One of the best regarded light aircraft on the market is the GT400 from newly reorganized and revitalized Quicksilver. The longtime manufacturer of ultralights has new ownership and good things are happening. Fortunately, the Southern California leader stuck with their successful models.
According to many who have flown it, the GT400 is one of the best flying single seat aircraft you can buy. To beginners, it is predictable and stable with qualities that allow a new pilot to progress with confidence. To old timers, the GT400 has such refined characteristics that it can please those with many hours logged.
Using a control yoke rather than a joystick, GT400 emulates certified aircraft yet for all its sophistication, the design does not lose any of the fun side that makes ultralights so enjoyable. Handling is smooth but responsive. Performance is substantial but not scary. And its stability profile sets a standard for light aircraft.
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Buckeye trikes — B2K Endeavor
You have to hand it to Buckeye. These guys and gals work exceptionally hard to refine their line of ultralight aircraft to a trend-setting state of the art. Complementing their award-winning series of powered parachutes, Buckeye has now added their new Endeavor trike.
A couple years back, it was Buckeye’s single place Brat that grabbed attention for the Indiana operation. The purple airframe Brat represented a first among powered parachute producers to apply their experience to a related but different form of ultralight flight. Brat resembled the Cosmos Samba trike and offered a simple switch to powered parachute so owners could go both ways.
Last year they refined the Brat to a two seat, more extensive aircraft. In the process, the quick switch to powered parachute became more elaborate. Now the Endeavor appears as a fully developed two seat aircraft that focuses on being a trike ultralight. Fortunately it shares the extreme attention to detail that characterizes the entire Buckeye line of ultralight flying machines.
Flightstar Inc. — Flightstar II SL Tailback
“New & Improved” boasts the advertising for the Flightstar IISL as it was introduced at the start of the 1999 season. Indeed, the statement proved to be more than a catchy advertising slogan. The already-popular ultralight from the Connecticut company managed to go one better than earlier models.
A series of changes subtly advanced the state of the art for one of America’s best ultralights. A new cabin fairing was cunningly reshaped to combine smoothly with a new, curvier windscreen. The aft-cabin fabric fairing was made leaner and smaller yet more efficient. And a new engine cowling improved cooling for the Rotax 503 engine installation.
The combination of front and rear fairing harmonized to bring smoother touchdowns eliminating the one nagging challenge I’d found in the older IISL. Making consistently smooth landing roundouts is now child’s play. Builders will also appreciate the easier fit of the new fiberglass parts and shipping is more compact (therefore cheaper) than ever due to the change.
Flightstar Inc. — Flightstar II + HKS Engine
Daring to take on deeply entrenched Rotax, Flightstar/H-Power has introduced the first light aviation four-stroke engine to see broad acceptance. Joined with their smoothly contoured Flightstar II, you can have a deluxe ultralight or lightplane that will provide years of flying enjoyment.
While two strokes do the job for most ultralight enthusiasts, the four stroke 700E engine from HKS of Japan offer assurances some pilots demand. With its particular strength of mid-range torque, the HKS engine brings interesting differences. Pull up the nose while revolutions are set in the 4000s and the HKS will haul the Flightstar II aloft with no evidence of prop loading common among two stroke engines.
Flightstar still sells lots of their very popular IISL models, but on this lighter aircraft, they recommend the Rotax 503. However, now that the same company has adapted the stronger HKS engine, sales are soaring for their Flightstar II with its beautifully formed all-fiberglass cockpit enclosure.
Para-Ski International — Para-Ski
You get four vehicles in one when you choose the powered parachute called Para-Ski. The name comes from the fact that you can swap wheels for skiis. With the correct selection this will permit zooming around – without a wing – on either water or snow, giving Para-Ski year ’round thrills.
What interests pilots, of course, is the ability to install a powered parachute and go aloft. But even in this airborne environment, Para-Ski offers more versatility. You can exchange the bag wing for a rag wing and, using some changed mount hardware, the Para-Ski become a trike ultralight as well.
Para-Ski is just full of differences, for example, its use of four wheels versus the more typical tri-gear favored by most other power parachute builders. Para-Ski feels this gives the machine more stability during takeoffs and landings and sure enough, when the canopy pulls to one side, I’ve seen company pilots keep the machine tracking straight on only two wheels (a tough maneuver with a three-wheeled model).
