Aviator

One of the significant aerodynamic differences between a 172 and Eurofox is the use of ‘flaperons’. These are essentially flaps which run the full width of the wing, but can also operate as ailerons. They aren’t very big and don’t move far (20° maximum), so I was not expecting a huge change in aerodynamics when they were deployed.

Putting the ‘light’ into light sport

The first thing that hit me was the small overall scale and relatively flimsy nature of the aircraft during the walk-around. I noticed fabric-covered wings, lightweight struts and lots of fibreglass. There was no sign of the hefty wing support strut from the 172. No large rivetted aluminium panels. Control cables were very thin.

I was pre-warned about the nosewheel and how easily the supporting strut can be bent. As I (mostly) don’t land on the nosewheel first, I did not dwell too long on this advice. However, I would shortly discover why this is an issue.

Next was the simplicity of design, presumably mostly for weight saving purposes. For example, the doors consist of a single light sheet of Perspex mounted to a very light steel frame. Contrast that to a Piper or Cessna with a steel frame, outer aluminium skin, inner door trim of carboard and vinyl, with heavy latches and handles. Best of all you can get some pretty good photos through the closed door without risking losing your camera.

Sizing it up

So, if it’s small on the outside, it is going to be really small on the inside, right? It’s not the Tardis, after all.

I am 6 ft tall and fairly solid, but I found the legroom to be adequate and sufficient (but not generous) clearance between my headset and the roof of the aircraft. I always lower the pilot’s seat in a 172 as far as possible, so I would guess that if you can fit comfortably into a 172 then you will also feel at home in a Eurofox.

‘Best of all you can get some pretty good photos through the closed door without risking losing your camera’

The seats are not adjustable in any way (other than with cushions). With a seat design and 4 point harness a little reminiscent of a formula racing car, I am beginning to see where the term ‘sport’ in Light Sport comes from.

The first thing a Cessna pilot will notice on climbing into the cockpit is a stick where the yoke should be. In the middle of the floor slightly forward of the seats are the flaps and trim levers. After 18 years of electric flaps, a manual flap lever mounted on the floor (instead of on the panel) is a little confronting. The trim lever (instead of a wheel) suggested that trimming the aircraft might be a little more onerous task than I was used to.

At least the rudder pedals were in the correct location. But wait. Where are the toe brakes? Where are the brakes, period?

There is a red handle in the centre of the panel, next to the throttle. You might be thinking mixture control. But no, that is the brake ‘pedal’. Apparently, they work much like the handbrake in a ‘real’ airplane. There is no differential braking. I suspected that my first attempt at taxiing was going to be somewhat interesting.

This particular aircraft has the optional Dynon ‘glass cockpit’ primary flight display (PFD) and even an autopilot. After a few hours getting used to the Garmin G1000 in a 172, I would soon discover that the Dynon is simple and easy to learn and use, even without RTFM.

Unlike glass GA aircraft, this machine does not have backup steam gauges for the basics (ASI, AH and ALT). If the panel fails (I believe it has a 4-hour backup battery), you had best have some idea how to fly the airplane by feel.

The ‘ignition switch’ seems to combine the functions of master switch, avionics master and starter. Separated and above it, we find two small toggle switches for the left and right magnetos.

‘Your reactions need to be a little quicker and more accurate than in a GA aircraft’

OK, so if the red handle on the panel is not the mixture, then where is the mixture? It turns out that there isn’t one. There is only a choke for cold starts. Just like in motor cars in ye olde days. And I thought we were moving into the 21st century.

Next, where are the notoriously inaccurate fuel gauges? Nothing on the panel or in the Dynon display. But if you look up and left or right, there is some clear plastic tubing near the wing root. A system so basic that it is almost foolproof. The pilot can easily see exactly how much fuel is in the tanks, in flight, with a very high degree of certainty. That should make fuel management a bit easier.

Start me up

After running through the short and simple checklist and a nice loud “Clear Prop”, the Rotax engine seemed to spring to life much more easily than the old Lycomings. While the engine warmed up it was a good opportunity to get to know a bit more about the Dynon PFD. Setting QNH is a little more involved than with steam gauges but much the same as for the Garmin units. There is a wide choice of PFD display layouts to suit most pilots, depending on what they are used to, or trying to achieve.

