VIDEO EXTRA View an AOPA Live This Week video on this story. Going Diesel gives Glasair Sportsman an international leg up BY THOMAS B. HAINES START UP, TAXI, AND TAKEOFF in the Glasair Sportsman Diesel is more like operating a jet than a kitbuilt Experimental four-place single. Touch a button and it starts-no multi-handed monkey motion required. The engine runs smoothly as we taxi. For takeoff, jam the throttle forward on the turbo diesel and away you go-no worry about overboosting the turbo. Unlike the piston engines most of us fly behind, this MercedesBenz-based diesel engine and its systems are rooted in the twenty-first century, rather than the FDR era. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER 50 | AOPA PILOT December 2014