After four years of intense development (and more money than you might expect), the Seagull Aerosports Escape Pod made its flying debut at AirVenture Oshkosh 2006. Pilot Eric Rasmussen, proprietor of UFlyTrikes, a weight shift flight school and AirBorne dealership, took the sleek, retractable gear single place soaring trike aloft before a fascinated crowd at the big summer airshow. Designer Mike Riggs said, “People were running for the flight line to snap photos.” *** Those onlookers weren’t the only ones impressed. EAA judges showered the new rig with awards, giving Seagull’s Escape Pod both Innovative New Design and Grand Champion Ultralight. I’m not aware of a design snagging both honors in a single year before. (FYI: Escape Pod has been at AirVenture before but EAA judges don’t award any non-flying designs.) Hearty congratulations to Mike and right-hand man Jeremy! Now, those soaring enthusiasts — me included — are closer to deliveries of their own Pod.
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Dawn of the Dynamic
While many American pilots focus on SportPlanes™/ light-sport aircraft (LSA), sales of amateur-built kits continue. As the government crawls toward release of the new rule, the WT-9 Dynamic from Aerospool is one that might go both ways.
You might choose a fixed-gear, Rotax 912 80-hp model that U.S. importer Dan Defelici believes may meet the proposed regulation. But today you can buy a retractable Dynamic and build and fly the speedster around the U.S. under the 51% rule. Since LSA will probably not allow retractable landing gear, flying a retractable WT-9 will require more than a Sport Pilot license.
Getting Some Help
The 51% rule intends that the owner of a kit airplane should build more than half of the plane. The FAA has created extensive checklists to assure that a wide variety of kits meet this rule. Factories often do the hard parts that require jigs and other special equipment.
World’s Fastest Mustang II?
When most of us think about a fast airplane, we sketch in our minds a sleek and smooth exterior and wings that allow the graceful machine to slip through the air with the least possible resistance. We think the engine is also important and that more power is better than less.
But according to race winner Brian Schmidtbauer, up to 30% of the total drag in an aircraft can be cooling drag, or air movement through the engine compartment.
Because I often review gliders and slower powered aircraft, I’m sure I displayed a slack-jawed response to this comment. The stunned expression stayed on my face as Schmidtbauer described detail after detail about the handling of cooling air.
After an hour-long flight in his blazing Mustang II, I came away a believer. His homebuilt aircraft has beaten the likes of jet-smooth Lancairs and isn’t threatened by speedy RVs. In fact, only his buddy and RV-4 pilot Dave Anders has beaten Schmidtbauer in a race, and they’re so close that the next race might be different.
Air Création’s High-Performance Floats
Air Création is a serious company and a world-class trike builder with an impressive sales record. Their serious trikes sport beautiful hardware and numerous customized components. Right down to their trademark red color, Air Création is serious about building a remarkable trike, a series of them in fact.
So when Air Création puts a float set on the market, you can count on the fact that it was well researched and exquisitely crafted.
Now, let’s combine that with the XP-17 wing, the largest in the company’s XP series. Floats are mounted under and the wing atop a GTE trike carriage which has been in production for several years. Put this all on a lake in Florida and you have the makings of an interesting experience.
Another 20-Year Veteran
Gilles Bru and Jean Yves le Bihan founded the French company in 1982. Air Création’s dealer in Canada reports, “It has grown steadily ever since, building around 4,000 wings and 2,500 trike-units for sale in more than 50 countries.”
Today Air Créationemploys 25 people, four of whom are in the technical department designing new products, and 14 work on the production of ultralight trikes and wings.With annual sales of about $2.5 million, Air Création exports 60% of its products.
Buckeye Convertible
I never really noticed before just how much the Buckeye Industries powered parachute carriage looked like a trike carriage. Maybe you didn’t either, but in your mind’s eye, remove the prop guard and see if you don’t agree. They aren’t identical, of course, but the visual relationship is uncannily close considering the two aircraft types developed separately.
What a perfect situation. Ralph Howard’s family members and friends have built Buckeye from “nothing” to one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturers, all in the ’90s and without even using the entire decade! Whatever combination of talent, money, timing and luck was involved in this tale of success, the Howards want to keep it going strong. That won’t be easy, but these Indiana Hoosiers may be up to the task.
Take the momentum of a reported several hundred powered parachute units sold each of the last few years. Revise the hardware slightly to expand into the manufacture of trikes, and you have a potent mixture that could emerge as one of America’s largest trike builders.
