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Then there’s the sales and marketing footprint. Why do you think Cessna became the GA leader back in the day? It had dealers everywhere, stock on hand, and profitable leaseback opportunities. Plus, you know, the airplanes were pretty OK.

Life hasn’t been that simple in the light sport sector, which has, since 2005, been sending a wide range of two-seat, modest-performance airplanes into the world. Many of them have come from beyond U.S. shores, where the temptation of much lower labor costs and, perhaps, government incentives to help grow technology and manufacturing acumen have proven irresistible.

Such is the case with Flight Design, a German company that until recently carried out the large part of its SLSA production in Ukraine. That country, having been under siege from Russian aggression since early 2022, has faced many tragedies that include disruptions in daily life to say nothing of decimating its manufacturing capabilities. 

If that seems like a way-off problem, think again. That conflict is basically putting Flight Design on hiatus. This is unfortunate because the CT series heads the leaderboard in overall SLSA production, with 271 sold since 2005. Next up is the Czech Aircraft Works SportCruiser with 252 sold, followed by the Tecnam P2008 at 245. CubCrafters is in fourth place but is likely to move up as its production line is very active these days. It seems likely the company will add significantly to the 234 Carbon Cubs already sold. (All data comes from a review of FAA registration figures compiled at the ByDanJohnson.com website.) 

Flight Design’s position at the top of the podium looked in doubt. Now, however, after months of effort, production of all Flight Design products has moved from Kherson, Ukraine, to Sumperk in the Czech Republic. Previously, Sumperk was a small flight-test center for Flight Design, but now the facility has expanded to include production of the F2. (The earlier CT designs remain in production, but in Kazakhstan.)

To get the full picture surrounding the F2, I flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to visit Airtime Aviation, the exclusive U.S. distributor for Flight Design aircraft. Owned by Tom Gutmann Jr., Airtime inhabits a large hangar at the Tulsa Riverside Airport (KRVS) where newly imported CTs are prepped, and ongoing maintenance and upgrades are carried out for aircraft in the U.S. fleet. Gutmann and his father, Tom Sr., took over from Flight Design U.S. in 2022.

“Although Flight Design is a German company, its production has always been in Ukraine,” Tom Gutmann Jr. says. “When the war broke out, it impacted the business literally overnight. We had to shut the factory down in April 2022. Eight months later we got permission from the Ukrainian government to go in and begin moving equipment out. Literally overnight we got eight semitruck loads of equipment out—tooling, molds, and even airplanes. We had eight airplanes partially built so they had to be taken out too. It took another eight months before we were able to move the equipment out of Ukraine into the Czech Republic.”

That wasn’t the end of the story, though.

“Sumperk wasn’t a full-fledged production facility,” says Gutmann. “It was our completion center for our CF23 version of the aircraft, but it was a small hangar and warehouse. Since then, we’ve opened a much bigger facility where we’re doing everything in one place. We’re able to do production and test flying at one facility.” 

And we’re not talking about a simple home shop here.

“The fuselage is seamed together from two large pieces,” says Gutmann, “and these jigs run on huge rail systems. They are so big, we couldn’t get it out of the facility without cutting them apart. That took months to get resolved.”

Moreover, the F2 is designed so that it doesn’t have to “live” in the mold/jig throughout the manufacturing process—the major components can be seamed together, then the structurally finished piece can move on and have the interior components installed. This change and the intention of building a second set of tooling will help Flight Design increase capacity in 2025.

In any case, it wasn’t until August 2024—two and a half years after Ukraine came under attack—that the factory was fully up and running, capable of producing three airplanes a month. But there’s still more demand that this rate will fulfill, so the company is currently working down its backlog and beginning new sales efforts. Gutmann told me previously that they were hesitant to take orders until the factory issues were resolved.

All this hard work in eastern Europe supports an interesting airplane. Flight Design arrived early to the SLSA category with aircraft derived from European microlights, where low weight and high fuel efficiency were paramount. The original CTs could be called “chubby,” an appellation that reflects the company’s intention of making a wide, comfortable fuselage inside the microlight rules. The desire for good visibility pushed the bottom of the windshield well forward over the compact Rotax 912 engine, while the deep-cut side windows offered good sight lines below. It still sorta looked like an egg.

“It’s our newest model, debuting in 2020,” says Gutmann. “It’s a completely new design. We took very few things from the old one—in fact, it’s basically just the wheels, tires, brakes, and the engine that carry over. Every other component is new.” 

Gutmann points out that the many lessons learned since the CT design debuted in the late 1990s were rolled into the new model. 

