, (Most?), of the two place LSA's had more passenger room then our 150. Many, (most?), will out perform the Cessna 150 in many categories. They will take off faster. Climb faster and land shorter. Most were a bit slower then the 150, but not by much. Many, (most?), were more fuel efficient. Many, (most?), had better visibility. Many, (most?), had a larger useful load. Some exceeding 700 pounds. But now the major obstacle. Even though these planes have a higher useful load, we cannot find a single E-LSA in our price range with a baggage compartment large enough to carry Cheyenne. And only a couple beyond our price range that actually have the room. All that useful load but little to no baggage area. It don't figure.

We are still looking, but presently it's been impossible to find a suitable LSA replacement for what we already have.

Bill
Grants Pass, Oregon

The couple of times I visited Airventure I wandered around the new airplanes with a similar goal - find a plane that can do everything the Cessna 150 does, but just move faster.

I was surprised to find that the size of the baggage compartment was the biggest stumbling block. Even when I looked at the four-seaters it came down to using the backseats as a payload bay.

The Jabiru 250SP [usjabiru.com] comes closest. It achieves its room by being an Australian 4-seater with the back two seats removed to comply with LSA regs. But, it's expensive.

Let us know how your search goes.

It appears, based on the short timeframe you've been searching, a bigger budget may be in order.

Just curious, what's the advantage of buying experimental if you are not the builder? My understanding is that purchasing an experimental that's already built negates the advantage of allowing you to do your own maintenance/inspections.

As for the price range, good luck! I shopped for over a year before deciding on my 152 and I have yet to see an LSA selling for less than $60k unless it has damage (experimental included).

If you're not the builder of your experimental aircraft, you can still do maintenance and mods. You just can't do the inspections, unless you're an A&P or took the appropriate training to get the repairman certificate for that aircraft.

GPB is an A&P. Shouldn't be a problem is his case.

If you go with an Experimental (not a LSA), you may have more choices. You still need the medical, but you escape most maintenance/mod regulations.

The Cessna 150 has a massive cargo area for its size. It is difficult to find another plane in its class that can match it. The piper Tomahawk comes pretty close.

My guess is that this is intentional. A designer of recreational planes can limit their liability risk by posting a huge useful load but not giving you the space to use it. Fuel tanks often are smaller than they need to be and cargo space is intentionally limited.

All this I believe is in effort to prevent overloading by the operator. Planes that are designed for professional operators usually come with huge tanks and cavernous cargo capacity in hopes that they will stay within the limitations but still hold the maximum amount of load configurations for the pilot.

When the supercub first came out it had a cargo space hardly big enough to hold a brief case and a limit of only 35 pounds. I think it will be difficult to find a LSA plane with much cargo space at all.

Jim

Great post, Jim. I had never thought about that possibility that they offer up the capacity in weight but don't make it available in space. I've been looking at homebuilts for 15 years and was always puzzeled by the lack of storage space. Even if you don't carry a dog, everyone needs to take along quite a bit of stuff. But, the plane design doesn't let you.

I've mentioned to Bill before, the Piper Vagabond,now plansbuilt or partial kit from Wagaero, is the only one I've found with both available weight and storage space. It is the tail-dragger Colt that you mentioned above.

The originals used to be for sale at about the same price as a C-150. When LSA became legal, the price went up about 10 grand. I think if someone did a lot of planning, and was willing to have others do a lot of the building, he could get an experimental Wag in the air with a good sized engine within a year for under $30 grand. I'm scratch building. It's going slowly but will be cheaper. I suppose 15-20 grand with everything, but I'm not actully keeping track of my expenses.

Is it a W&B thing, you can carry more weight but it has to be in your lap?

Under $30000 is tough. I too was looking at LSA before I bought my 150. All the ones I liked were out of my budget. Factory made were way out of my price range. So I looked into a building a experimental LSA, and most of those were out of my price range and since I work almost 7 days a week, I wouldn't have time to build one anyways. I'm happy with what I have. Although, I wish I could do all the maintenance and improvements like a glass panel. Especially when I write a big check for repairs like I did on Wednesday for a new encoder and transponder certification. Good luck on your search Bill.