Glasair Sportsman GS-2 (2+2)
These figures describe a typical build. Each aircraft of this design was built by its owner, and the one you are looking at may differ.
The Sportsman GS-2 is Glasair Aviation's four-place (2+2) development of the GlaStar: a steel-cage cabin with composite fuselage shells, an aluminium folding wing of 35 ft, and gear that converts between tricycle, taildragger and floats. The owners' table with a 180 hp Lycoming gives 137 knots at 75 percent, a 42 knot flapped stall, 1,000 fpm at gross and 721 nm, with 1,000 lb useful on 2,350 lb.
It is the kit aeroplane that does the Cessna 182's job with a 1,000 lb useful load and short-field manners, and most of the fleet was built in Glasair's Two Weeks To Taxi programme, which makes examples more uniform than most amateur-builts - though the IO-390's 210 hp, the panel, the carbon-fibre fuselage option and the gear fitted are still the owner's choices and the aircraft's own weight-and-balance governs. Asking prices in the quarter-million range reflect that uniformity and a factory that is still trading. Insurers treat it as a four-seat fixed-gear single; a taildragger conversion changes that. As an amateur-built aircraft the condition inspection needs an A&P, not an IA, and the owner may do the work.
Variants of the Glasair Sportsman 2+2
- Sportsman GS-2 (2+2) · 2004 · 249 active · this page
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TAILFAX SCORE
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What it is
| Seats | 4 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | — |
| Engine | Lycoming O-360 / IO-360 (180 hp; IO-390 210 hp common) |
| Horsepower | 180 hp |
| Fuel | — |
| Certification basis | amateur-built |
| Production start | 2004 |
| Production end | — |
| Endorsements required | — |
Performance
| Cruise (75 % power) | 137 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range (75 %, standard fuel, 30-min reserve) | 721 nm |
| Service ceiling | 20,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,000 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 42 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | — |
| Landing over 50 ft | — |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 4 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 1,000 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | — |
| Max takeoff weight | 2,350 lb |
| Empty weight | 1,350 lb |
| Usable fuel | 50 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 8.5 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $249,900 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $359,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | — |
| Overhaul cost, low | — |
| Overhaul cost, high | — |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 293 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 249 |
| Median year built | 2013 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 11 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 1 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 44.181 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 36.142 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 35 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 14.063 |
| Airworthiness directives | 8 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 249 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 249 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 249 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, piston, 1 engine, 3-4 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | 4.5 of 101 |
| Severity | 6 of 102 |
| Access | 2.2 of 103 |
| Support | 6.1 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 1.5 of 105 |
| Overall (sum of the categories shown) | 20.3 out of 506 |
- Accident record: class median 33.21 · 223 models in class.
- Severity: class median 12.5.
- Access: class median 796.
- Support: class median 131.
- Liquidity: class median 19.89.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories. When accident record and severity cannot be scored because the model has too few records, the other three give a partial score out of 30, labelled as such; it is never set against a full score.
Data as of: FAA registry Sep 28 · NTSB Oct 2 · ADs Oct 8 · scores Sep 30