Ultra lites

Tom-D

Tom-D

Taxi to Parking
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Feb 23, 2005
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Tom-D
How many share the airport with ultralites..

problems?
 
I have some experiance with them. Usually not a whole lot of problems as long as you keep an eye out. Be nice to them, Hopefully one of them will have a two seater and take you up :) They are an absolute blast to fly.
 
I was not thrilled with the shaky, rattling airframe on the one ride I got. Probably they are better made now, this was in the 80's. It did give a neat view with nothing but flimsy tubing surrounding you. I would think with their flight profile they should be easy to avoid.
 
They can be very hard to see. We have a gyrocopter here at N99 who gets in the way sometimesas well. At a real busy airport I find myself wishing they were elsewhere...
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I was not thrilled with the shaky, rattling airframe on the one ride I got. Probably they are better made now, this was in the 80's. It did give a neat view with nothing but flimsy tubing surrounding you. I would think with their flight profile they should be easy to avoid.
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An ultralight generally scares the hell out of you for the first few minutes, Then you can stand it. Eventually you can't tell the difference :)
 
RotaryWingBob said:
They can be very hard to see. We have a gyrocopter here at N99 who gets in the way sometimesas well. At a real busy airport I find myself wishing they were elsewhere...
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But Bob, some fixed wing pilots say the same thing about helicopters! (not me though)
 
we have a few ultralight pilots and powered parachute pilots at Double Eagle. They fly their own version of the pattern, and quite often will cut off traffic on final (its happened to me twice). They usually either fly a downwind and cut base at the numbers, or they fly the wrong direction over the runway, and then turn 180 after the numbers to land the other way.

Very irritating, but I figure some people say the same thing about GA. Its that reason that I keep my mouth shut.
 
NickDBrennan said:
Very irritating, but I figure some people say the same thing about GA. Its that reason that I keep my mouth shut.
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Except they are supposed to play by the same rules if they are going to play at "real" airports. Sounds like they need some educating.
 
I agree with the educating and communicating. I'd like to see us able to embrace all forms of aviation. If we just try to 'shut them down', it reminds me of how us small plane guys get treated by the big plane operators, just a bit.
 
NC19143 said:
How many share the airport with ultralites..

problems?
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We got 'em and we all play nice with each other. I think it helps that we have an active EAA chapter/social club that we a large percentage of us participate in.
 
A guy out at PTS just purchased a ultralight. He was up in the pattern with me the other day. He was using standard left pattern and I didn't have any problems with him at all.
 
One time in the late 80's I was on an IFR flight from OWD to HYA. I was being vectored to the ILS 24 approach. The weather was 2-3 miles in thick haze. As I crossed the final approach fix I saw an early Ultralite (lawn chair with wings) just off my left side about 200 feet below me. Yikes!!!! I felt my heart skipe a few beats.

Wow I still get the jitters thinking about it.

john
 
My field is a huge ultralight base it seems. They almost always play by the rules. I have had far more problems with the PANAM training airplanes than any of the ultralights.

-rob
 
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