ST. PAUL, MINN. — Time is growing short! Perhaps by the time you read this, FAA
may have issued their new rule called Sport Pilot/Light-Sport Aircraft
(SP/LSA). Why should you care? Well, perhaps you don’t.
If you fly solo in your hang glider or paraglider and are not towed aloft by a tug
of some kind, you may continue to operate under F.A.R. Part 103 as blissfully as
ever. However, if you’re one of the many who enjoy aerotow launches, you may be impacted
by this rule. The good news is| the trio of Jayne
Depanfilis, Mike Meier, and Bill Bryden have been pursuing actions on the new rule
and have the matter quite well in hand. The issues of two-place flying have been
addressed and face few obstacles. Aerotowing, however, is less certain.
Operations such as Lookout Mountain Flight Park have been fighting local battles
with adversaries who brought FAA into the picture.
Archives for March 2005
Product Lines – April 2004
St. Paul, Minn. — You’ll probably be amazed to hear that Wallaby Ranch and Quest
have merged. Yes, unbelievably, the two rivals flight parks signed an agreement
to become as one. This stunning development comes just
after Wills Wing purchased Moyes “for a song” crooned WW president, Rob Kells.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” he added. How much more shocking news can
you withstand? Well, in keeping with a few fun items elsewhere in this magazine,
the above is pure April Fools fiction. I’ll leave more inventive humor to others
and return to what this column does best.
Amid all the excitement, I completely forgot to blow my own horn| Yup, with the February
2004 issue, “Product Lines” finished 25 years of continuous publishing. In
all that time, the column never missed an issue. As I am working to post all
these columns on my long-in-development Web site, someday you’ll be able to scan
through a lot of hang gliding history presented in a familiar format.
Product Lines – March 2004
ST. PAUL, MINN. — As I write this up here in the southern tundra, the wind howls
and the snow flies and the joy of hang gliding or paragliding seems quite distant.
Soon enough, though, the thaw will occur and life takes on a friendlier look that
invites soaring flight.
While huddled inside, I heard from Gerry Charlebois who told me the temperatures
in his native state of Hawaii: high of 86° and low of 72°. His invitation
to come fly Kauai sounds mighty inviting this time of year.
The real reason Gerry wrote was to report how his DVD production, Extreme Kauai,
is doing. His commercial venture is a means of interesting non-flying folks in
what the rest of us enjoy. Gerry wrote, “It has been 11 months since [Extreme
Kauai’s] release and four months since the main distributor for Hawaii picked
it up. It is now in 280 stores statewide, including Walmart, Kmart, Costco,
and Borders.” His DVD may well be the first flying-based production to go mainstream.
Product Lines January, 2005
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Happy New Year, all!
Jon Szarek wrote to say, “I noticed that you lead off Product Lines
[in October 2004 with] a bit about the release of the Sport 2 135. We have
been looking for a medium to (low) high performance glider for my wife Toni
for the last two years. She only weighs 105 pounds and is 5’4″ so our options were
severely limited.” Jon and Toni looked at the Eagle, Ultra Sport 135, the small Sting
(118 sq. ft.), and the LaMouette Topless 121 sq. ft. “Simply put, there just wasn’t
a good glider for her to transition from her Falcon,” Jon continued.
Rob Kells and Steve Pearson kept telling them to be patient because
‘something’ would be coming. “When Rob came out for Demo
Days at the beginning of September Toni had a chance to demo,” says Jon. “She towed
up and spent two hours and 45 minutes darting all over the sky above Morningside.
Lookout Mountain Flight Park
Lookout Mountain Flight Park sits atop the gaggle.
No one questions it anymore. Lookout Mountain Flight Park-known as LMFP-is the country’s most active hang glider school and hang glider enterprise.
A million-dollar-a-year business that defies the notion that you can’t make money in sport aviation, LMFP has survived and prospered for more than 20 years. In rankings of American schools maintained by the national USHGA club, Lookout Mountain Flight Park consistently ranks as the number one issuer of ratings to beginning pilots. Several other schools aren’t far behind (Wallaby Ranch in Florida and Kitty Hawk Kites in North Carolina), but nobody questions the supremacy of LMFP.
Lookout Mountain is also one of the most popular sport aviation destinations in the world. Pilots from around the world arrive at the Georgia site near Chattanooga, Tennessee, because the flying is so good and the weather so accommodating. Chattanooga is about as far south as you can go in the eastern U.S.
New Cumulus Ultralight Motorglider
After a six-year wait the New Cumulus Ultralight Motorglider took to the air thanks to Ultralight Soaring Aviation owner Dave Ekstrom. The original Cumulus required some redesign work that Ekstrom and team accomplished and tested. Now, orders are building and shipments have started. Previous kit owners are getting changed materials that should allow them to get airborne and new owners are starting work on kits. Email Dave at: ekstrom@midwest.net
FAA Administrator flies Quicksilver
Last summer the FAA Adminstrator flew the open-cockpit Quicksilver Sport II. At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2004, FAA Administrator, Marion Blakey flew with instructor Ken Snyder to feel the Wisconsin breeze on her knees. Kudos to her for “daring” to fly in this machine; she was offered enclosed cockpit aircraft, but selected the Quicksilver herself. After she flew in it, I was able to convince two other FAA big shots to fly in the same machine. Look for my review of the charming little Sprint I in Ultralight Flying! magazine’s 2/05 issue.
Hang Glider over Mt. Everest
A hang glider over Mt. Everest is an amazing accomplishment as recognized by many mainstream magazine articles. You can read my account of this feat in two magazines: the 11/04 Kitplanes and the 2/05 Hang Gliding & Paragliding magazine published by the U.S. Hang Gliding Association (both will be posted here later). As this one example shows, the views are stunning; the articles are full of excellent shots. Hang glider pilot Angelo d’Arrigo was towed by trike pilot Richard Meredith Hardy in one of 2004’s genuinely “big” flights
RANS of Kansas
RANS of Kansas will offer this S-6ES Coyote as a factory-built, ready-to-fly ultralight. If you’ve ever seen a RANS factory airplane at airshows, you know they do some superb finish work that anyone would be proud to own. Earlier, some observers didn’t think RANS was going to participate in SP/LSA, perhaps because they spent a lot of effort pursuing an underpromoted Primary Aircraft category certification with their S-7C Courier. But now we know…RANS boss Randy Schlitter is too business-savvy to miss out on the new rule. I’ll bet supplies will be limited so you may wish to contact them soon.
A-I-R’s ATOS VX
By any measure AIR’s ATOS VX is a stunning work of art. The 46-foot span hang glider or nanolight-trike wing is a truly beautiful construction that shows the artistic and engineering prowess of designer Felix Ruhle and his A-I-R company of Germany. I flew this “rigid wing” glider in Florida before the Sebring U.S. Sport Aviation Expo last October. My first flight was a tandem with Felix and then I soloed this big wing built for two-place “tandem” operations. Look for an article in the 4/05 issue of Kitplanes magazine.