An Easy-Flying Ultralight
Let’s see. A single-seat plane that can be purchased as an ultralight,
assuming your engine selection doesn’t push it over Part
103’s weight limit, or built from a kit and registered as an
Experimental-class aircraft, or purchased as a light sport aircraft
once the manufacturer meets the ASTM certification. What’s a pilot to do?
That’s the conundrum facing T-Bird I shoppers. This single-seater can be
a Part 103-compliant ultralight when using a Rotax 277, still available on
the used-engine market, though no longer supplied from Rotax’s Austrian
factory. Few prospective owners would select this engine, yet a more powerful
engine would push the T-Bird I over the Part 103 weight limit. Does that
leave only the Experimental amateur-built kit
option?
The answer is no, and yes. To explain this apparent
contradiction, a kit-built T-Bird I with a larger
Rotax engine or the 60-hp HKS 700E engine could
still qualify under the 51% rule.
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Flying the Puma
One of Canada’s best-kept secrets can be found hidden
away in a northeastern Ontario town called Hawkesbury. That
secret is the PUMA – a little plane being imported into Canada by
Humberto Dramisino of Otreb Technologies.
When you look into the history of ultralight and light sport aviation,
it’s interesting to note that the successful manufacturers are the ones
that introduce a design and then adjust it as times goes by to better fit
the ever-changing aviation marketplace.
This is what has lead to the success of the PUMA. Designed in Italy
by Antonio Bortolanza, the aircraft has undergone a number of design
transitions since it was first introduced in ’85. Dramisino has been
involved with the manufacture of the PUMA from a very early age. He
first started working in the factory when he was only 15 years of age,
“working just for the pleasure of working on airplanes,” he says.
NH:Higher Class Aviation’s Sport Hornet
At the close of business on January 31,
2008, 2-seat ultralight trainers and overweight
single-seater “ultralights” – as
readers of this publication understand these aircraft
– will cease to exist. More correctly, they
must have been converted to Experimental-Light
Sport Aircraft (ELSA) if their owners want to continue
flying them; otherwise these pilots’ options
are sharply limited.
But as Part 103-compliant ultralights continue
and if ultralight trainers go away, how will new
ultralight pilots be trained for flight in these
lightest of aircraft?
Happily, the subject of this month’s flight
review answers that question. Arguably the first
fixed-wing ultralight to make the jump – not to
ELSA conversion status but to full, Special-LSA
(SLSA) approval – is Higher Class Aviation’s
Sport Hornet.
Gaining Higher Class
We first saw the Hornet when Jim Millett
brought this new design to Sun ‘n Fun ’94 (the
event’s 20th anniversary). It was a bold move into
a market looking well established.
Rotax 503 Launch…then, Silence is Golden
Some of you know the Pipistrel line. Americans have seen two of their models: the Sinus and Virus (yep, those awkward, even distasteful names…except representatives prefer to say SEEN-us and VEER-us). Fortunately Taurus is easier on the American tongue, thanks to Ford and its auto model by the same name. *** I discovered Taurus is also easy on the ears as I went for a two-hour soaring flight from Wallaby Ranch with my hang gliding friend, David Ledford. His side-by-side Taurus — roomy for a soaring machine — glides beyond 40:1 and manages a sink rate barely more than 100 fpm. Those numbers translate into plenty of soaring power as we proved on a day with modest convective lift. *** Taurus is a self-launched sailplane, rather than a motorglider like Urban Air’s Lambada or Pipistrel’s own Sinus. To get aloft, we were powered by a Rotax 503 two-stroke engine that fits neatly into a cavity aft of the cockpit.
Renewed Breezer II SLSA Ready for Delivery
They are lining up, literally, at Sportsplanes.com’s Plant City, Florida airport (PCM) assembly station. Michael Zidziunas — everyone calls him “Mike Z” — assembled three of the new Breezer II SLSA and arranged for DAR inspection. Mike Z is a well-known flight instructor and licensed mechanic working in the LSA arena. *** Last fall, at the AOPA Expo, Josh Foss of Sportsplanes.com unveiled the new Breezer II. The all-metal low wing was introduced more than a year earlier but disputes over the design rights and manufacturing put a halt to shipments. Since then, German designer Ralf Magnussen found a new investor, Dirk Ketelsen, a builder of windmills for electric power generation. They established a new 17,000 square foot plant near Husum, Germany (west of Hamburg at the North Sea coastline) where Josh reports they can build more than 100 aircraft a year.
High Priced Light-Sport Aircraft; What’s Going On?
