A couple of years ago, TC’s Trikes owner TC Blyth and North Wing owner Kamron Blevins joined forces in a cooperative arrangement. TC’s Trikes would buy wings from North Wing (rather than continue to make their own), and could better represent North Wing on the Eastern Seaboard. North Wing, headquartered in the northwestern state of Washington, is far from TC’s Trikes’ Tennessee home. It seemed a marriage of convenience and more.
Blyth has been particularly active in training and introductory flight lessons. He’s done many thousands of them at his location near a top Tennessee tourist and outdoorsmen attraction – the Ocoee River, popular for white water rafting, kayaking, and other sports. Blyth has been focused on meeting this need with his own brand of trikes, and all his experience gave him something clear and viable to add to the expertise of North Wing.
North Wing has risen to the top of the U.S.
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CGS Aviation Makes Hawk
Remember why we fly ultralights? Few general aviation airplanes are flown below 1,500 feet above the ground. More rare is flight at 500 feet or 50 feet. Neither do you tend to fly most light-sport aircraft (LSAs) at these denser altitudes. Most flights in general aviation or LSA planes start out climbing high as quickly as possible. You switch on the autopilot as soon as possible and fiddle with the throttle, prop and mixture controls to squeeze all the fuel economy you can while flying as fast as the machine will manage in the straightest possible line all the way to your destination.
That’s fine for general aviation or LSA flying, and it’s enjoyable in a different way. But it isn’t ultralight flying.
What about just “boating around” the sky at your leisure, turning every few minutes to see the sights only possible from an ultralight aircraft. Your eye catches an alligator off to one side and you bank quickly to check it out.
CGS Pulls Out the Stops
… to keep the Hawk Ultra Light
Genuine ultralights still
have a place. These
aircraft|excuse me,
ultralight vehicles,
the least-FAA-regulated
flying machines,
will not be sent to aircraft boneyards
despite what some light-sport aircraft
skeptics may think. The Hawk Ultra
is proof positive CGS Aviation loves
ultralights and wants you to have fun
in the air.
No matter the pros and cons of
the sport pilot/light-sport aircraft (SP/
LSA) rule, operating a Part 103 ultralight
remains simpler than earning a
sport pilot certificate and buying an
LSA. No certificate, no medical, and
no registration is needed (though, it is
recommended that folks register with
one of the three associations supporting
ultralights-EAA, the United States
Ultralight Association (USUA), and Aero
Sports Connection (ASC). Additionally,
an ultralight can be fully factory built
without FAA inspections. The list of 103
privileges goes on, and the Hawk Ultra
qualifies for all of them.
One-Oh-Three Interest Soars
I don’t know about the “build it
and they will come” premise when
it comes to baseball fields, but I fervently
believe that if enough customers
want a product, someone will supply
it.
TC’s Trikes and North Wing Team Up on Coyote
Two years ago, I flew and reported on the only model TC’s Trikes offered. Though their line had little depth, the Tennessee company built their own wing and chassis. Many trike chassis builders purchase wings from other sources, much like happens universally in powered parachutes. TC’s Trikes did it all based particularly on their needs as an active flight school operation.
In today’s light aircraft world, a wider product line addresses more pilots, which makes a more viable business. Given the pace of refinements, it can be tough to keep up. Yet TC’s Trikes had a track record in the East, selling more than 100 trikes of their own and other brands. Pairing up with another company, if the fit was right, could be smart business.
A match was found between TC’s Trikes and Washington state-based North Wing Design. TC’s Trikes had something North Wing lacked – a presence in the Eastern USA.
Special LSA Certificate Given by FAA
Sun ‘n Fun 2005 started off with a bang when Flightstar Sportplanes’ Tom Peghiny heard the Flight Design CT he imports was one of the first Special Light-Sport Aircraft to be given its airworthiness certificate. (S-LSAs are fully built and can be used for training or rental.) CT regional dealer Tom Gutmann of Airtime Aviation, Inc., was the recipient of a process Peghiny graciously called “the effort of many people.” Watch for full coverage of this benchmark achievement in aviation magazines.
C42…An Ideal Light-Sport Aircraft Trainer?
Germany’s most popular microlight flies to America
Some readers and enthusiasts are excited about the proposed sport pilot/light-sport aircraft rule, while others have taken a wait-and-see approach. Virtually all recreational pilots are full of anticipation and questions. In the meantime, aircraft developers are also preparing.
