New ultralights and light aircraft were featured at Sun ‘n Fun
As flying season begins, Florida’s popular Sun ’n Fun airshow brings a focus on new aircraft of all types. Aviation writers review the new machines revealed at the event. Yet many machines are often overlooked in the rush to place the most attention-getting aircraft onto magazine covers and into survey articles. This month, we cover a few ultralights and light aircraft you should find interesting.
While aircraft like Titan’s T-51 Mustang, Just Aircraft’s Escapade, Airborne’s XT and Sabre’s Wildcat garnered lots of attention, designers of other ultralights have also been working hard.
Ramphos
One machine no one had seen before was the Ramphos amphibious trike. Though the amphibious trike concept has been used by numerous other companies, the Ramphos has features the others have lacked such as its counter-rotating propeller.
A prior model required a small vertical tail and distinguished itself by a composite hoop surrounding the propeller arc.
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Product Lines – August 2000
ST. PAUL, MINN., — Congratulations to Kari Castle who won the Women’s World Meet 2000 in Beotia, Greece in the last full week of June. I expect a fine article will enter the magazine pages but here’s a little numerical overview of the meet as released by the FAI. • The international meet drew 31 competitors from eight nations, including the USA, France, Germany, Australia, England, Japan, Russia, and Kazakhstan (showing surprising strength with four pilots). America and Germany each had six team members, France and Japan had five, Russia and the UK had two plus the lone Aussie pilot. • They flew nine Icaro gliders (32%), followed by eight Aeros (29%), five Wills Wings (18%) and one each (4%) of Moyes, La Mouette, Solar, Seedwings, Bautek, and Guggenmos. Wings for three pilots were not identified. • In five tasks ranging from 42-70 km (26-44 miles), the German team came in first (with 6 scored pilots), followed by France (5 pilots), the U.S.
Product Lines – November 01
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Of course, nearly all the news in the last month has focused on the War on Terrorism. Each of us sees this through our own eyes. We cope with the events in millions of individual ways. A logical way for many hang glider or paraglider pilots is to fly. Many of us find a quiet peace in the air. But in a time of national emergency, officals must make decisions. Among those was the grounding of the entire American aviation fleet, an action that has never occurred in the history of aviation. Naturally, hang gliders and paragliders were included in the grounding. • Led by our capable CEO, Jayne Depanphilis, your USHGA office kept in regular contact with other hang gliding leaders, plus those from the U.S. Ultralight Association, to get word from the FAA regarding the ban on flight and its subsequent lifting. On September 20th, only nine days after the attacks, Jayne said, "I now have it in writing from [FAA official] Mike Henry… that USHGA can operate/resume all aspects of Part 103 outside of Class B enhanced airspace." For those unfamiliar with sectional charts, Class B is controlled airspace around major airline hubs; the "enhanced" part of the new ruling means to-the-ground, rather than the upside-down wedding cake look of normal Class B airspace.
Product Lines – September 02
ST. PAUL, MINN. — Results are in from the World Record Encampment. In short it was not the year most hoped for due to the massive rainfall Texas sustained. The bad weather was north of Zapata, but it significantly affected those hang glider and paraglider pilots who had converged on the south Texas town. Many pilots had traveled a long way, some internationally. Many got skunked. lll However, some records were set and FAI has already approved a few. s In a “joint flight,” both Pete Lehmann and Mike Barber were awarded the Straight Distance to a Declared Goal record of 516 km (322.5 miles). Lehmann flew a Wills Talon 150 and Barber flew a Moyes Litespeed 4. s Paraglider pilots were perhaps the most celebrated of the 2002 Zapatans since two pilots managed record on successive days (before the rains started). Dave Prentice flew his Ozone Proton GT Small for 386 kilometers (241 miles) earning a Straight Distance record.
Product Lines – June 03
St. Paul, Minn. — Well, as this issue of Hang Gliding & Paragliding goes to press, one of the two big Florida two meets has finished and the other is about to begin. In the second week of April, after the Sun ‘n Fun airshow concluded, Quest launched into the 2003 Flytec Championships. ||| Two leaders won their classes, with Manfred Ruhmer taking first in his Flexwing class Icaro Laminar MR. Christian Ciech took the honors in his Rigid class Icaro Stratos |again! – each of these men achieved this result last year. Mark Mulholland was an American of distinction placing first among the four-competitor Swift class, flying the wing Brightstar invented. | This year’s contest was significant for flying 110 competitors, up from last year’s 106 contestants. In addition, participation by international pilots was higher than ever. In Flexwing class, fully 50% were from the other countries! The top three Flex wing contestants were Manfred from Austria, Oleg Bondarchuk from Ukraine, and Kraig Coomber from Australia.
