Éditorial LightPlaneDex · 3 February 2026
ULM or LSA? Same sky, different paperwork
The Aeroprakt A32 and the Virus SW live in both worlds depending on the country. Here is why the category on the cowling is not the whole story.
Stand on a French airfield on a Saturday and the word ULM still means freedom: a lighter medical, a simpler path, a machine that can live on a farm strip. Cross into a jurisdiction that speaks LSA and the same airframe — often the same serial family — is suddenly a 600 kg light-sport with different training, different insurance, different expectations.
The A32 Vixxen is the textbook case. 472.5 kg in one office, 600 kg in another. Stall speed barely changes; the useful load does. Pilots shop the regulation as much as they shop the wing.
LightPlaneDex treats category as a filter, not a personality. The interesting aircraft are the ones that refuse to sit still on one side of the line.
Related aircraft
