S-LSA Operating Limits Question Answered

Straight from Van's Engineering:

From: Tom Valenzia <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2019 1:49 PM
To: Support <[email protected]>
Subject: S-LSA Limitations Questions

Support,

In reference to the RV-12 POH (pg. 2.3), I have several questions on the posted operating limitations below:

Maximum Direct Crosswind Component 11:
Is this truly a maximum crosswind limitation for the S-LSA? If so, what was the limiting criteria?

Depends how good the pilot is, how wide the runway, how gusty etc. You will run out of rudder above 11k, but may still be able to land/t/o OK

Maximum Wind Limitation 30
What phase(s) of fight or performance factor does this limitation apply to?

Every phase, but especially slow slight and runway operations. 30k is almost 75% of the stall speed.


Regards,

From the FAA's "Airplane Flying Handbook", Ch. 16, Transition to Light Sport Airplanes:

Some LSAs have a maximum recommend [sic] wind velocity regardless of wind direction.

Click to expand...

Discussion is mostly about how lighter aircraft can be more adversely affected by stronger/gustier winds, etc.

Interesting that is says "some". And is that surface winds? Winds aloft? (Without doing a lot of computations, or having a GPS or EFIS to do it for you, how would you even know if you're exceeding the limit? )

Weird. Glad there's no such thing for the rest of us.

TomVal said:

Maximum Wind Limitation 30
What phase(s) of fight or performance factor does this limitation apply to?

Every phase, but especially slow slight and runway operations. 30k is almost 75% of the stall speed.

Click to expand...

I guess I would interpret "every phase" to mean takeoff, landing and ground ops. Winds aloft quite often exceed that anywhere I fly, and of course the only real effect it has is your ground speed and/or crab angle. If surface winds exceed 30 knots, I'm not flying, I'm tying down patio furniture and small children.

DaleB said:

I guess I would interpret "every phase" to mean takeoff, landing and ground ops.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure "cruise phase" is a thing, too. Isn't it one of the fields in an accident report from NTSB ("Phase of Flight:", includes "cruise")?

Every part of any flight is in *some* phase of flight...there's no "phaseless" regime, right?

I agree that cruise is a phase of flight, but applying a 30 knot max wind limitation to cruise flight would make no sense whatsoever. I've flown in 56 kt winds aloft... the airplane really doesn't care. Slow trip one way, much faster trip home. Surface wind was nothing unusual that day.

Ahhh, yes but with one critical difference. This is S-LSA, not E-LSA. Common sense and logic are neither considered nor allowed.

Follow the rules, peasant.