“It has a new fuselage with a much larger interior that was part of a plan for the next airplane to come, which will be a four-seat version. The landing gear is a completely different system. It’s now a one-piece composite design,” says Gutmann, noting that the fuselage sits on top of this gear rather than the two-piece system having to penetrate the fuselage. “The landing gear box had to be substantially stronger with the two-piece gear, so we were able to see a weight savings with the one-piece gear.” 

While LSAs in general have been tagged for having slightly underbuilt landing gear—one of the more common accident scenarios is a newly transitioned pilot not managing the slickness of this kind of airplane and wiping out the gear during a botched landing—the goal is for the F2 to be unusually robust. More lessons learned.

Major aerodynamic tweaks have been made. For one thing, the F2’s fuselage hangs from a completely new wing with two distinct airfoil shapes. The outboard section of the wing is thicker at the leading edge and has a pronounced droop. An obvious discontinuity leads to a thinner airfoil inboard. A key goal, of course, is to keep the outer section of the wing flying at low speeds to preserve roll control and prevent the airplane from wanting to drop a wing during a full stall. 

What you can’t see is that the new wing has a one-piece, tip-to-tip main spar rather than two overlapping and offset spars as on the CT or as you might find in a sailplane. This one-piece  construction makes the wing extremely strong and means that, in essence, the fuselage hangs from this wing structure. The spar crosses the fuselage just above your head.

“We now have a Fowler-type flap on the F2,” says Gutmann, “where the predecessor had flaperons.” The new flaps help keep stall speeds down, “in the low 40s.” While there’s always the potential for flaperons to present more effective flap area to the relative wind, it’s hard to get the roll handling right through all regimes of flight.

But you can see the change to separate ailerons and flaps is just one part of preparing the F2 to grow into a four-place airplane—buying aerodynamic benefits now to spend later on a heavier, more powerful model.

Out back, there’s an entirely new tail. The previous CTs had a stabilator for pitch, where the new F2 uses a more conventional elevator and fixed horizontal stabilizer. There’s an unusual “duck tail” between the two elevator halves that provides a measure of anti-stall behavior. 

With the F2, the rudder and vertical stabilizer are changed, with the rudder becoming a much smaller surface than before. Again, the goal is to prevent the airplane from being able to enter a cross-controlled stall that could lead to a spin. These changes in total, according to Gutmann, “make for a completely stall-resistant airplane. You can sit there with full back stick, full aileron one way and full rudder the other, and it’s perfectly controllable.” We’ll see about that. 

You might ask what happens with crosswind landings when you take away rudder authority. In this case, nothing. Flight Design rates the F2 with the same 16-knot demonstrated crosswind component as the previous CTs. Gutmann also points out that the new wing provides better aileron authority at low speeds, so keeping the upwind wing down during crosswind operations is easier than before.

Since the beginning, Flight Design has emphasized interior room in its microlight and LSA products. It’s even better here, with generous hip- and legroom between the convex doors and the structural center console that runs from the firewall through the cabin to the baggage bulkhead. Comfortable seats ride on tracks with a substantial rake so that when you move toward the front, the seat rises as well, helping shorter pilots achieve good over-the-glareshield visibility. Similarly, sliding the seat back lowers the assembly quite a lot, preserving headroom for taller occupants. Given the need to preserve noggin-to-wing-spar clearance, it’s a smart but necessary solution.

Find your seating position and get comfortable. In all new F2s, you’ll be facing a full Garmin G3X Touch EFIS, supported by a two-axis autopilot, G5 backup EFIS, transponder, com radio, audio panel and, in the demo airplane I flew, a Garmin GPS 175 IFR-approved navigator. Flight Design can will the F2 with a GTN 650 in place of the 175, though Gutmann says he’s also looking into using the Garmin GNX 375 GPS/transponder.

In most ways, the cockpit is conventional, with twin center sticks and a prominent throttle lever on the center console. It’s actually more than that, which you’ll have probably guessed when you notice there are no brake pedals beneath your toes. The F2 uses direct nosewheel steering and combined brakes, activated on both sides when you pull the throttle control fully aft. Such a setup means you’ll be using the parking brake for the engine run-up and prolonged ground running because the Rotax 912 iS doesn’t love jangling around at idle speed.

Otherwise, the F2’s flight deck layout is generally straightforward. The fuel selector lives on the vertical portion of the center console next to the rotating-lever flaps switch—four positions including up, which is actually slightly reflexed. The only oddity is that the master switch isn’t a switch; instead, you push in the Master Switch (BAT) circuit breaker to wake up the airplane.