The transponder is a separate unit and while a modern design, it does not have the advanced features of the G1000 such as automatically switching from On (Ground/Mode A) to Alt (Mode C) when you takeoff. That is probably a good thing for habit development for new pilots, easing the transition to GA aircraft without glass cockpits, as the vast majority are still (ill-)equipped.

Taxiing with the right hand operating both the throttle and brakes takes a bit of getting used to. However, it was nowhere near as daunting as I had expected.

Onwards and upwards

For takeoff, flaps and trim are set to half. As there are no notches or detents, that setting is just a guess for the unfamiliar pilot, especially during a touch-and-go. Otherwise, up to the point of lining up on the runway, the experience was mostly familiar for a GA pilot. But that was about to change.

When opening the throttle to full on a Cessna 172, you might have time to check the pressures and temps, static RPM and airspeed alive, then make a coffee, call your Mum and read the form guide for today’s races before rotating as the ASI slowly creeps around the dial. Not in this thing. As soon as the throttle is opened the aircraft rockets down the runway with an acceleration rate that leaves you in no doubt about where the ‘sport’ part of Light Sport comes from.

My first takeoff was a little later than desirable as everything caught me by surprise. I think the instructor eased the stick back for me before we hit VNE while still on the runway.

At 65 kt the initial climb performance is pretty snappy, even with the extra drag from the flaps. At 200 ft AGL these are retracted, and after a quick re-trim, the climb rate improves a bit more. We set attitude for 75 kt for the rest of the climb. Trimming the aircraft is not as hard as I had expected. If you hold the desired attitude then move the trim lever, you can quite easily feel when the load is removed from the stick. I found that trimming became quick and accurate after only a couple of attempts.

Everything happens faster in this lightweight rocket. On the first two circuits I punched straight through 1,000 ft and was over 1,100 ft before I released what was going on. On levelling off and allowing the airspeed to increase, it didn’t take long to speed up to near 100 kt. While it is normal to cruise at 4,800 rpm which produces about 95 kt, my instructor advised reducing the power in the circuit to 4,000 rpm. This slowed us down enough to let the brain catch up with the aircraft and get the downwind radio calls and pre-landing checks done before it was time to set up for the approach.

Stabilised approach

I managed to master the stabilised approach some years ago and relied on it extensively during Night VFR training. However, you could be forgiven for thinking I had never successfully done one based on my performance in the Eurofox for the first few circuits. It was almost like learning to fly all over again, as far as control inputs were concerned. The yoke-to-stick transition did not seem to be a problem for the brain, but the lack of inertia, particularly when encountering wind gusts or thermals, when coupled with my tendency to over-control the aircraft, resulted in a pretty rough ride for my ‘passenger’.

After demonstrating how it should be done, my instructor handed the aircraft back to me. It was starting to become apparent that small mistakes made at the start of the approach on late downwind would not sort themselves out by late final. Getting the whole process right is integral to a quality outcome (landing).

As flaps are set to full for landing on late downwind, if you find yourself too high or too fast later in the approach, there is no option to drop more flaps. Slipping is about the only tool left in the cupboard to correct approach mistakes.

I usually flare pretty late in a 172, but even that was not low enough for the Eurofox. After several more circuits I managed some pretty acceptable landings. I discovered that when the Eurofox touches down, the centre of pressure can shift (snap) forward and the nosewheel can hit the ground a little harder than we would prefer.

Training area exercises

We headed out to the training area for some basic handling familiarisation. Without a stall warning horn and with minimal buffeting of the airframe, the first power-off stall was so benign that had the instructor not called it, I would have kept back pressure on and waited for something more exciting to happen.

LSA aircraft are not rated for aerobatics, so spins are out. Next up we tried a couple of steep turns. ‘Steep’ in LSA is 30 to 45 degrees rather than the 60 we are used to in GA. So that wasn’t much of a challenge, other than getting used to how much back pressure was required and of course using the rudder to maintain balance. Then a couple of simulated emergency landings from 2,000 ft proved to be no problem.