Flying K Enterprises — Sky Raider
“What took ’em so long,” is the usual comment when one sees the Sky Raider for the first time. Understandably, many viewers incorrectly think they see a single place Kitfox. In fact, the Schraeder brothers used their experience at working for both the Kitfox and Avid Flyer builders when they introduced their single place Sky Raider.
The tiny little machine, from the same airfield as the two larger airplane companies, has made its mark successfully reaching 100 sales in a couple years. Sky Raider clearly answers the request of many who were enthusiastic about the Kitfox or Avid but who wanted a lightweight single seater. You need wait no longer.
Even with a 447 Rotax to give it loads of power, you can build the Sky Raider into a 103-compliant ultralight assuming you consider the weight of components you want to add. Keep it simple and you’ll be delighted with a highly responsive lightweight performer.
Daiichi Kosho — Whisper GTO
With the advent of the powered paraglider, trike ultralights lost their position as the smallest of powered aircraft. Once slope-launched gliding parachutes matured, power packages were added. Add a pilot’s seat to a backpack engine and the paraglider became a powered aircraft.
One of the most widely known brands to popularize this new concept is Daiichi Kosho Co., Ltd., of Japan. Their DK Whisper series is equipped with a harness for the pilot with built-in seat and a foot bar to yield a comfortable cockpit. The throttle is a hand operated unit with a new “cruise control” feature that lets the pilot fix a power setting for cruise or long duration climbs, which frees the hands for use of a GPS or camera.
The latest version of the Whisper blends the proven harness and frame that can reduce both engine torque reaction and gyroscopic precession. Daiichi says their new harness “is so agile that steering can be controlled by shifting body weight.” This weight shift capability adds to the standard method of hand toggles (which hang near your ear) whose purpose is to reshape the trailing edge of the parachute wing.
Buckeye Industries — Brat
Not many question Buckeye’s leadership role among producers of powered parachutes. They move a lot of flying hardware. Now to expand even further, Buckeye has offered the Brat, new in a couple interesting ways.
Buckeye’s little Brat is a single place aircraft. It can be fitted with one of the company’s canopy wings but that’s no longer all. Swap a couple tubes around and in a few minutes you can fix the trike carriage to a La Mouette Topless wing. This wing is one the top wings carrying hang glider pilots to record flights and contest championships. (Tested earlier with a Cosmos trike, I found the Topless wing offered superb trike handling.)
To keep the rig simple and provide for such switchability, the Brat employs hand toggles for canopy wing steering. Their standard powered parachutes use foot pedals to do this same controlling.
Flown for its first public introduction at Oshkosh 1997, the Brat appeared to be a particularly slow flyer with light touch handling – I never saw the pilot working hard to control the Brat.
Aeros — Antares Trike
“From Russia with Love.” Campy as the old Bond movie sounds now, we’re in the ’90s and things we love are coming from the longtime former adversary. In less than a decade, the veil has been lifted so we can exchange information and equipment with ultralight enthusiasts in the old eastern bloc countries. Antares is among the first commercial examples, a trike with Ukraine origin.
Young designers like Sergy Zolzulia evolved their product in the face of very challenging source problems. When you lack America’s depth of mail order and local suppliers, obtaining certain materials is very difficult. You design around it and move on. Nonetheless, some advantages – like the availability of exotic stuff like Titanium – gave the USSR design whizzes a few extraordinary tools.
Today, we have the Antares trike, a solid and trustworthy example of those years of accumulated design experience. In the European tradition, Sergei relied on standard trike construction, but he is able to impress with a very stout airframe employing Titanium components and low prices.
Buckeye Powered Parachutes — Falcon 582
One of the ultralight Industry’s most interesting types of aircraft is the powered parachute. What might surprise you look is the sales success of these machines. Buckeye Powered Parachutes enjoyed a record year in 1995, and a report selling 70% of their production to folks who have never flown before. All of Aviation – take note! In case you think this is still a niche segment, be advised Buc that Buckeye and other power parachutes comprised one in 10 of all all ultralight sales.
The reason for Buckeye’s success includes a safe appearance (“you’re already under a canopy”), ease of operation, docile flight characteristics, and maybe most importantly, its perception as a fun flying machine. And a powered parachute can be carried on a very small trailer and stored just about anywhere.
The Falcon 582 is beautifully built with an overall polish that immediately makes you think well of it. Buckeyes come well-equipped with instruments and have a solidly-built control systems.
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