finish. Generally, composite construction has few  fasteners, such as protruding rivets and bolts. Pilots  should become acquainted with inspection concerns  such as looking for hair-line cracks and delaminations.  LSAs use a variety of engines that range from FAA- certificated to non-FAA-certificated. Engine technology  varies significantly from conventional air-cooled to high  revolutions per minute (rpm)/water-cooled designs.  [Figure 16-4]  These different technologies present a  transitioning pilot new training opportunities and challenges.  Since most LSAs use non-FAA-certificated engines, a  transitioning pilot should fully understand the engine controls,  procedures, and limitations. In most LSA airplanes, engines  are water-cooled, 4-cycle, carbureted with a gear reduction  drive. Engines such as these have much higher operating rpms  and require a gear-box to reduce the propeller rpms to the  proper range. Because of the higher operating rpms, vibration  and noise signatures are quite different in most LSAs when  compared to most standard type certificated designs.  trained to quickly and properly configure, access, program,  and interpret the information provided. Transition training  must include, if EFIS is installed, instruction in the use of the  specific EFIS installed in the training airplane. In some cases,  EFIS manufacturers or third party products are available for  the pilot to practice EFIS operations on a personal computer  as opposed to learning their functions in flight.  In addition to advanced airframe and engine technology, LSAs  often have advanced flight and engine instrumentation. Often  installed are electronic flight instrumentation systems (EFIS)  that provide attitude, airspeed, altimeter, vertical speed,  direction, moving map, navigation, terrain awareness, traffic,  weather, engine data, etc., all on one or two liquid crystal  displays.  [Figure 16-5]  EFIS has become a cost-effective  replacement for traditional mechanical gyros and instruments.  Compared to mechanical instrumentation systems, EFIS  requires almost no maintenance. There are tremendous  advantages to EFIS systems as long as the pilot is correctly  trained in its use. EFIS systems can cause a “heads down”  syndrome and loss of situation awareness if the pilot is not  Managing weather factors is important for all aircraft but  becomes more significant as the weight of the airplane  decreases. Smaller, lighter weight airplanes are more affected  by adverse weather such as stronger winds (especially  crosswinds), turbulence, terrain influences, and other  hazardous conditions.  [Figures 16-6  and  16-7]  LSA Pilots  should carefully consider any hazardous weather conditions  and effectively use an appropriate set of personal minimums  to mitigate flight risk. Some LSAs have a maximum  recommend wind velocity regardless of wind direction.  16-6 Figure 16-5.  An electronic flight instrumentation system provides attitude, airspeed, altimeter, vertical speed, direction, moving map,  navigation, terrain awareness, traffic, weather, and engine data all on one or two liquid crystal displays. Figure 16-4.  A water-cooled 4-cycle engine. Engines  Instrumentation Weather Considerations