A five-hour navex

Before I completed my conversion, I was offered the opportunity to ride along on a trip from Archerfield to Coffs Harbour as an observer. Hence, for this flight I was not able to fly or receive instruction. Turns out it’s not a bad way to get an overview of this brave new world. Without the pressure of learning to control an unfamiliar aircraft type, I had plenty of time to get to know the various onboard systems while experiencing the effects of a low inertia aircraft.

We set off at about 0800 local time with my carefully crafted flight plan indicating that, with the forecast 10 to 15 kt tailwinds at 6,500 ft, we should have a circuit-to-circuit flight time of 100 minutes for the 166 nm flight. With a short taxi and no delay out of Archerfield, we were soon in the air and tracking for our destination.

Lies, damned lies and weather forecasts

Despite the best efforts of the BOM, the promised tailwinds were replaced with around 10 kt headwinds. The promised CAVOK was replaced with increasing scattered cumulus at around 4,500 ft, with a nice thick layer of bushfire smoke turning it a dirty brown colour. Above this it was smooth, albeit slow, sailing, with plenty of holes in the clouds for regular visual navigation fixes.

We investigated every aspect of the PFD, including all the display layout options, various engine instrument configurations and the autopilot functions. Everything was easy to follow and use, even without referring to the manuals.

The Eurofox exhibits strong secondary control effects, so kicking the rudder will roll the aircraft quite noticeably. Hence, I believe that a solo navex in this aircraft using the old-fashioned methods would be a real challenge for most student pilots. But maybe it gets easier with more than a handful of hours experience on the type.

We finally landed, taxied and shut down in Coffs Harbour half an hour late. As the forecast weather back home included thunderstorms later in the day, we decided on a quick turnaround to get back home before the promised bad weather showed up.

On the road again

Now you might expect that having headwinds on the way down would mean tailwinds on the way back. But no, this time – less than an hour later – the headwinds at our preferred cruising level above the smoke and clouds were up around 30 kt. We descended below the clouds and into the smoky soup where the headwinds were only 10 to 15 kt. It was a long, slow, bumpy ride home.

Within about 25 nm of our home airfield, we both started to feel the effects of a small cabin with limited room to stretch. Sore legs, sore bums, and for me a sore back as well. This aircraft is definitely one that requires short hops and regular stops.

For the final insult, none of the predicted storms eventuated. We had been well and truly conned by Mother Nature all day.

Takeaways for GA pilots

I cannot yet speak for the whole Light Sport category, but my initial impressions as far as pilot skills when training on the Eurofox are summarised below. To be clear, we are only interested in what RA-Aus refer to as ‘3-Axis Aircraft’. These are the general types that are gaining popularity as alternative trainers to the traditional Cessna 152s and Piper Tomahawks.

Firstly, the ‘quickness’ of the machine means that reactions and processes need to be spot on all the time.

Low inertia is probably the major difference between the categories. In the LSA you know when you are in a thermal, or what the wind is doing to the aircraft. Your reactions need to be a little quicker and more accurate than in a GA aircraft.

You can get away with a lot more in a Cessna 172 than in a Eurofox when the weather is not perfect. In a LSA moderate turbulence requires more effort to control the aircraft. Those with a weak stomach may not enjoy the ride as much.

The crosswind landing capabilities of an LSA are generally much less than a GA training aircraft, although we have since done several 15 kt crosswind landings without any issues.

Finally, the biggest one of all – the rudder. If you are like me and have got away with minimal rudder use for many years, prepare to be shocked. I can see how easy it might be to tighten up a turn a little too much onto final with throttle at idle and airspeed a little too low. Incorrect rudder input at that time might be all it takes to create an unrecoverable situation.

Aero Circus was formed by a group of pilots with different experience levels from RPL to Grade 1 Instructor. Their aim is to bridge the gap between what the CASA syllabus teaches and what a truly safe or employable pilot needs to know. They achieve this by regularly publishing articles on various aspects of flying skills at aerocircus.com.au as well as providing detailed assessments of a pilot’s practical flying skills.
‘We had been well and truly conned by Mother Nature all day’