RANS S-19 Venterra

The S-19 Venterra is the odd one out in the RANS line, and the airplane the old combined page described worst. Where every other current RANS is a high-wing airplane — three of them fabric over steel tube — the Venterra is a low-wing, all-aluminium semi-monocoque with a canopy and tricycle gear. RANS calls it "The Pinnacle of Light Sport Aviation" on its own spec sheet.

It was filed under wing_position: high. That is why this page exists: on the combined rans-s-series page a buyer filtering for a low-wing airplane could never see it, and a buyer filtering for high-wing was shown its numbers. One field, wrong in both directions.

It is also the fast one. On the same 100 hp Rotax 912 ULS that gives the Courier and the Raven 96 knots, the Venterra cruises at 118 KTAS — 22 knots more for the same fuel, because it has 126 square feet of wing instead of 152.7, no struts, and aluminium skin instead of fabric. Its glide ratio is 12:1 against their 8.5:1, and it rolls at 100°/sec against 80.

The bill for that comes in two places. It stalls at 43 knots clean against 34, with a 10.4 lb/ft² wing loading against 8.9 — so it needs more runway and more speed on final. And it carries 500 lb of useful load against 588, on an 820 lb empty weight, so it is the one RANS where payload genuinely constrains the mission.

One footnote on the spec sheet matters more than anything else on it:

** Airframe rated for 1500 lbs. (680 kgs.)

The structure is approved for 1,500 lb while the gross weight is 1,320 — the old light-sport limit. That is 180 lb of structural headroom the regulation was holding back, and MOSAIC's replacement of the weight cap with a stall-speed test is exactly the change that could release it. At 43 knots clean the Venterra is comfortably inside the 59 KCAS limit. Whether RANS will raise the gross weight is a question for RANS, and it is the first one to ask.

Production is effectively finished. Verbatim from the product page:

Due to high production demand of other RANS models, the S-19 Venterra production has been limited to parts and kit completion sales only.

So this is a used-market or finish-an-existing-project airplane, not something to order new.

The Venterra is one configuration — there are no gear, engine or seating variants to choose between, which is itself unusual in this line and makes it the simplest RANS to describe.

Siblings, all high-wing and all on their own pages now: rans-s7-courier (tandem, fabric), rans-s20-raven (side-by-side, fabric, convertible gear) and rans-s21-outbound (all metal, up to 180 hp).

The sheet is internally consistent. 820 + 500 = 1,320 exactly. 4.4 hours × 118.2 kt = 520 nm, matching the converted 598 statute miles. Note that 24 gal ÷ 5.0 gph is 4.8 hours against a published endurance of 4.4 — which implies about two gallons held back as unusable plus reserve, a sensible allowance rather than an inconsistency.

Everything is converted from mph and statute miles. 136 mph is 118 KTAS; 598 miles is 520 nm. Storing 598 as nautical would have overstated range by 15%.

It is 22 knots faster than its siblings on identical power, and that is the headline. 118 KTAS on 5.0 gph works out at 23.6 nautical miles per gallon, which is better than anything else in this catalog's light-sport section. The same engine in the Raven manages 19.1.

The 12:1 glide deserves its own note. From 3,000 feet AGL that is about six nautical miles, against four for the Raven. On a single-engine airplane over unwelcoming ground that difference is worth having, and it is a direct consequence of the clean low wing and the absence of struts.

Two figures are deliberately absent: the sheet gives ground rolls and no over-50-foot obstacle distances, and gives a glide ratio rather than a best-glide speed. Neither is estimated.

500 lb of useful load, 144 lb of fuel if filled — the tightest of the four RANS models, and the only one where payload actually constrains the flight:

This is the loading conversation the combined page could never have. The Raven and Courier carry two adults, full baggage and full fuel at once; the Venterra cannot. With two 180 lb adults and the full 70 lb baggage allowance aboard there is room for under twelve gallons, which is 2.2 hours — and at 118 knots a 2.2-hour leg with no reserve is not a 520 nm airplane.

The honest summary: the Venterra is a 520 nm airplane for one person, and roughly a 250 nm airplane for two with luggage. Which is still the best two-person cross-country figure in the RANS line, and worth knowing before loading it.

If the 1,500 lb airframe rating is ever released as gross weight, every row above gains 180 lb and this becomes a genuinely capable tourer. That is the single thing most worth watching about this model.

Cross-country is a 7, the highest of any RANS, and it is what this airplane is for. 118 knots, 520 nm of range, 23.6 nm per gallon, a canopy with the visibility that implies, and a 43.5-inch side-by-side cockpit. For a couple covering 300–400 nm legs on auto fuel, very little else in the category competes on cost per mile.