Gutmann and I had one of those rare (calm and clear) October days in Tulsa to fly. Because this is an all-electric airplane, it’s customary to turn on the backup power first to get the EFISes booted and ready to display engine parameters. Once that’s done, push in the BAT and GEN circuit breakers, listen for the primary fuel pump, and by that time you’re ready to turn the key and let the
Rotax’s electronic fuel injection and ignition do its thing. It kicks off in a blade or three. 

Check to see that the engine is happy and begin your taxi. For run-up, there’s actually not much more to check. Guttmann says not to cycle the two “lanes” of ECU control on the 912 iS—instead, you’re relying on fault lights directly below the main EFIS to tell you if there’s something wrong. No lights, all is well. (So they say.) Set flaps to position 1, check trim, and off you go.

We were carrying near-full fuel (34 gallons) and so our all-up weight was right at the 1,320-pound maximum. Considering that and the fixed-pitch prop at the other end of the gearbox from the 912 iS, the initial acceleration is good though hardly breathtaking. Our flight was absent any crosswind, so it’s hard to know how the rudder/nosewheel “gearing” would work under those conditions. Response to movement of the rudder pedals is immediate, with little displacement required to track the centerline. 

Rotation comes quickly enough, with the F2 feeling like it wants to fly by 50 KIAS. Gutmann and I saw 800 fpm initially with one notch of flaps (Riverside is at 638 feet msl) with the climb rate tailing off a bit after raising the flaps. At this stage, it’s clear the F2 has light controls in pitch and roll, though it does ask for periodic trimming with speed changes.

During the climbout, my main observation has more to do with individual preference. With a somewhat high cowling line and the wing spar coming through the cabin, forward vision is affected a bit, with my tendency to try to drop the nose to see the horizon. As such, we climbed at 80-plus KIAS, though still maintaining 550 to 600 fpm with the throttle full forward. It’s a real delight to sit there and watch the world drift away below you and not have to think at all about the powerplant—the 912 iS just takes care of itself.

We arrived soon enough at 3,500 feet msl for some airwork. As promised, the F2 handles slow flight extremely well. Even as the Garmin G3X’s angle of attack instrument begins to warn of the impending critical wing AoA, the F2 remains responsive and easy to coordinate. Continuing the slow flight into stalls, well… the break never really came. In essence, the F2’s restricted elevator authority keeps it from being able to achieve really high angles of attack, so when you carry on into a power-off stall, what results is a mush with a healthy sink rate than any inclination to break. Not that this can’t catch you out, since the sink rate at 50 KIAS is 1,000 fpm.

During the stall demos, we tried provoking the F2 in both straight-ahead and turning flight, and it never came close to a sharp break. Better yet, aileron and rudder authority was more than sufficient to crank the airplane around. Forces are much lighter at these slower speeds, of course, but the F2 will let you pick up a wing with rudder or aileron even at 55-60 KIAS.

If you accept that the F2 will be both a personal airplane and a candidate for flight schools, it’s important that it’s both fun to fly and forgiving. To check the latter, Gutmann and I sprinted down to Okmulgee Regional Airport (KOKM) for pattern work. Over the course of many landings, I tried everything from wide, stable patterns to tight turns near the runway, and found the airplane willing to work with me. You do have to remember that it’s a slick airplane with a fixed-pitch prop, so you don’t have much more drag to play with besides flaps. You’ll note a change in drag with final flaps accompanied by a mild pitch change.

Come in at 65 KIAS with a small amount of power during a normal 3-degree glide slope approach and the runway will find you. The last pitch up to arrest the sink rate isn’t dramatic, and the F2 will float if you carry a bit too much speed down final. It’s not quite Mooney-quality levels of float but definitely more than you’d experience in a Cessna 150 or 172.

Of the two or three close-in landings, only one really required a slip to get back in the notch, but the F2 will do it. By the third or fourth landing, I had the technique down for recentering the nosewheel just before it touched down, though, again, there wasn’t much of a crosswind at Okmulgee, either. 

Ultimately, I felt right at home in the Flight Design F2 after an hour of flight. I came away appreciating the wide cabin, ease of powerplant management, and noting the potential for economy of operation. During our airwork, we were burning 3.5 to 4 gph, and you won’t use much more during cruise. We didn’t take the F2 to its optimum altitude, but it’s not hard to believe it’ll hit the LSA-mandated maximum of 120 kcas (knots calibrated airspeed).

The Flight Design F2 is a well-considered and -executed airplane. You can sense the development benefits of having so many first-generation CTs in the field by the F2’s refinement and pleasing handling qualities. And by today’s standards, a $242,000 well-equipped trainer is more than a fair value. Both the airplane’s performance and its execution—the quality of the paint, smoothness of the carbon-fiber composites, excellent layout and roominess of the cabin—make it a player in this segment. Nice to have it back in the game.