Antares qualifies as the first 51%-rule trike kit.
These days, hangar talk in the sport flying community seems to be focused on the FAA’s not-yet-final sport pilot rule [we have labeled it SportPlanes™—Ed]. If you are thinking of building a new airplane, you will want to know the rules that may affect your use of it.
As we wait a year or two for SportPlanes™ to prove its worth to the flying crowd, some things remain as they were. Aviation’s simplest rule defining aircraft and pilots, FAR Part 103 (ultralights) will not change. In presentation sessions, FAA officials worked to convince enthusiasts that the agency has no plans to alter this rule. Therefore, you may still fly one of the single-seat ultralights that qualify.
Long Live 51%
For many KITPLANES® readers, a primary interest is the amateur-built regulation commonly referred to as the 51% rule. As the magazine’s annual December-through-February three-part directory shows, pilots are fortunate to have hundreds of choices among attractive aircraft of every description.
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Airborne Australia
A light-sport contender?
As the FAA’s proposed SportPlanes™/light-sport aircraft (LSA) rule moves steadily closer to becoming a law of the land, intense focus has been concentrated on candidate aircraft from overseas.
Though many pilots excited by the new rule are paying attention to fixed-wing designs, these are hardly the only aircraft that will qualify under the proposed regulation. In fact, consensus standards being devised by the industry to certify LSA have separate committees writing recommendations for powered parachutes and trikes (weight-shift). (Committees for gyroplanes, gliders, airships and balloons are also possible, but are not presently active.)
This month, “Light Stuff” looks at AirBorne Australia. Though its home is an immense distance from our shores and despite many other trike entries from the U.S. and overseas, AirBorne has built a solid following among Americans. However, AirBorne is one of those companies that does more than initially meets the eye.
Going Both Ways
Besides the Australian company, I can think of only two other manufacturers that currently build both ultralights and hang gliders.
Silent Trikes
Meet the Silent family of sleek trikes
Most trikes (powered hang gliders) use fiberglass only for nose pods and wheelpants. The Silent brand of trikes from Germany is an exception as these machines use composite materials for much of the trike carriage or chassis. The Silent family includes four models, two of which are still in production.
Although the Silent trikes are well known to Germans and other Europeans, it took Australian light aviation pioneer Bill Moyes to introduce the stunning Silent Racer to American skies. I first came across this unusual machine at Florida’s Wallaby Ranch before the Sun ’n Fun airshow three years ago.
But I’ve had other contact with developer Helmut Grossklaus as he has, not once, but twice been saved by the same BRS parachute installed in his aircraft. I collected info about this in my role at BRS. Neither accident was the fault of the equipment but of flying circumstances.
Six Chuter Spirit
Veteran company Six Chuter has led the powered parachute pack since 1991.
With more than 1000 powered parachutes in the air, Six Chuter, Inc. of Yakima, Washington, is one of the leading companies in an increasingly crowded field. However, things haven’t always gone so well for the company. In 1992, Six Chuter nearly went out of business. Down to less than $1000, the company closed a three-unit sale that saved it.
The order signaled the beginning of the powered parachute phenomenon, and Six Chuter has never looked back. Sales hit 112 units in 1994, and they have grown ever since. Six Chuter has seen the industry develop dramatically, and it’s been a major player every step of the way.
When Six Chuter employees attended what they feared might be their last airshow a decade ago, prospects looked bleak. Company owner Dan Bailey recalls: “We were less than well received at the show.
Copperstate’s 30th Anniversary
Copperstate celebrates its 30th anniversary at a promising new venue.
That’s the dustiest place on Earth!” the pilot said upon returning from Phoenix Regional Airport in late 2001. John Kemmeries, a Phoenix-based ultralight entrepreneur, had sent the pilot to check out the proposed site for the Copperstate regional fly-in. The pilot’s reconnaissance report suggested a dry and dirty venue for the Arizona fly-in, but he had no way of knowing the event organizer’s vision.
As I approached the area in BRS’s Cessna 172 Hawk XP for the 2002 fly-in, I found myself searching vainly for an airstrip among the desert’s uniform brown color. As the GPS led me along, I suddenly saw a large swatch of green dotted with colored tents. My uncertainty vanished; the site stood out like the proverbial sore thumb.
