I’m in the left seat of a Sling TSi, a four-seat kit airplane made in South Africa, and it’s the first time I’ve flown behind a turbocharged Rotax 915 engine. During the first 30 minutes of flight my companions have suffered through a series of stalls, steep turns, lazy eights, and slow flight while I got acquainted with this sporty but stable aircraft—and now one of them has suggested a change of pace.
“Let’s make a speed run,” says Matt Liknaitzky, a partner in The Airplane Factory, the U.S. arm of a company that markets, sells, supports, and offers flight training and builder assistance for Sling aircraft in nearby Torrance, California. “Go ahead and open the throttle.”
-Dave Hirschman (AOPA)