Back-country is a 2 and that is the trade. Low wing, tricycle gear, a 43-knot clean stall and a 325-foot roll that is achieved on pavement. The prop sits close to the ground on a low-wing trike, and nothing about an aluminium semi-monocoque is field-repairable the way fabric over steel tube is. Choose the rans-s20-raven or rans-s7-courier for strips.

Business travel is a 4, the highest in the line — still limited by having no IFR capability and two seats, but 118 knots and a canopy is a materially different proposition from a 96-knot fabric taildragger.

Training is a 6. Tricycle gear needs no endorsement, it is docile, and it is cheap to run. Against that: a 43-knot clean stall and a slick low wing make it less forgiving of a sloppy approach than a Raven, and a canopy is a hotter cockpit on a summer ramp. A good second-stage trainer rather than a first.

Cargo 1, aerobatics 1. 70 lb of baggage and +4.4/−2 g.

Parts: fair — one grade below its siblings, and deliberately. RANS still sells parts and supports builders, but the product page limits the model to "parts and kit completion sales only", so this is a line being wound down rather than actively produced. For a buyer that means spares depend on RANS's continued willingness rather than on current production volume.

Mechanics: specialist. Two reasons. The Rotax 912 ULS is a geared, liquid-cooled, 5,800-rpm engine that rewards Rotax-specific training — 2,000-hour TBO, $14,000 overhaul from reference/engine-overhaul-pricing.md at confidence A, giving a $7.00/hr reserve. And the aluminium semi-monocoque airframe is a different repair discipline from the fabric models: pulled rivets throughout, CNC-machined and hydro-formed parts, an assembled wing spar and carry-through delivered ready to install. A shop that can repair a Cub cannot necessarily repair this; a shop that works on RVs can.

The stabilator is worth naming. The S-19 uses a stabilator rather than a fixed stabiliser and elevator, so pitch control comes from an all-moving surface with its own pivot and anti-servo arrangement. Inspect it, its bearings and its trim system specifically at prebuy — it is not a component the other RANS models have.

Rotax's calendar-driven rubber-replacement intervals bite a low-utilisation owner before the hour limit does.

No used-market figures are stored, and here the reason is more than methodological: with production limited to parts and completion sales, few were built and fewer trade. The old combined page's $25,000–$175,000 band covered five airplanes and belongs to none of them.

What drives an S-19's value: builder quality above all, since the structure is the kind that hides poor work; engine time against TBO and calendar; the panel; and corrosion history. Expect a thin, slow market in both directions — a good one may be a bargain because nobody is looking for it, and a seller should expect to wait.

The 1,500 lb airframe rating is a latent value factor. If MOSAIC lets RANS release it, the airplanes already built are the ones that benefit.

An amateur-built S-19 holds an experimental certificate and the FAA issues no airworthiness directives against experimental aircraft. A factory S-LSA S-19 is governed by RANS's own safety directives and service bulletins, which an owner must comply with to keep the airplane airworthy. RANS publishes a DIRECTIVES page; get the compliance record for the airframe at prebuy and check it there rather than taking the seller's word.

The builder is the biggest variable, and more so on this model than on the fabric ones. An all-metal airframe built with pulled rivets is unforgiving of sloppy work in ways that are hard to see later — hole alignment, edge distance, rivet selection. A build log and, ideally, evidence of a technical counsellor's involvement are worth more here than on a Courier whose frames came welded from the factory.

RANS marks its own weights "approximately". Weigh it: 50 lb of builder enthusiasm comes straight off a 500 lb useful load, which on this airplane is most of a passenger's baggage.

Prebuy specifics: build log and any inspection records; weight and balance with its date; engine total time and last rubber replacement; the stabilator and its bearings; canopy latch, seal and the gas struts; and corrosion inspection inside the wing and fuselage — an aluminium airframe stored outdoors near salt is a different airplane from a hangared one.

$1,900 is extrapolated from the light-sport band in reference/insurance-costs.md, slightly below its siblings because this is the only current RANS with tricycle gear and no tailwheel exposure. No RANS binder is on file.

What moves it: amateur-built versus S-LSA — some carriers decline an experimental airframe for a pilot with no time in type; hull value, which on a kit airplane is whatever the build and panel came to; and the 43-knot clean stall, which is unremarkable in absolute terms but is the highest in the RANS line and sits behind a slicker wing than underwriters associate with light sport.

Quote it through an agency that writes experimental aircraft specifically.