CT LS
Improvement of Successful CTSW
Tom Peghiny’s Flight Design is already a winner in the LSA market. LSA expert Dan Johnson’s (www.bydanjohnson.com) chart of LSA sales shows Flight Design as the clear leader in LSA sales selling the CTSW. Unlike many of the others, Peghiny has spent the time and effort to provide a very good support network for the CT series and not just selling airplanes. The upgraded CTLS should provide Flight Design with an even more competitive aircraft.
When I flew the CTSW, I found it to be a nice airplane, but one lacking storage space, especially up front. It amazes me that Bill and Helen McCandless actually flew a CTSW they bought in California across the country to its new home at Minuteman Airport in Stow, MA. (My wife would be hard-pressed to keep the baggage limited enough to make the trip in our Cherokee 180.)
When I got to fly the CTLS with Flight Design National Sales Director Ken Godin, I found the CTLS to be a significant improvement over the CTSW. The formerly cute little airplane is less cute but a lot more grown up. The CTLS feels like a much bigger and more substantial plane, even though it is only 14 inches longer than CTSW.
Other than a couple of small compartments under your legs in the CTSW, there wasn’t much storage space up front. There is now a usable shelf behind both seats in the CTLS. It is split, and it would probably be even more usable if it were a single flat shelf. There are also 2-3 inches of space behind each seat. The seats are high leather seats with headrests. The doors on both sides of the baggage compartment are now hinged and locking.
The parachute canister in the center of the baggage compartment, however, still limits the size and shape of luggage one can put in. The CTSW and the CTLS are very long range airplanes (over 845 miles range). Despite the McCandless adventure, I have a hard time picturing a very long cross country flight with two people in the CTSW. It is much easier to imagine it in the CTLS.
The CTLS has two Dynon EFIS screens. They look a little crude compared to Avidyne or G1000 screens, but are actually more user friendly. Airspeed and altitude are highlighted in large numbers and letters in a black on white box on each side of the display. There is now a stall warning capability built into the Dynon (despite Tom Peghiny’s telling me stall warning wasn’t necessary in the CTSW). Dynon screens have a reversionary mode in case the left screen fails, showing 2/3 of the PFD display plus 1/3 instrumentation on the right screen.
For excellent VFR navigational capabilities, there is a Garmin 496 in a panel dock. Frequencies can be highlighted on the 496 and automatically selected on the Garmin SL40 comm. radio. XM Weather and XM music are available on the 496. The Dynon EFIS and Garmin 496 have battery backup in case of electrical system failure. There are trim wheels on the center console for all three axes: pitch, ailerons, and rudder. One nice safety feature is that you have to move the fuel valve from closed to open to put the key in the ignition. You can’t start on residual fuel with the tank switched off.
Like the CTSW, the CTLS leaps off the ground on takeoff. In the air, we started with a couple of steep turns. The windows in the overhead are handy in steep turns for checking for other aircraft, or even for clearing turns before you start any maneuvers. An approach stall (power off) results in just a slight bobble.
The plane loses little or no altitude, unlike Cherokees that are well-mannered but develop a definite sink rate. Ailerons stay effective through the stall break. A departure stall (power on) has a definite break and nose drop, but a with a straight-ahead departure stall the CTLS stays wings level and is easily recoverable.
N806LS had an optional CT autopilot (a Tru-Trak unit). Taking up only a very small rectangular space on the left side of the panel, it provided impressive capabilities including GPS tracking and altitude hold and altitude change in 100s of feet.
The plane has a computer that will not let you put the flaps down if you are going too fast. The flap setting light will blink but the flaps won’t come down. The maximum flap operating speed for each flap position is written on the flap switch settings, a nice feature. There is a negative six degree flap setting for more efficient cruise. You can select a setting where you pull the power back, fly around at 80 knots, and have a fuel burn of only three gph.
The new CTLS composite landing gear have more give than the stiffer gear on the CTSW, making it easier to land. Godin also said that the plane is less susceptible to wind gusts and floating on landing with the new wingtips.
Godin is not an instructor and N806LS was the airplane that Flight Design was taking to AirVenture, so I did not really get to see how the plane lands. When we got down to the last 10-15 feet and I was just getting the feel of the plane, I would feel Ken’s nervous hands taking it away from me.
But one thing that was obvious was that the sight picture at landing is hard to get used to and would take some work on a proper checkout. Compared to other planes, in a normal landing alignment the sight picture from the left pilot’s seat looks like the plane’s nose is cocked to the right about 15-20 degrees.
I was surprised to see that the CTLS still has a hand brake. Most “second generation” LSAs on the US market now have toe brakes and most American pilots are used to flying planes that have them. While Ken Godin vehemently defends the easy to use hand brake on the CTLS, to be as competitive as possible when facing the Cessna Skycatcher, I would advise Tom Peghiny to have Flight Design’s German tech staff get to work on toe brakes for the CTLS.
Flight Design will be pressed hard by the Cessna when the C162 comes on the market. But I would much rather have an airplane built in the Ukraine supported by German engineering than one built in a country that sends us poisoned pet food and toothpaste and kids’ toys painted with lead paint. And the CTLS is quite likely a better airplane.
Flight Design intends to position the CTSW as a quicker, sportier, cheaper version of the CTLS. With nearly identical radios, the CTLS costs about $6000 more. If I were buying one, I would pay the extra money and get the newer, bigger, and better version.
By James E. Ellis