As I said, I leave it to someone more qualified to give proper characteristics 
My personal experience has to be connected to those airplanes I have flown. Of those, the WT-9 Dynamic and the AA-5 (Grumman) come closest, but it was more precise and “tighter” than both (the WT-9 is really tight and precise by the way). A Cherokee pilot tried it also. He thought it was a bit “microlight-ish”, while a Lancair pilot thought it had huge wings and it was slow, but was generally very pleased Another club member (PPL only) was more in agreement with me. It simply flies very nice. It had a sort of “BMW-feeling” to it, quick and precise and tight. IMO it cannot even be compared with a Cherokee or a C-172, as they are way too “family station wagon-ish”.
Or, I should simply say, I liked it very much, and that impression is worth exactly 2 cents
I saw the Sling the other day down here. Imported from South Africa. Really nice looking, very well equipped. Turbocharged Rotax so should do a decent altitude too.
LeSving wrote:
The Sling 2 is also sold as an experimental kit, and with a Rotax 914 (turbo), it surely is a very good travelling machine, similar to the Europe I would guess, cruising at 115 knots TAS at 15k feet using only 15 l/h.
The Europa (Trigear) does about 150KTAS @ 75% / 15k feet However consuming about 20l/h while doing so.
The Monowheel is even faster
Just saw a bevy of Sling 4’s and I have to admit that I like the design very much.
In person it reminded me of a 7/8th scale Rockwell Commander. Just a smaller baggage area and less room…
But it looks great in person and the pilots flying them say they really enjoy them as well.
They also said they just buy new engines every time they reach overhaul as it costs basically the same…
They mentioned that a much faster version is expected to come out in the near future.
Very interesting bird if you ask me.
I flew the Sonaca 200 with Pierre about 3 weeks ago. It might just be the best handling aircraft I have ever flown. Unbelievably responsive and quite stable and forgiving at the same time. Also quite comfortable and obviously has great visibilty. But the handling stands out, just superb. I fear that it is too sensitive on the controls for becoming a popular trainer and so the controls will be made heavier for the production aircraft – that would be a shame.
The Sonaca 200 is now EASA type certified. More info
Is it certified as VLA or “standard” (don’t remember the correct EASA acronym) ?
LeSving wrote:
Is it certified as VLAYes. They are looking at certifying it for upset recovery training, and later for IFR (which I believe is only possible through CS-23).
As a funny note, I read on FB they went to land on a beach the other week-end and ended-up with a funnily bent main gear. Maybe some extra improvements needed.
Improvement to undercarriage, or to beach? Beaches often change due to tide and wind. And also debris washed up.
Arne wrote:
As a funny note, I read on FB they went to land on a beach the other week-end and ended-up with a funnily bent main gear. Maybe some extra improvements needed.
It’s true, but some other planes got damaged too, although most of the other planes damaged the nose wheel.
All incidents happened during taxi, not during landing, the taxiway was not really in good condition (way too soft).
