James Weibe is a different sort of airplane pioneer. He doesn’t make an LSA. He bought the rights to the former Kitfox Lite and has gone through several iterations of changing and improving the airplane. This makes sense considering his background in the computer accessory field, where he learned the constant upgrade path so common in the tech industry.
Belite’s aircraft can meet Part 103 and other variations are Experimental Amateur Built. Evidently that wasn’t enough work, so Belite also developed a line of superlight instruments. Just keeping up with this prolific fellow tires many folks. However, he also knows how to reach outside the aviation community. For example, on TV… mainstream TV.
When I was a kid, I used to say, “Just scotch it.” I mean that Scotch (brand) tape could fix anything, or so my young mind thought at the time. Apparently, duct tape is the new Scotch tape, at least for aviators trying to fix tears on a fabric-covered aircraft.
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Not Your Average Backyard Flyer
One of my joys at AirVenture 2011 was visiting a seemingly revitalized Ultralight Area. Though a shadow of its former self in the 1980 heydays, new life seemed to be springing up, whether through electric powered aircraft or affordable Part 103 fixed wing designs.
Proving the naysayers wrong (again!) were at least two intriguing Part 103 airplanes you can buy and fly today for less than $20,000. That’s well the under the average price of a new automobile for a ready-to-fly aircraft with desirable features, not a stripped-down machine that no one really wants. I wrote about Terry Raber’s lovely little Aerolite 103. A day after looking over his work, UltralightNews and I shot a video review of the Valley Engineering Backyard Flyer. Once again, I had my eyes opened.
If you’ve ever visited AirVenture’s Ultralight Area, odds are you saw a pilot known as the “Flying Farmer” doing circuits of the Ultralight Area pattern.
Best Bargain in a Ready-to-Fly Airplane?
Many pilots speak of airplanes they cannot afford. Indeed, $150,000 Light-Sport Aircraft are priced beyond common budgets. One way to solve this is through a partnership or fractional ownership… and I will be writing about partnerships later this year. *** Another way involves a ready-to-fly aircraft for under $15,000. You read it right: $14,995 for a ready to fly aircraft with many features you want including electric starting, flaps, brakes, tricycle gear, and instruments. I must also mention it successfully meets U.S. Part 103 ultralight regulations. Plus, it is great fun to fly! *** Welcome back to Terry Raber’s brilliant Aerolite 103… literally brilliant in day-glow orange (photo). An amazing value, let me list a few of the standard equipment items: Factory-built; Hirth F-33 engine with electric start & battery; nose fairing & windshield; instruments including airspeed, altimeter, tachometer, EGT, CHT, and clock; electric flaps; steerable nose wheel with suspension; and four-point restraint system (this list does not include everything you get).
AirVenture 2011 Wrap-Up and Summary
Oshkosh 2011 is history. By numerous accounts, this was a vast improvement over 2010 when the comments commonly went, “Well, I had some interest (in my airplane) and I hope to sell one or two… maybe.” This year I had easily 30 conversations revealing either outright positive successful results or varyingly robust mood indicators such as, “Looks like aviation has life in it again.” I heard from sellers and customers and rarely had to solicit their opinions. *** A number of aircraft purveyors said they took cash deposits and wrote firm contracts. I estimate about 30 aircraft sales by this method. Companies like Icon, Flight Design, and Terrafugia sold a large number of future delivery positions (more than 50, more than 60, and “several,” respectively). *** Icon neared or crossed the 500-on-order point, partly by “testing elasticity” in the pre-order market by lowering the A5 seaplane deposit to $2,000 from $5,000.
Which Kind of Pilot Are You?
I’ve observed aviation for more years than I’m comfortable admitting. As an aviation journalist I’ve often had a front row seat. I’ve talked to a ton of pilots (one of the great joys of my life is to have met so many fine folks). Over those years, I’ve distilled the kind of pilots we are to one or the other. Yes, just that simple: this kind or that. *** I believe you either fly to “Get Up,” or “Go Long.” Go Long flyers include all those who want to go some distance in their flying machine. Flying your own plane is a great way to travel. Speed is a big part of why flying is useful but that quality is merely one aspect of the enjoyment. *** Me? Sure, I like to Go Long. I’ve logged hundreds of hours of cross country flying, to all corners of America and some out of the USA.