Of those aircraft likely to become new ready-to-fly light-sport aircraft (LSA), many hail from Europe because its microlight regulations are close to the expected definition of LSAs in the United States. Germany is home to many manufacturers that produce potential LSAs, including Comco Ikarus, makers of the C42 Ikarus. The company has produced more than 1,500 aircraft, of which more than 650 are the C42 model. It’s an aircraft that both general aviation and microlight pilots appreciate, noted by the fact that it is Germany’s best-selling microlight. Every year, the factory cranks out another 80 C42s.
The design was first produced in 1996. Rather than follow the design of the company’s older C22, which looks like a Flightstar II SL in its Fastback version, the C42 started fresh.
Flight Design CT2K
A Bold Yet Efficient Euro-Designed Light-Sport Aircraft
Flightstar imports the CT2K in anticipation of the light-sport aircraft rule.
As FAA’s proposed light-sport aircraft
rule looms ever closer, one
of the first aircraft that will likely
fit the field and be recognized by American
pilots is Germany’s CT. For the U.S.
market, and with a nod to the new millennium,
producer Flight Designs has
renamed the model as the CT2K.
“CT” stands for Composite Twoseater.
It is certainly not alone in being
“white, glass, and built overseas,” a
theme that emerged at EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh 2002. But the design was a
leader in the move from tube-and-rag
ultralights to the modern microlights of
Europe. And it distinguishes itself in a
number of ways that we’ll explore in
this review.
My experiences flying the CT on two
occasions were both with Europeanbased
check pilots. The most recent
opportunity was with Allistair Wilson,
formerly a major with the Royal Irish
Regiment in Northern Ireland.
Composite Two-seater (CT)
In the fall of ’01, I wrote in Ultralight Flying!, “The CT is the tip of an iceberg, in my opinion.” When I flew that first CT in the USA, few Yankees had seen the aircraft. I felt the German design represented the beginning of a flow of European aircraft coming to America. What a difference a couple of years make!
Thanks to adept and steady promotion, Americans may best identify the coming breed of proposed Light-Sport Aircraft by pointing to the Flight Design CT2K. While this means no disrespect to trikes, tube-and-rag ultralights, or powered parachutes, the CT’s unusual, smoothly-contoured shape is now well known to many Americans. Though the brand is fabricated in the Ukraine and assembled in Germany, it crosses the Atlantic as a prototypical candidate for FAA’s proposed Light-Sport Aircraft category.
Rollison Light Sport Aircraft imported the first U.S.-based CT I flew. The design is now brought in by Flightstar Sportplanes and HPower HKS engine honcho Tom Peghiny.
Boston Sport Pilot Tour Draws New England Crowd
A dozen aircraft were available for a crowd numbering close to 500 people at the first and only east coast version of EAA’s Sport Pilot Tour. After being threatened by poor weather the week before due to Hurricane Ernesto, the Lawrence, Massachusetts stop 30 miles north of Boston enjoyed ideal weather. Weight shift trikes made their strongest appearance yet with three machines from companies that have won SLSA approval: AirBorne and Air Creation. *** One pleasant surprise was a visit from top FAA officials in the LSA office, Larry Clymer and Edsel Ford. Larry (inset photo, front seat) is the manager of FAA Light Sport Aviation Branch…but of keener interest to most Sport Pilot enthusiasts, he has now also logged 70 hours flying trikes. His predecessor, Marty Weaver, was a gyro pilot so Larry continues a theme of agency leaders who enjoy the activity as well as regulate it.
Lightweight Four-Stroke HKS Now Available for LSA
After Rotax announced ASTM compliance for their lightweight 582 two-stroke engine, many American pilots celebrated. This lighter, simpler powerplant (compared to the 9-series engines) gave ultralight builders seeking SLSA certification more flexibility while significantly lowering cost for buyers. Now HKS enters the arena issuing a Statement of Compliance for the horizontally opposed, twin-cylinder, four-stroke, 60-hp 700E engine. HKS is lighter than four-cylinder engines and can save buyers several thousand dollars. American importer HPower has assisted at least 29 companies as they became HKS-powered, including such leading names as RANS, Quicksilver, Murphy, Earthstar, CGS, Titan, ASAP, and Flightstar. The Japanese company, HKS Aviation Co., Ltd., made their declaration on July 16, one month after the Rotax 582. Behind HKS Aviation is real depth in a 400-employee company active in high-performance auto components. I’ve flown a number of airplanes with this engine and have become converted to its smooth power.
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