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Why are there more sportcruisers available than ctls?


Sbailin

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Looking on controller, there always seems to be many more Czech sportcruisers than flight design planes for sale. I thought they were similar in market share, so are people less happy with the Czech than FT? I’m learning on the CTLS but always wondered what it was like to fly the low wing bubble cockpit. Any thoughts?

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 Yeah, there are about 350 CTs in the US and about 290 SportCruisers.

Not sure if the fact that are 9 SportCruisers for sale vs 6 or so CTs at the moment indicates anything ... personally, I would pick CT over SportCruiser even though I prefer low wings and I own a low wing but that’s my personal preference.

I know SportCruisers tend to have issues with their front gear snapping and the company behind the plane is not very owner friendly ( for instance forget about any sort of LOA etc ) but ultimately it is still a decent plane , otherwise you wouldn’t have so many of them flying out there 🙂

 

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When shopping for a light sport back in late 2006/early 2007 I flew the SportCruiser and several others.

I liked the SC but liked the CTSW more. And, I've always been a high wing person. Nothing wakes you up faster in the morning than banging your head into the wings trailing edge!:bad_day-3329:

But, I digress. At that time LS was just getting its legs in the US. I was trying to look beyond just the airplane. I was also trying to guess which aircraft would be a better seller and would the company be around for the long run. I thought I had really messed up when FD went bankrupt but it worked out, maybe for the best.

One thing I didn't like about the SC is its approach to the stall. I like a plane that gives some aerodynamic warning, buffet, as you approach the stall. My recollection is the SC did not. It just went smoothly from pre stall to stall with no buffet. No wing drop as long as you were reasonably coordinated, no drop of the nose, just a smooth transition into about a 500 fpm decent.

Some would ask "what's wrong with that"? Perhaps nothing. A couple of Pipers models did the same thing. So, call it personal preference. I like some buffet. 

I have always though the SC is an extremely good looking plane, especially the later models.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

I have also noticed more SCs for sale than CTLSs and CTLSis. This last October I demoed a SC and a CTLSi in the same week. I preferred the CTLSi. I’m not sure why this occurred, but on final approach and relatively close to the runway, the SC was quite skittish,  oscillating from side to side fairly rapidly  (i.e., laterally) in benign weather conditions. The impulse is to try to counter the oscillations by moving the stick in the opposite direction of the oscillation. The instructor recommended to just keep the stick steady. That worked well. I could see how trying to control the oscillations particularly in less benign weather could result in an accident. On the other hand, the oscillations did not occur with the CTLSi. That aircraft flew like a heavier aircraft. I don’t think it was a high wing low wing issue. I demoed a DA-40 a month later. The CTLSi flew more like the DA-40 than did the SC. Other pluses were 1. Entry was much easier and 2. Visibility was better.

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The oscillations were probably caused by moving the stick in the first place, therefore moving the stick more will make it worse. The CT will do this to some extent too. Any airplane with any pronounced adverse yaw will display this tendency with movement of the ailerons without coordinated movement of the rudder.

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