Europe’s Aero 2011 in Full Swing
Aero Friedrichshafen, Europe’s big annual GA convention, has more than 600 exhibitors showing their wares and innovations right now through tomorrow. *** Sub-titled The Global Show for General Aviation, if you want to see what’s happening and what’s coming down the pike, you’ll not find a more intensely focused representation than at Aero. *** The show spreads displays from many big names and newcomers alike, up through bizjets, across its 11 big hangar-style display areas. *** I like this show, although lamentably I’ve yet to go, because it never fails to draw cool new stuff, in particular Microlight/LSA developments and electric and solar powered birds. Thousands of visitors flock to the “e-flight Expo” at Aero, in its third year as part of the show. *** Two big events will highlight the show this year: the Berblinger Flight Competition and the awarding of three LEAP prizes from Erik Lindbergh (Lucky Lindy’s grandson).
Aero 2011 Pre-Show Attention Getters
The major European Airshow, Aero, opened this morning with the usual unveiling of new designs but one aircraft appeared to be the center of attention. Peter Funk had an idea five years back but shelved it for other projects. Now the time is right for his distinctly retro treatment of one of Light-Sport aviation’s sharpest designs, the Fk14 Polaris (Alert readers will identify Polaris as the Cirrus SRS, that GA company’s onetime entry in the LSA sweepstakes.) *** Even experts accustomed to following the latest in new or updated designs were caught off guard by the unorthodox entry (photo). With dual windscreens and race car bodywork, the open cockpit creation charmed many who gained early access to the great exhibit halls of Aero… 11 of them, each the size of a gymnasium. While exhibitors were assembling their displays Fk Lightplanes’ staff grabbed lots of attention with their Fk14 Lemans. *** Constrained by their ongoing contract with Cirrus until the end of the year, Fk Lightplanes sought permission before revealing Lemans and sales will not happen in 2011.
Larry Newman, 2011
Larry Newman, 63, one of the seminal manufacturing/marketing dynamos in the early days of hang gliding who made the successful transition to ultralights, has died after a reported 3-year battle with pancreatic cancer. *** Larry was a flamboyant entrepreneur who successfully sold his ElectraFlyer hang gliders. *** When people started sticking motors on the foot launched craft, he came out with a new company, American Aerolites, to produce the Eagle ultralight. *** I first flew the Eagle with Plane & Pilot Publisher Steve Werner back in 1983. I remember it vividly: while Steve was up on a test hop, I was taking photos of his flight next to the runway at Coronado Airport, north of Albuquerque, near Larry’s factory…and I got stung twice by fire ants.I almost jumped out of my jeans, it hurt so bad. I thought I’d been shot in the leg. I could barely see the critters but what a painful wallop they packed.
Sonex Electric Airplane & ElectraFlyer Trike
Green Tech is hot in Silicon Valley. Electric power-augmented and flex-fuel cars are selling well. Why not alternative energy Light-Sport Aircraft? Two companies showed electric airplanes at AirVenture 2007. *** Sonex revealed their own green technologies including a full-electric Waiex with a 200-amp motor that is 90 percent efficient and operates on 270 volts of direct current. The motor was manufactured in-house by Sonex and uses 80 lithium polymer battery packs which the company believes will allow one hour flights. The electric Waiex is part of the Sonex eFlight initiative which also includes ethanol-based fuels in their AeroVee combustion engine. *** In the Part 103 ultralight category, Randall Fishman is already flying his 100% electric-powered ElectraFlyer trike. Electric motors as airplane powerplants carry several advantages, notes Randall: “No engine vibration or maintenance; no carbon buildup, no top or major overhauls, no carb adjustments, no handling smelly gasoline and oil.” The batteries alone on the ElectraFlyer trike cost $7,500 for a 1.5 hour duration but the entire trike, wing and all, is about $17,000.
Second Chantz… for the Second Time
On ultralight aircraft, the installation of an airframe parachute was estimated at a third to half of all aircraft. In general aviation, the use of such a system on the Cirrus Design line of aircraft created thousands of airframe parachute owners. In Light-Sport, three producers — BRS, Magnum (Stratos 07), and Galaxy — have installed airframe parachutes on a solid percentage of SLSA. Sounds like it’s all taken care of, right? Wrong! *** The trouble with existing producers is that little or no new development work is being done for Part 103 ultralights, powered parachutes, or trikes. Likewise many kit-built aircraft have no supplier willing to customize an airframe parachute for their (possibly one-off) airplane. Now, that’s changing. *** An old friend, John Dunham, once ran Second Chantz, the other airframe parachute company in the USA (besides BRS). In the mid-’90s, he made a deal with BRS and left the business.
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