SPC099 [BR] The Starting Gun — What MOSAIC Means for Student Pilots

Two days before AirVenture, the engine in my Jabiru went

quiet over southeastern Colorado, and I had to put it in a field.

Two days later, I'm standing on the grounds at Oshkosh, and Jabiru's big

debut is an airplane with two engines.

I climbed inside.

It looks just like mine, just with a spare.

So let's talk about what showed up at Oshkosh this year and what it

means if you're learning to fly in episode 99 of the Student Pilot Cast

Welcome back to the Student Pilot Cast.

I'm Bill.

Back in episode 94, I promised this one was next.

That was four episodes ago.

In my defense, a listener asked a question, and I went and recorded a

flight with six recorders running.

This one's a lot simpler, I promise.

A few months later, which actually kind of helps because now we can see what's real.

Two big stories, MOSAIC, the FAA's new light sport rule from the

manufacturer's perspective, which took effect right in the middle of

the show, and a wave of new avionics.

And I'm gonna look at both through one lens.

What does that mean for a student pilot or for somebody thinking about getting into

flying, or maybe even a pilot looking to own their own more affordable airplane?

Quick background.

MOSAIC is the FAA's rewrite of the light sport rules.

It came in two phases.

The pilot side took effect in October of last year.

The aircraft side, the part that lets manufacturers build and certify bigger,

more capable light sport airplanes than they could before, took effect July 24th.

That was Friday of the week of Oshkosh

So the show didn't just cover MOSAIC, the show was the starting gun for what

hopefully becomes a race of innovation.

Van's Aircraft delivered the very first airplane certified

under the new rules, an RV-12iS.

It went straight to a flight school, Crystal Air Academy in Chattanooga.

Sling announced the 2M, a MOSAIC version of their trainer, and

started deliveries in August.

Pipistrel, which is owned by Textron, showed the Voyager, a two-seat

trainer built for flight schools with deliveries, I think, starting next year.

Vashon showed a training version of the Ranger, and Zenith showed

a new three-seat Super Cruzer.

And yes, the twins.

Jabiru's J432 is two engines on a design that's basically my airplane.

They've had it ready and waiting for the rule.

They've been playing around with it for a while.

Sling says it's gonna start working on a four-seat twin for Oshkosh next year.

Honestly, I was kind of hoping for a little bit more than what

we saw, but the rule took effect in the middle of the show.

What we saw were the airplanes that were already built and

waiting for the rule to exist.

Engineering programs take years.

This was just the first lap, not the whole race.

So why should a student care about a rule change?

Because MOSAIC changes the math of flight training, hopefully anyway.

Let me walk you through it.

First of all, what does it cost to buy an airplane?

A brand-new Cessna 172 today runs around a half a million dollars.

Figure about 480K base, and more like 500 and above by the

time it's equipped normally.

A new Piper Archer is in the same neighborhood, roughly 400 to 500,000

depending on how it's equipped.

Now, the new MOSAIC trainers.

The Van's RV-12 starts at about 246,000.

The Pipistrel Voyager is expected around 275, and the Sling 2M is

about 340,000, something like that.

So you're looking at roughly half to maybe two-thirds the

price of a new 172 or Archer.

That's still a lot of money, of course, but for a flight school deciding

how many airplanes it can put on the line, there's a big difference there.

You m- might say to yourself, "Self, I don't know if I'd buy

this because most of the flight schools I know don't use brand-new

aircraft." Well, that's likely true.

Some of them do, and they generally charge a premium for it, rightly so.

Many use older airplanes, and some use downright ancient airplanes.

But stick with me.

Listen to the next points as well.

So the next point is, what does it cost to run?

This is the part you actually feel in your hourly rate quite a bit.

A 172 or an Archer burns somewhere around s- eight and a half to 10

gallons an hour of 100 low lead.

These Rotax, mostly Rotax-powered MOSAIC trainers burn roughly half that,

around four to five gallons an hour, and they'd rather run on unleaded auto fuel,

which is usually cheaper than avgas.

Engine overhaul intervals are about the same on both, usually around 2,000 hours.