The AirBorne Edge
AirBorne Windsports is no johnny-come-lately to the ultralight flying scene. The Australian company has been making hang gliders for the international market for years. AirBorne’s owners – Russ and Rick Duncan – once flew for Moyes Delta Pty., another Australian hang glider company (now known for its Moyes-Bailey Dragonfly aerotug), but later branched out on their own.
While both men are thirty-somethings today, they have long experience, starting with competition in hang gliders back when folks still called them “the little Duncan brothers.” They were hot pilots at a young age. Later on, they proved to be solid competitors to the Moyes juggernaut.
Then Came Trikes
A divergence occurred. After linking up with Florida designer Bobby Bailey to produce the 3-axis Dragonfly aerotug, Moyes’s interest in trikes fell by the wayside. They focused on the already popular Dragonfly for their towing promotion.
Meanwhile, the Duncans – now on their own, producing hang gliders – engaged in building trikes.
Aventura II
If you’ve never flown an airplane on floats, you’ve missed a glorious experience in flying. Good as any ultralight on floats may be – and that means “quite excellent” in my opinion – even those pilots with that experience may have missed the unique sensation of a boat-hulled ultralight.
With a few thousand hours in my logbook covering everything from foot-launched hang gliders to twin-engined Barons, I can honestly say my absolute favorite hours are spent in one of two ways: first is soaring flight, but a close second is warm summer day flying in an ultralight floatplane.
It just doesn’t get any better.
Having stuck my personal opinion into this article, I must tell you about a most promising company and their 2-seat floatplane, the Aventura II. Since Arnet Pereyra exploded into the ultralight scene in 1995, this new company has filled out their line of floatplanes with a roomy and fun 2-seater which deserves a close look.
Eye On the Sky Watch
There was a time when a company called Beaver RX Enterprises – which produced the Canadian Beaver designs – was among the leading North American ultralight manufacturers.
In particular, the Beaver 550 tandem 2-seater attracted many customers. The company once claimed more than 3,500 ultralights flying. Certainly the model dominated the western Canadian market but also had a presence in the U.S. and other countries.
The old Beaver RX Enterprises company went through a number of leadership changes and, driven by overly-ambitious management goals, finally succumbed.
When I visited the now defunct company, the firm was a publicly-held corporation listed on the Vancouver Stock Exchange. Even the stock exchange has experienced a transformation, so perhaps it isn’t surprising that Beaver RX Enterprises also lost its heading.
As we’ve seen with other good designs, however – such as Quicksilvers, Phantoms or Drifters – the better ultralights can outlast their ownership. The Beaver line is among those survivors.
Legend is First Cub to Sport a Jabiru Engine
Legend Aircraft‘s Cub is one of the top selling SLSA, ranking up high with Flight Design’s CT, Fantasy Air’s Allegro, Evektor’s SportStar, and TL Ultralight’s StingSport. Both American-made Cub-like designs (Legend’s and CubCrafters‘) have been 100% Continental O-200 powered because that engine is close to what was used in the original Piper J-3 Cub, which has driven demand from customers attracted to the vintage aircraft. However, the Cubs have higher empty weights than many of their smaller metal or composite competitors — CT and StingSport, being primarily carbon fiber airframes, weigh in almost 200 pounds lighter, for example. So, when operating at higher elevations or on floats, reported Legend staffer Pat Bowers, some owners felt more power would be useful. For several weeks the Sulphur Springs, Texas factory worked to install the Jabiru 3300. The six cylinder engine is 35 pounds lighter and has 20 more horsepower, a combination said to provided spirited performance.
World-Traveling Trike Wins SLSA Approval (#38)
Matt Liknaitzky, the U.S. importer for the French-designed DTA weight-shift aircraft is the newest winner of an Airworthiness Certificate for this world-spanning trike. A DTA Voyageur was used in a spectacular 1999 flight from the tip of South America through the USA across the Atlantic and back down through Europe to South Africa. This immense 26,703-mile cross country trip was accomplished by Mike Blyth and Olivier Aubert and was beautifully documented on a DVD video called “South to South.” The very tough Rotax 912-powered DTA trike is distinguished by its structural mast that makes a forward support tube unnecessary, thereby improving visibility. *** Matt is also the importer of a line of electronic flight instruments under the brand name Stratomaster. I’ve flown with them and loved their clean, clear display. His business, Sport Flying Shop, also carries a wide variety of other flying gear, and is based at the Torrence, California airport.
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