Hello Fellow Aviator!

    First, thanks for taking your time today to learn more about Longhorn Aero. My name is Larry Lenamon II, founder of our company. I say “our” company because as those of us who are already involved in aviation know, we don’t get to write the big checks so that we can go play with airplanes without significant support from the “Mrs.”, in my case, or that special person in your life. And sometimes it helps too if you paint their name on the side of your airplane.

    Now we’ve all heard that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, so it’s interesting how even after making it to the top of the professional pilot food chain, you still look down in envy as you fly over the hundreds of general aviation airports scattered across this country and dream of tooling around in a little airplane.

    Although I had a grass roots flying start, once I left for my corporate gig it would be nearly 20 years before realizing the dream of GA flying again. And the spark was my first trip to Oshkosh AirVenture in 2016. Crack cocaine for pilots, I call it. Thus began “The Search” for my perfect first airplane.

    Having been out of GA so long, I didn’t have a clue as to what the latest and greatest was, but I noticed all these really cool looking little two seat airplanes that were very “reasonably” priced when compared to a Mooney, Bonanza, Cirrus, or Cessna. They were called Light-Sport Aircraft (LSA) and seemed to fill every kind of niche adventure flying you could want. I vaguely remember hearing about these airplanes in the years prior, but they sure caught my attention at Oshkosh.

    As with all bright and shiny new toys, I dove right into researching the world of LSAs. With so many choices of aircraft and each with a myriad of options, deciding on the right aircraft for me was a challenging, time-consuming task. I wanted one of each! I finally got some much needed help from one of my fellow pilots. He asked me this one simple question. “What is your primary use case for the airplane?”

    Of course, beware of what you ask for as one of my main requirements was to be able to visit the kids who all live out of town. Because of some of the distances and questionable ability to go VFR when we needed, going fast and IFR capability quickly rose to the top of my requirements list. Thus, an Experimental sport aviation aircraft seemed to be the most applicable for my mission profile.

    Fortunately, my fellow pilots steered me in the right direction again to what I call a “Light-Sport on steroids”, the Van’s RV series of aircraft. Although you can’t buy a factory built version (except for their RV12 LSA), I was able to find an exceptionally well-built and maintained one, and that is how I ended up with my Van’s RV7A – fast, simple to maintain, and loaded with the latest in glass IFR capable avionics.  And some of the LSA manufacturers are now starting to come out with Experimental models with retractable gear, full IFR cockpits, and 200 mph speeds on 5-6 gph!  I may just trade in one of these days.

    So regardless of what kind of mission profile you have for an airplane, there is a Sport Aviation Aircraft out there for you.  However, the bottom line is that Sport Aviation Aircraft in general really do have one mission – to bring the adventure, fun, and freedom of flight to all, and that is my mission with Longhorn Aero.

Fly Safe,

Larry Lenamon II

P.S. So if I haven’t completely put you to sleep with my rambling and you are still interested in Sport Aviation Aircraft, let’s chat. We simply start with a 15 minute “Discovery Call” to see if the program is right for you.  It’s painless, I promise, and will save you lots of time (and money) and get you pointed in the right direction in your search for the perfect Sport Aviation Aircraft!  Click the button below to sign up or just give me a call.