So same overhaul life, roughly half the fuel.

This is where a lot of costs of training come from, and this is where we compare

the cost of maintaining an older aircraft and a brand-new MOSAIC aircraft.

While the acquisition cost of an older 172 might be similar to the price of a new

light sport, or new MOSAIC, if you will, the cost of maintaining them will almost

always be cheaper on the newer one, and the operating costs in general, including

fuel costs, are going to be much lower.

Even using the ancient airplanes costing maybe half the cost of a new light

sport trainer, the maintenance costs are going to be significantly higher

on those older airplanes, and the fuel costs are still twice as high or more.

So this stuff adds up.

Now let's talk about what they can do.

This is what MOSAIC really unlocked with the new rules.

Light sport trainers have been around for years, and they were cheaper, but

they ran out of syllabus, if you will.

Before MOSAIC, a light sport airplane couldn't take you into

actual instrument conditions, and a lot of them couldn't carry two

real-sized adults with full fuel.

Now, the RV-12iS and the Sling 2M are cleared to fly in actual clouds.

The Voyager is built for IFR training.

The Sling 2M carries more than 600 pounds of useful load, which means two adults,

full fuel, and a whole airplane parachute.

That's a trainer that can take you a lot further through your training than

the light sport airplanes we had before.

I do some training in my light sport aircraft, and in fact, because it's

considered a technologically advanced aircraft, or TAA, I've done quite

a bit of commercial training in it, since TAA aircraft can replace the

required experience of complex aircraft for the commercial certificate.

If I were to invest in some more advanced navigator technology that

could do instrument approaches, I could even get somebody's instrument

rating in it, and many people do.

But I could never take a student into actual clouds during that training,

and that is a huge disadvantage in my opinion, and would make me feel weird

about doing instrument training in it.

I think you get it.

Let's talk about who can fly them.

On the pilot side, the sport pilot certificate got a lot more useful.

Now, you don't need a sport pilot certificate to use them for

training for other certificates.

But if somebody's going after a sport pilot certificate, of course,

these new MOSAIC light sport aircraft are perfect for that as well.

Since October of last year, sport pilots can fly at night with the right

training and endorsement, and they can fly a much wider range of airplanes.

You're still limited to one passenger, but for a lot of people, that makes sport

pilot a real on-ramp, a faster, cheaper first step that keeps working as you

grow into more and more capabilities.

And it's important to bring this up.

Sport pilots are no longer restricted to flying just light sport aircraft anymore.

That's what I was referring to before.

It opened up a whole new world.

The rule that went into effect last year made this possible.

It extends to so many more planes that are already out in the

GA fleet, which is incredible.

Of course, sport pilot does come with a few more restrictions, but

it has opened up incredibly far.

Now let's talk about the competition part.

This is the part I love.

Look at who's chasing flight schools now: Van's, Sling, Pipistrel, Vashon.

Cirrus has also announced a new trainer, and here's my favorite detail.

Pipistrel is owned by Textron, and Textron also owns Cessna.

So Textron is now competing with its own 172.

When the company that builds the most prolific trainer in history starts

building a cheaper alternative to it, that tells you where the market's heading.

Now the fair caveats.

These are two-seaters going up against mostly four-seaters, so it's not quite

apples to apples, although for training, two seats is what you actually use.

And most schools fly used 172s and Archers that they bought for a lot less

than new, like I mentioned earlier.

So cheaper airplanes don't automatically mean cheaper lessons tomorrow.

That, of course, depends on your school and a whole bunch of other factors.

But the schools are buying.

Van's says it's building one of these RV-12s about every four days, almost

all of them for flight schools.

And this is the first time in a long time I've seen the trend line

pointing the right way like that

The other big story at Oshkosh was in avionics, and what I loved is that

it came from both ends, the giants in the industry and the startups.

From the juggernaut, Garmin AXIS was announced right before the show, and it

was a big part of what they were showing.

One integrated system that rolls the flight display, IFR GPS, navcom, audio,

all of those things into one thing.

That's fewer boxes, simpler installs, and it has a dedicated emergency

button, which is pretty cool.

