10 point system for evaluating new and used ultralight aircraft
1. The number of years the ultralight aircraft manufacturer has been building ultralight aircraft: The longer the better, 5 years gets you 10 points anything less is 2 points less for each year. Why must the manufacturer be in business for at least 5 years? Here is a REAL LIFE example of an ultralight aircraft manufacturer, aircraft kit builder and ultralight pilot. In 1994 a new factory shows up with a brand new aircraft at a show. The craft on display is the original prototype with about 20 hours of flight time on it. The ultralight aircraft is well received and nearly 30 orders are taken. The show is in April, first deliveries are about 4 months later. The craft in question takes about 250 hours to build for first time builders. The normal builder can spend about 5 hours a week on average building his ultralight aircraft. 5 into 250 is 50 weeks, meaning his craft is ready to fly approximately 1 year after receipt of kit, which was 4 months after placing his order. The kit is ready to fly in August of 1995. Now the pilot begins to fly his craft. Like anything new some problems are encountered. The average pilot flies about 50 hours a year, and lets say his problems start at this time. The year is now 1996. These problems are reported to the factory. The factory looks at the problems and begins changing the design of the aircraft. In most cases they already have material designed for the older style of craft, which they use to prepare any remaining kit orders. The pilot checks to see what other updates the factory has put out. To his amazement there are 22 updates to his craft. After pricing the updates he calculates the cost at about $2,800. His craft is worth about $4,000 on the open market, and a new ultralight aircraft sells for $6,200 in kit form rather than update he decides he is better to sell and buy a new kit. (Remember these prices for ultralights were BACK in 1994 - some ultralight kits are STILL in this price range.) Who is he going to sell his ultralight to? My recommendation is if you are buying used buy an ultralight aircraft that has been in production for at least 3 years. example: If the first kit produced was in 1995 buy a 1998 or later model. 2 points off for every year less than 5 that the ultralight aircraft manufacturer has been in business.
Ultralight News Web Magazine. You may link to these pages or print them out for your own personal use. No part of this publication may be copied or distributed,
transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, manual, or
otherwise, without the written permission of Ultralight News. By copying or paraphrasing the intellectual property on this site, you're automatically signing a binding
contract and agreeing to be billed $10,000 payable immediately. Email .
© Copyright UltralightNews - All rights reserved.
