The CGS Hawk was first introduced at Sun N Fun in 1982 winning Best New Design for 1982, and Outstanding New Design and Reserve Grand Champion at Airventure. It is amazing to find that the old girl still has the ability to turn judges eyes some 26 years later winning Reserve Grand Ch ampion this year at Sun N Fun!I have done a number of interviews with Chuck Slusarczyk over the years. He is someone that I feel has a pulse on the industry. In talking to Chuck over the last couple of years he has indicated that he would not likely be entering the Light Sport Aircraft market, but would continue to offer legal part 103 ultralights and experimental/amateur built kits. So when I heard through the rumour mill that he was about to offer his two place Hawk as a Light Sport Aircraft I popped over to his booth to get the story. While Chuck's view that those that pushed through the light sport category, at the expense of a vibrant ultralight and ultralight training market, made a serious mistake - has not changed. His business side has identified that he has an opportunity. Chuck originally got into ultralight aviation because of the run-a-way costs involved in conventional aviation. That was over 30 years ago! He now sees the same thing happening again with the light sport category. With most of the light sport coming in from $80,000 to over 100,000 he feels that their "might be a niche" for the Hawk. To supply the Light Sport Aircraft market with something that it is sorely missing. An affordable two place factory built, ready to fly light sport aircraft or 2 place trainer that sells for under $50,000! According to Chuck "when they took away our two place training waiver they set us back 20 years!" "The question 20 years ago was how do you train someone how to fly a single place ultralight?" "the two place waiver worked very successfully, training 10's of thousands of pilots." "When lightsport was being first being talked about I understood that they would, take what needed fixing in our end, and introduce a new category for light sport." "Instead they used the atomic bomb approach to kill a fly." According to Chuck this really hurt the lower end of the aviation market place. Not all pilots want to fly along at 100 mph, and most "mom and pop operations, operating from their grass strips, training 5 or 6 students a year can't afford to own and operate aircraft as trainers under the new light sport category rules." Before light sport they could buy a kit, assemble and maintain it themselves. Thus keeping the cost to a minimum. A small operation might train only 5 or 6 students a year, but when you have 300 - 400 of these across the country you end up with a real grass roots affordable training environment that was training ULTRALIGHT pilots how to fly. "Instead they have gutted a whole industry." From the pilots associations that built up the very successful two place training program. To ultralight aircraft and engine repair stations, and suppliers of helmets, intercoms who supplied that industry. They have all been hurt by the loss of the training waiver. So why is CGS now entering the LSA market place? To fill two niche markets. The first is a two place trainer that looks, feels, and flies like an ultralight. The second an affordable two place aircraft that a pilot can afford to own and fly. Chuck indicates his single place ultralight aircraft in kit form in 2008 dollars sells for about $12,000. The two place Hawk is available as an amateur/homebuilt, as an ELSA, and finally as a factory built, ready to fly SLSA. All of the paperwork has been completed and the Hawk is about to enter the flight testing stage of the LSA program. Once the Hawk is approved Chuck is looking at setting up a number of satellite shops across the country to build and do maintenance work on the Hawks. So if you are an investor looking at getting into the ultralight and light sport aircraft market, with a tried and tested manufacture and product give Chuck a call. CGS AVIATION
P.O. BOX 470635
BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, OH 44147
USA
440-564-1214
www.cgsaviation.com Editors Note:
If you look at the lightsport aircraft market few if any of the NEW light sport aircraft manufacturers are offering a single place aircraft. Ad to that the craft they are offering do not look feel or fly like a single place ultralight. In Canada we have a population of 30,000,000 people with some 6,000 aircraft on the registry. In the U.S. you have a population of 300,000,000 people which would mean that at the time light sport was introduced you should have had in the area of 60,000 ultralight style aircraft flying. LESS than 5,000 aircraft were put through under the exemption! What happened to the thousands of other aircraft? If these had been Warbirds or Antique Aircraft I will guarantee you that someone would have come forward to protect them! | 