Sling and Pipistrel are both putting it in their new trainers, so a lot

of students will see this setup.

Dynon put IFR GPS right into its SkyView HDX, so following kind of

that similar let's integrate things better, which matters a lot for the

experimental and the light sport crowd.

And then there were the startups.

One pretty interesting one was a small company out of Long Beach,

California, called Airhart.

Their panel looks like one giant screen across the whole panel.

Linda Sollars had it installed in her Sling High Wing that most of you

probably know about, and I got to see that, so that was pretty cool.

It was a little rough around the edges in some ways.

It didn't look quite as polished as some of the big boys, but

it's new, and its ideas are bold.

Checklists that pop up on their own for whatever phase of flight

you're in, and ATC calls transcribed into text right on the screen.

It's hard to miss a call now, right?

Same story as the airplanes: competition.

Everybody's racing the same direction.

Simpler to fly, simpler to install, simpler to maintain.

When that happens, hopefully safety goes up and costs come down.

One caution from someone who just landed in a field without an emergency

a smarter panel doesn't replace knowing how to fly the airplane.

These tools are great at helping a pilot who knows what they're

doing, and that's still you.

All of these advancements in avionics can be a huge boon to safety, but

the experience and training of the pilots is more important than ever,

even with these advanced avionics.

I cringe when I see marketing in popular media that makes it seem like technology

can make flying more like driving.

The risks are way too high for this mentality, in my opinion.

I've got a lot more to say about this, but that's probably its own episode.

Just remember, high-tech panels can take some workload off of a good

pilot, but it's still the good pilot managing the risks and making decisions,

just with a lot more help and a lot more data at his or her fingertips.

All this tech in the hands of a lesser pilot makes the whole situation less safe

because of an improper understanding of risks and the distractions of data that

he or she doesn't know what to do with.

But let's move on from that for now.

We'll cover stuff like that hopefully in the future.

So what does this mean for you students and anyone thinking about starting

or somebody maybe just thinking about getting a newer, more capable aircraft?

Three points.

First, the airplanes you train in can get newer, cheaper to run, and more

capable, and cover more of your syllabus.

All the way through instrument training, commercial, CFI, CFII, et

cetera, can happen in them, and soon, probably even multi-engine training.

Second point, sport pilot is a real starting point, now giving

you access to a lot more airplanes and capabilities than before.

And third, don't wait.

Don't hold off on starting your training until the new

airplanes show up at your airport.

The fundamentals you learn in a 172 today are the same ones

you'll use in whatever comes next.

But what I am hoping is that this improves training, improves exposure to various

airplanes, brings more people into the industry, all while reducing cost.

so along those lines, I said I'd go on the record, so here it is.

And honestly, this is more hope than prediction.

I think, and I hope, that over the next five years or so, that MOSAIC

transforms this industry a bit.

Innovation up, prices down.

More people in the left seat in airplanes that are more modern and more accessible

than what most of us learned in.

Check back with me at Oshkosh in a few years, and we'll

see how the industry's doing.

So the short version: MOSAIC is live.

The first airplanes are real, and the first one went

straight to a flight school.

That puts a grin on my face.

The value case is real.

That's another point.

About half to two-thirds the purchase price of a 172 or Archer that's

new, and about half the fuel, and now the capability to carry you

much further through your training.

And the competition, from the airplanes to the panels, is what

pushes innovation up and prices down.

And for students, there's no reason to wait.

It's time to get started.

So were you at Oshkosh?

What did you see and think was interesting?

Or what do you think about MOSAIC and the changes that it might bring?

What does it mean to you?

Leave me a voicemail at studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck.

And if you're not on the Friday Flight Brief yet, the link's in the show notes.

I flew to Oshkosh this year to see the future of flying, as I always

do, and I ended up getting there in someone else's airplane and coming

home on an airline because the present quit on me over a field.

Both things are true.

The airplanes and the panels are getting better every year, and the

thing that got me down safely was the same thing that your instructor

is teaching you to do right now.

Still flying, still learning, and hoping MOSAIC gets here a little faster

than my Oshkosh industry report did