I know what you people are thinking, but to answer your question before your no I don't drive fast enough to consider my truck a low flying aircraft.

Now for my question, has anyone had experiance with ultralight aircraft. I want something for a project/hobby. I have looked at the G1 ultralight helicoptor but I don't think you would have much control over something like that. Does anyone know of anything else??



post 403

 

Ever hear of "Kitplanes" magazine? It's all about ultralights (and some non-ultralight) aircraft. There's always one issue that has about a hundred kits in review, check your library or the Internet for that one. I just fly a Cessna 150 and a Citabira mostly, never had to much experience in ultralights, but I think their neat!

 

Whatever you do, buy your life insurance now and don't tell them what you're planning to do.

 

I have been taken for a ride a few times in an ultralite , it is a great rush ! A couple of years ago I got to fly (with an instructor) in a hangglider that was towed up to 2000 feet by an ultralite and when it cut us loose with no noise around except the wind as you bank and dive ... now that was great ! I got to parachute out of planes in the Army , but thats no fun at all with all that gear that weighed as much as I did ... never got to freefall though . I've done parasailing where you are towed by a boat in a parachute , thats pretty fun if you work the chute a little ... most people will just hang there , they reel you out then reel you in , maybe they dip you in the water ... big deal! you need to tug hard on one side of the chutes line and make it dive into a hard bank then switch sides and bank back ah the need for speed ! Next I want to try paragliding ! no tow rope , just me and the wind ... and of course one BIG step off of a mountain !

 

mmmmmmm life insurance

post 408

 

Ditto on the life insurance. Get a real airplane that is actually made to fly consistently. I've heard you can buy kits for "real" planes between 22-25K. Not too bad I think.

 

I don't know about that buy a real plane thing...I want something that I can build and test and discover the faults on my own. That and that I don't have that much money to spend.

post 409

 

What defines a "Real" plane anyway? I've got an 8x11 sheet of paper in front of me, I'll build you something that will fly

 

I hope you don't find to many FAULTS... Remember it's not like a truck, you can't pull off to the side of the road and check what is the matter. when you are flying, and something goes wrong you need to be on top of the situation. One of my instructors once told me, you need to always be thinking 5 mins. ahead of the aircraft. And ready for any problem that may occur.

As for UltraLites, there great. Try a search for a company out of canada called Challenger UltraLites. I think that is there name. Great product and design. I was going to buy one prebuilt of $22,000 Canadian. Ended up buying a Cessna 172, instead. So I could take more of my friends and go longer trips.
Happy flying...

 

The problem with a "real plane" is not the actual flying, it is

a) costs, especially with reserve for maintenace
b) having to keep up with every damn NOTAM in the world, even if you just want to fly in circles on Saturday morning
c) you must be constantly vigilant, and unless you are fortunate to be away from a city, you must always be "squawking" you code on the transponder and be under control of the flight tower.

I've flown an ultralight several times and it is a kick in the butt. Now, in theory, you are supposed to have a pilot's license to fly one, but in reality, if you take it off in the country, fly it around on the lake like I have, then no one is going to come knocking at your door. To me, the advantage of an ultralight is

a) its a feeling of pure flight... you are up there with nothing but a couple of tubes below you.
b) it is cheap
c) it can be done just about anywhere.

It has been years since I have flow ultralights, but as I recall, there were a couple of models that were really dangerous... you could readily slip them into a stall, from which you could nver recover. I'd do a bunch of research into which models are the most airworthy in terms of emergency controlability and safety, and of course, get one with a chute... although that doesn't do much good 50 feet in the air.

 

BTW, I wasn't being facetious when I mentioned life insurance. What you're wanting to do is high risk and makes your chances of getting life insurance all that much harder to get if at all.

My father was in a fairly high risk job and couldn't get any affordable life insurance other than what he had before he started that phase of his career. It wasn't until he got into management that he was then able to get more insurance.

 

Beastrider: I'm aware of the costs of flying. If you wanna play, you gotta pay.

As for an ultralite, the law of averages will eventually catch up with you. As said before, you can't pull to the side of the road with a problem. Much, much more can go wrong besides engine failure in the sky. I personally wouldn't fly in one, but to each his own. RC planes are a great hobby to take-up also. Although not the same, the fun factor is high. Just be prepared to crash one sooner rather than later

 

Well frank that is the problem, I don't have much room for stuff and I love the thought of flying and sadly 2 of my rc airplanes have forud an earthy grave, not much left. I have flowen before, when I am in the air I seem to do a lot better. ultimately I would like one of the powered parachutes, but like was said before if you want to play, you have to pay.

 

Frank,

Its been years since I've flown ultralights. Do you, or anybody else, have any statistics regarding ultralight safety versus, say... motorcycle riding... which I do to the tune of at least 12,000 miles a year? I'd be interested to see which turns out to be the more dangerous.

PS: My last "real" airplane was a Piper Warrior PA128, the good ole Hershey bar wing, decked out as the 'executive' model with velour curtains, air conditioning for those hot taxi'ing days in Houston, and a real nice instrument set (IFR rated). Put it on lease back. Wrecked and totaled by a fellow doing a cross country solo... got hull value insurance at a time when the market fell like a rock... sometimes a wreck can be a good thing.

 

No stats here. None needed. That's why I chickened out and never bought the 1994 CBR 1000 I wanted. Known/Talked to too many people that have paid for other drivers' mistakes, only to be left for dead and/or crippled. I stay with high performance of the 4-wheeled kind.

As for planes, I would never and I repeat NEVER trust my life to an "experimental" aircraft. My luck has never been that good. But then again, if we were all the same, life would be boring.