Hi folks, Long time no see! I haven’t been using my mini wood stove much to heat the 30’ RV trailer that is my tiny home, so I haven’t been around the forum in ages. I just remembered my username and password and thought I’d check in. Just curious, is anyone into flying? Over the past year I finally decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of flying and I’m taking flight instruction. I’m about half way through training for my fixed wing sport pilot certificate. But I’ve kinda put the cart before the horse. I picked up a Butterfly Ultralight gyroplane last fall and I’ve been modifying and modernizing it. Mine is on the right in this photo and on the left is a Butterfly Ultralight gyroplane in its original configuration which mine would have looked like before I started modifying it: I have a 65hp two stroke water cooled Rotax 582 that will be mounted on mine soon, with a three blade 64” carbon fiber prop and a 24’ RotorDyne two blade rotor.
I also recently acquired a Kolb Ultrastar ultralight airplane. It’s a single seat ultralight aircraft that requires no FAA license or registration to fly and has a 38hp two stroke Kawasaki 440 engine:
Maybe just a little bit. Welcome back Brian!!! Good to see you!! You’ll be ready to co-star in the next Road Warrior sequel!!
I'll pass on that thanks. Brian , I was wondering about you the other day when I was using one of the bowls you made and I was lucky enough to get from you. They are wonderful and holding up very well. How is the wood turning been going? Hope all is going well and great to see you back and checking in.
Thanks! I took a sabbatical from wood turning to work on modifying and modernizing my gyroplane and to learn how to fly. I’ll get back to wood lathe work at some point, but for now learning to fly and working on two light aircraft has my entire attention.
The model I got is surprisingly robust for its size and weight: This is video I took of a buddy flying his Kolb Ultralight from a friend’s farm up in Euphrates PA:
That sounds like something you should probably stay a little more focused on rather than do a little and then walk away from it until another day. Not as much room for error as some other hobbies allow. Stay safe and keep us posted. Great to see you back as well.
Thanks! And at 6’2” and 275 pounds, I had to be very careful in choosing which light aircraft to get and whether each had enough lifting power to fly around with my fat azz safely. It’s been an enlightening journey, to say the least. I didn’t know anything about aviation or aircraft a year ago and I certainly had never worked on or modified one.
Well, at my age my goal is simply to get in the air and fly low and slow. I won’t be doing any aerobatics. On the other hand, check out what this guy can do with his (highly modified) gyroplane:
I watched this pilot fly in September, in the leftover 40mph winds of Hurricane Helene, and took this video:
Three most useless things in aviation. Runway behind you. Altitude above you. And fuel left in the truck. Speed is life. You can trade speed for altitude or altitude for airspeed. I’m sure in one of those you need to instinctually ALWAYS know exactly which way you are going to turn to land if the unmentionable happens. I’m eager to follow you in this journey. My current flying is just for work. Much less exciting than the stuff I used to do. Aviation is unforgiving. Learn as much as you can. Especially from OTHER people’s mistakes. Here’s one of my old rides.
Nice! I was actually referring to my weight. With a blower and a shot of nitrous it might get me airborne.....
“Low and slow” is how ultralight flying is often described. They don’t cruise more than 60 knots and stall speed is in the 20s. They’re not made for sustained flight at GA altitudes, although they can easily fly to 10,000 feet or more. I’m getting flight training in a Cessna 172 towards a sport pilot certificate (though I don’t need to complete it to fly ultralights) and I’ll be getting a couple hours in a Stinson 108 for tail wheel experience. (My Kolb is a tail dragger but they’re one of the easiest tail wheel planes to fly.) Then I’ll be getting several hours of dual instruction in an ultralight type plane. This fall I’ll be taking gyroplane CFI. I’ve been told by pilots who fly both that ultralights are good prep for flying a gyro, and vice versa. Similar sight picture, speeds and energy management.
Copy all. Yeah. “Low and slow” is a relative term/phrase. In helicopters we discussed safe hover height/altitude. There’s a region that you don’t want to loiter. Above a certain altitude that you can’t simply pull the collective to cushion the landing and below an altitude that you can nose it over to gain airspeed to again cushion the landing. Sounds like you have everything all mapped out. If you can swing it, definitely finish your sport pilot or private pilot cert. looking forward to following along. Great videos you posted. It’s gonna be quite an adventure…