Lots of folks are wondering about, or complaining about, the seemingly high prices of Light-Sport Aircraft. Recently a prior editor-in-chief of EAA publications, Scott Spangler, wrote a blog on JetWhine. Scott focused on expensive avionics as one reason LSA cost so much. While a factual observation, I believe the price increase is more complex. *** First, LSA suppliers install equipment like autopilots because buyers ask for them. A large chunk of all LSA are sold to “retiring” GA pilots used to such equipment in their Cessna or Bonanza. Simpler LSA are available; most suppliers have one. But customers are buying the loaded-panel jobs. *** Let’s look closer at those rising prices. Five years ago, in the pre-dawn of SP/LSA, a CT was selling for $60,000. Today it’s $125,000. By far the largest piece of that doubling is the euro’s soaring value compared to the dollar. Were the currencies at parity, that $125,000 would be $80,000.
CubCrafters All-New Sport Cub
Vintage Looks Mated With Modern Materials
Take 25 years of experience
with rebuilding Piper Cubs,
add a new FAA regulation
allowing more flexibility in designing
and producing aircraft, spice the
mixture with many design changes,
and you get CubCrafters’ Sport Cub.
The Yakima, Washington-based company
has created an airplane that retains
the vintage look of a J-3 Cub
but embraces 21st century materials
and technology.
On a warm evening during
the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-In
at Lakeland, Florida, I
flew with CubCrafters’
pilot Clay Hammond. He
identified company President
Jim Richmond as the primary
motivator behind the Sport Cub.
Richmond has been rebuilding Cubs
for 25 years, during which time he
conceived many changes he wanted
to try. Taking into consideration his
height-he’s 6 feet 4 inches tall-he
wanted to make all the improvements
he’d envisioned for the venerable
Cub, and he wanted the airplane
to fit him.
A Thoroughly Modern Cub
CubCrafters took on the redesign
of the 50-year-old airplane using
modern materials and engineering
software not available to Piper engineers
when the J-3 was created.
AERO LTD.
Aero Ltd.
Based in Poland, Aero Ltd.
was founded in 1994. The
company’s mission is to bring
to market an inexpensive
two-seat aircraft for basic
training and tourism. Tomek
Antoniewski founded Aero
Ltd. in Warsaw, Poland, and
functions as the company’s
CEO. He is also the lead
designer of AT aircraft. He first
constructed the AT-1 as part
of a master’s degree thesis
while in the Warsaw University
of Technology’s Aeronautical
Department. The AT-1 is a
single-seat low-wing plane that
accumulated 2,500 hours of
flying time.
In 1996, Antoniewski created
the AT-2, using experience
accumulated during the earlier
project. Both projects led to
the present-day AT-3. Aero
built one AT-3 for flight testing
and another for static testing.
The prototype AT-3 has flown
1,500 hours in basic training
missions in the Warsaw
Aeroclub. The whole structure
of the AT-3, which was the
basis for the G-700S, was
designed in CAD.
To assist with the
manufacturing of the AT
line, Aero and Antoniewski
have attracted several
seasoned aviation
professionals with years of
design, manufacturing, and
certification experience.
On the Rampage…Yet Another SLSA from Skykits
Rampage looks so dissimilar to its predecessors from Skykits that it took a second glance to make the connection. While it shares the STOL wing devices with versions of the Savannah, Rampage has a sleeker look that might broaden the appeal of these short takeoff and land designs from ICP of Italy. *** For those who got to see the new model at Sebring the airplane’s lines weren’t alone to admire. Deep blue paint was used in strategic accent to highly polished aluminum on most of the fuselage; Rampage gleamed brilliantly in Florida’s warm sun. The finish was brought inside where a polished aluminum instrument panel frame contrasted with royal blue inset subpanels (photo). Skykits director Eric Giles reported that the bright metal inside had not caused reflective problems on their long flight from western Canada. *** Rampage, the fourth SLSA model for which Skykits has gained airworthiness, uses electrically deployed leading edge slats to continue the impressive performance of the Savannah models.
The Sport Hornet
Is It the First Ultralight SLSA?
Among fixed-wing airplanes, the Sport Hornet from Higher Class Aviation
may be the first ultralight-type airplane to achieve special light-sport
aircraft (S-LSA) status. Several weight-shift trikes and a few powered
parachutes also have made the jump, making declarations of meeting the
ASTM industry consensus standards.
As company owner Robert Gaither and his team made the Hornet ready for the
LSA market, the airplane was put through a series of changes resulting in the
name Sport Hornet.
From Hornet to Super Hornet to Sport Hornet
Jim Millett, of U.S. Light Aircraft,
designed the original Hornet thinking
he could improve upon the Quad
City Ultralight’s Challenger. His was
a ground-up different design that had
only the look of a Challenger. Much
of what Jim created remains on the
Sport Hornet of today, but much has
also changed, sometimes to meet
S-LSA requirements and sometimes
because it was the right thing to do.
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