Product Lines – May 02
ST. PAUL, MINN. — My opening segment should start, “Once upon a time, there was Escape Pod, Pod Racer, and Porky Pod…” You’d probably be baffled (though perhaps intrigued). I’m referring to the Pod series from former Seagull hang glider boss, Mike Riggs. I’ve unabashedly promoted this project since it came from my challenge for a true “soaring trike.” u Pods are sleek fuselages to house pilots attached to hang glider wings. Their goal is to offer more comfort, low drag and light weight, and a rigid attachment to the glider. You fly seated/supine — and have a full enclosure. Think of a powered ultralight trike except one with all the draggy bits pulled inside. Escape Pod and Pod Racer (and surely Porky Pod, too, when it’s ready) will feature fully retractable tri-gear, in-flight C/G adjustment, and a molded clear plastic canopy that fits smoothly to a composite body. A positive aspect is the rigid connection to glider, such that you can never fall into the wing, possibly preventing broken gliders after a tumble or tuck.
AirSports Expo 2002
AirSports Expo attracts a large crowd and many vendors.
On the first day in Ontario, California, you could see this was going to be the largest AirSports Expo yet. In the shadow still lingering from September 11, many wondered and worried about participation and attendance, but the concern was baseless. A flurry of activity in the last few weeks before the show brought so many requests for exhibit space that the already designed floor plan had to be scrapped and redrawn.
More than 2200 pilots and other visitors saw the exhibits of 65 vendors. While still small next to Sun ’n Fun or AirVenture Oshkosh, this was a good turnout. The range of vendors included many aircraft suppliers and all manner of accessories and informational products.
Gathering of Eagles
AirSports Expo represents the combined efforts of the Soaring Society of America (SSA), the U.S. Ultralight Association (USUA), and the U.S. Hang Gliding Association (USHGA).
Europe Embraces Light-Sport Aircraft
Many excellent aircraft may be headed our way
Parlez-vous Française? Sprechen Sie Deutsche? Parlate Italiano? Fortunately, to understand European recreational aircraft you don’t need to speak French, German, or Italian. Yet the light-sport aircraft (LSA) that may interest you could come from countries where the mother tongue isn’t English.
Welcome to the globalized
world of light-sport
aircraft where the workers
who built your plane may speak
Polish, Russian, Hungarian, or
Latvian in addition to French,
German, or Italian.
Though many intriguing
ultralights come from Europe and
Americans have seen a few of these,
many are a complete surprise to
Yankee pilots. That will change.
Last year after EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh 2002 ended, I traveled to
Blois (pronounced Blwah), France, a
town about 200 kilometers south of
Paris. There I attended the 22nd
salon (or air show) that organizers
present at this location each year in
late summer. Let’s take a walk
around the salon at Blois.
Sky Cycle
In a world of ultralights populated with powered parachutes, powered paragliders, weight-shift trikes, and all manner of 3-axis ultralights, why not a powered hang glider? Why not return to our roots?
For those too new to the scene to remember, ultralights started out as powered hang gliders. John Moody, the man widely known as the “Father of Ultralights,” first motorized and flew a hang glider called the Icarus II (which evolved into the Easy Riser). Moody’s first ultralight, back in the mid-1970s, had no landing gear and no tail because those appendages weren’t on hang gliders then, or now.
After Moody’s early work – plus that of others in the hang gliding and ultralight community – other pioneers began adding power packages to more conventional hang gliders. The Easy Riser Moody flew had good performance but didn’t break down as efficiently as the fully-foldable “flex wings,” as they are commonly known today.
Product Lines from May 2002
ST. PAUL, MINN. — My opening segment should start, “Once upon a time, there was Escape Pod, Pod Racer, and Porky Pod…” You’d probably be baffled (though perhaps intrigued). I’m referring to the Pod series from former Seagull hang glider boss, Mike Riggs. I’ve unabashedly promoted this project since it came from my challenge for a true “soaring trike.”
Pods are sleek fuselages to house pilots attached to hang glider wings. Their goal is to offer more comfort, low drag and light weight, and a rigid attachment to the glider. You fly seated/supine — and have a full enclosure. Think of a powered ultralight trike except one with all the draggy bits pulled inside. Escape Pod and Pod Racer (and surely Porky Pod, too, when it’s ready) will feature fully retractable tri-gear, in-flight C/G adjustment, and a molded clear plastic canopy that fits smoothly to a composite body. A positive aspect is the rigid connection to glider, such that you can never fall into the wing, possibly preventing broken gliders after a tumble or tuck.