Airshow coverage of Airventure's ultralight aircraft section.
Entering the ultralight section the voice of Frank Beagle
could be heard long and clear over the loud speakers. As
I made my way towards the tower, a craft that I have
been following for several years the "Orbitair"
caught my eye. Once again its designer David Myers had made
changes to an already very "unique" design.
Right beside
the Flying Squirrel was another one of Scott Lands
very innovative designs, the all wood Cloudster II. If
you are looking for that "breeze up your pant
legs type of flying" you aren't going to find
anything closer than this.
Each
morning for the last couple of years ultralight
campers have awoken to the sound of a banjo. A banjo
that is played by none other than Lee Floyd III,
designer and manufacturer of the Para-cycle - powered
parachute/moped/three wheel bike.
There are several kit manufactures building
replica fighters in both the ultralight and experimental category. One
thing that is common in all of the kits is the
quality and finish of the finished product.
This has to say a lot for the kit
manufacturer when each of the craft his customers come to shows such as
Sun N Fun and Oshkosh with is so beautifully finished.
One thing about the group that runs the
ultralight section is that if you have made the trip and paid you money
they will do everything within their power to get you up and flying, in
front of the crowd. Last year a company showed up with a one man
helicopter, in the one and only demo flight it was decided that "
for safety reasons" after the first lift off "it was too
windy."
It is very interesting to see just how
market research plays a role in bringing about changes in a design.
Take the Quicksilver wire braced series of aircraft for instance - ever
since Quicksilver announced the introduction of the GT line of aircraft
back in 1985,
pilots flying the venerable wire braced MX series have called for a
strut braced version.
Many aviation enthusiasts have
been quietly waiting for the completion and first flight of the
Valkyrie. At Sun N Fun they had on display a function fuselage, since
then they have completed the molds for the tail booms, the empennage,
the wings and canard.
If you read our coverage
of Sun N Fun you saw the story on Wilf Stark and the Eureka. Well Wilf
was at this years Airventure, with a nicely finished Eureka. Wilf was kind enough to spend and few minutes with me to go
over some of the things that I missed on the Eureka. For example the
plane is available with a 4 point shoulder harness, which strapped Wilf's, 6'
1" - 190 lb body comfortably into the "little plane for
big people."
For hours and
hours of web video interviews on the world of ultralight
aviation subscribe to the Ultralight Flyer web video magazine -
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Ultralight
News
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