Part 22 Gets Real: Van’s Delivers the First MOSAIC-Certified Airplane

The paperwork era of MOSAIC ended at Oshkosh this year. On the same week the FAA’s new Part 22 certification framework took effect, Van’s Aircraft handed over the first airplane in history to carry a light-sport airworthiness certificate issued under it — an RV-12iS in Cub Yellow, built for the flight line rather than the show line.

The certificate went to Tom Snow’s airplane during AirVenture 2026, with EAA Chairman Jack Pelton and Van’s founder Dick VanGrunsven on hand for the handoff. Snow picked the yellow scheme as a nod to the trainer that taught most of the last century to fly, which is fitting: the airplane leaves Wittman Regional for training duty with Crystal Air Academy.

For those of us who have spent the past year reading Part 22 and speculating about what it would actually produce, this takes the rule beyond abstract theory. October 2025 gave us the pilot side — the stall-speed and privilege changes that opened most of the Van’s catalog to Sport Pilots. July 24, 2026 gave us the certification side. Nine days later, an airplane rolled out under it.

What matters operationally is IMC. The MOSAIC-certified RV-12iS can be flown and trained in actual instrument conditions, a first for a factory-new airplane at this price. The enabling hardware is unglamorous and familiar to anyone who has built one: a heated, AOA-capable pitot moved out of the spinner and under the left wing, an alternate static source, alternate engine air, and a second alternator for redundant electrical capacity. An upgraded radiator and oil cooler address the other reality of a training fleet — airplanes that fly all day in July heat.

“MOSAIC changes who can fly and how they train,” said Van’s CEO Mikael Via.

Marc Cook, Van’s Customer Experience and Technical Communications Manager and a name familiar to these pages, put the engineering philosophy plainly: “The RV-12iS isn’t a new airplane built around MOSAIC Part 22. It’s a proven airplane made better by it.”

That restraint is the story. The airframe is unchanged in the ways that count. The Rotax 912iS stays, with its service history, parts availability, and fuel burn intact. Garmin G3X Touch defines the panel, with AXIS promised. 

Price is $246,200 to start, IFR-equipped. Van’s is currently building roughly one SLSA RV-12iS every four days, with demand driven almost entirely by flight schools; the company counts more than 40 schools and over 100,000 training hours on the type. Competing MOSAIC trainers exist mostly as announcements.

For builders, the relevance is indirect but real. Part 22 is now a proven pathway, and the equipment package that satisfies it — redundant power, heated pitot, alternate air and static — is a sensible template for anyone specifying an E-AB panel with instrument work in mind. The first one is flying. That was always the hard part.