Welcome to the new, improved Copperstate as created by thousands of volunteer man-hours and the support of a local land owner.
Blois Airshow
This French light-airplane show Tops Anything in the U.S.
The name of the French venue is a bit awkward for Americans, though it rolls off the French tongue fluidly. Blois—pronounced Blwah—is a superb airshow that should grab the interest of every light-airplane enthusiast.
Light Airplanes Everywhere!
I’ve been to Sun ’n Fun for more than 25 years and to Oshkosh nearly as many. I spend a lot of time in the ultralight area of each, and they’re big events, no question. But both take a second seat to Blois. Yes, believe it or not, the event 185 kilometers south of Paris last August is the largest of the ultralight airshows I’ve seen.
With 90 exhibitors and more than 500 aircraft, most of which were flown to the event, Blois beats even Paradise City at the Lakeland, Florida, Sun ’n Fun fly-in. I’ve known of this 22-year-old show since the ’80s but attended for the first time last summer.
New Aircraft Arrive at Arlington
With 200-foot-tall trees and mountain peaks topped with snow throughout the year, Washington is a scenic place for an airshow. Despite a drought that caused the grass to crunch underfoot, light aviation looked alive and well at the EAA’s Arlington gathering for 2003.
Local Boys Make Good
One main attraction was the much-anticipated RV-10 four-place aircraft that drew big crowds. But a Washington-area group also revealed their efforts of past months. Sport Flight Aviation displayed in the ultralight area with the first of 50 kits in progress. Two completed Talons—the last of the old design—stood alongside a new Typhoon. The new closely resembles the old.
Company owners Todd Thompson and Ron Osborne took pride in showing me extensive CAD-generated drawings printed after a lengthy effort to document the popular northwest design. Each of the men operates a non-aviation business. They teamed up to resuscitate a company left leaderless after the death of its founder, Roger Bitton.
Turbines for Ultralights?
Just when FAA officials believe they have it figured out, individual actions can introduce new questions. I’m referring to the light-sport aircraft category of new rulemaking proposed by the aviation agency.
Consider the turbine engine. Why, you may ask, is turbine power the subject for a column that focuses on the lightest and slowest aircraft? The answer is that turbine engines are actually being used on the these aircraft, and they may be the right power for the use intended.
Turbine Tug
For two decades, hang gliders have been towed aloft by specially built ultralights. Aircraft like Bobby Bailey’s Dragonfly have succeeded at launching hang glider pilots who live in flat areas like Florida. They don’t need mountains. Just give them a Rotax engine and they’ll take to the skies in swarms.
Witness the spring ritual of dual hang gliding competitions in central Florida. Each year as the Sun ‘n Fun fly-in ends, pilots converge from all over the world.
Aero 2001
Light aircraft abound at Friedrichshafen’s air fair.
Once Oshkosh AirVenture has ended, you may be interested to hear of another gathering that challenges the Wisconsin affair for supremacy when it comes to light aviation. No, I’m not referring to Sun ’n Fun.
Inside the vast and numerous indoor halls of Aero 2001 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, the largest aircraft on display was a Cessna 206. But most were smaller, what the European Community calls ultralights, and the choices were as wide and diverse as the great halls that exhibited them.
An Air Fair, Indeed
When Germans speak English to Americans, they call their airshows “fairs.” Indeed, this July event was as large as some state fairs and resulted in near sensory overload for several U.S. airshow veterans who attended with me.
Aero, which alternates years like many European airshows, has been hosted by the southern German town of Friedrichshafen for the last decade.
Antares MA-32 on Floats
A Trip to Alaska Unearthed a Hotbed of Ultralight Activity.
Alaska’s facts are amazing. Most everyone knows that the sun stays up incredibly late-in the northern oil fields of Prudhoe Bay it doesn’t set for three months! But did you also know the daily tidal change amounts to a whopping 38 feet?
More on point for an aviation magazine, Alaska boasts the highest concentration of pilots anywhere in the U.S. and probably the world. While the lower 48 states contain about one pilot in 500 among the general population, Alaska has one in 47. Even more astonishing is airplane ownership. One out of every 53 residents owns an airplane. In the contiguous United States, that figure is closer to one in 1400.
In Alaska, nobody complains about airplane noise. No wonder-with a physical size about half of the contiguous U.S., the state has only 13 highways, three of which are gravel.
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