Mon, Jun 08, 2009
If there's one thing that we're sure of, it's the fact that
there will continue to be no shortage of intriguing designs brought
into the somewhat over-populated LSA industry. Some of them,
though, actually deserve to be there... and a case in point is the
welcome (and arguably overdue) RANS update of the S-6 Coyote II...
a durable and well-proven design that has amassed a respectable, if
not legendary, record.
RANS Designer, Randy Schlitter, has an uncanny ability to come
up with well-packaged designs that fit their mission profile well,
and also raise the bar a bit in their category... while there are
undoubtedly a LOT of high-wing two seaters with side-by-side
cabins, few of them exhibit the combination of solid manners,
credible performance and economical operations that is embodied in
the S-6 design series... and at $99K for a completed aircraft (with
a Rotax 912 ULS, Garmin 296, basic VFR instrumentations and a King
Com/TXP), the RANS S-6LS is a very solid deal in today's LSA
market.
RANS certified the Coyote II as an SLSA last December and
thereupon designated it the LSA version as the S-6LS (for light
sport). This design series has been in production as an
experimental kit-built aircraft (in a number of variants) since
1989. With almost 2000 flying examples in operation world wide the
airframe has become one of the most popular sportplanes in the biz.
The experimental fleet of Coyote IIs’ have accumulated
hundreds of thousands of flight hours, with many specific aircraft
well past the 3000 hour mark.
The durable airframe has been configured for a variety of roles
ranging from float and ski planes, to camera ships that
photo-mapped the Amazon Jungle. RANS claims that the Coyote
II has won five world championships in Europe, crossed oceans, and
circumnavigated Africa, and South America.
The RANS S-6LS is constructed using a welded steel cage,
light tubular aluminum alloy tail cone and flying surfaces,
resulting in an airframe it stays light and strong. The
design is offered in both tailwheel and trike landing gear
configurations.
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