I have an unsated lust to fly ultralights. I think it would be a ton of fun and the view would be amazing. I was just curious if you have either flown ultralights into mountainous backcountry or have seen them there. (Obviously they are popular in desert terrain.) Aside from the light weight and getting bounced around, they would seem to have the necessary performance. I just can't think of any reason it wouldn't work.

Michael in NH

If you are careful about the weather, I can only think of two drawbacks:

1. Outback flying usually covers long distances which can take a long time at ultralight speeds, especially on a 5 gallon range. Granted, the mountain ranges we have in New England pale in comparison to the vast winderness out West.
2. Depending on the model of UL airplane, you won't be able to pack a lot of equipment if you intend to do any camping.

But you are right, it sounds like a lot of fun!

crazyivan wrote:If you are careful about the weather, I can only think of two drawbacks:

1. Outback flying usually covers long distances which can take a long time at ultralight speeds, especially on a 5 gallon range. Granted, the mountain ranges we have in New England pale in comparison to the vast winderness out West.
2. Depending on the model of UL airplane, you won't be able to pack a lot of equipment if you intend to do any camping.

But you are right, it sounds like a lot of fun!

Yeah - I grew up in NE Oregon and I wish I had just gotten an ultralight or a 140/150/pacer or something then and just zipped around NE/SW OR and ID. Definitely the biggest mistake of my flying career. I assume that the newish 2-place ultralights can easily carry more fuel and a backpack worth of gear if they can carry a second person.

Where are you based Ivan? I would love to come zip around the lakes of northern ME (my in-laws live in Newry) - maybe I will have to put some floats on that ultralight!

Michael in CON, NH

There's no question that flying ultralights is super fun. Our Quicksilvers fly so slow and have an incredible unobscured view right down between your legs. I know a guy who has amphibs on his, which makes it even slower, but so much fun.

Crazy Ivan pretty much nailed the drawbacks: Range and payload. I've been on longer XC's in them and the terrain goes by sooooo slow, and the 92 auto gas our 2-stroke Rotax 503's run on can be difficult to get at airports.

We flew them out to the Alvord desert several years back, and it was fun, but we had to have ground based fuel and gear support. Some friends drove their RV out for us, because other than stuffing your sleeping bag into the wings, you don't have much room for anything besides what you could carry on a bicycle.

I think it would be fun to have some trikes that you could tow out to somewhere in a box trailer, setup and fly.

there's a group putting together some type of southwestern tour route together, where you stay at a different ul airport each night and the route covers the most scenic areas of the southwest (ca, az, nv and id)... I think they're calling it ultralite trekking... I don't know much else though... I read about it in one of the mags and it sounds like something a lot of people are interested in doing...

I don't see where a trike would have any issues with backcountry flying, other than fuel as mentioned above...

Michael - I'm in Brunswick and my plane is (was) in Bowdoinham (Merrymeeting field 08B). In deploying next month so I took my Kitfox to a friend's hangar in Brookline, NH.

If you want to get into some backcountry in Maine then get in contact with Keith on this forum, callsign Menendez777. We were in the very, very early stages of planning a New England backcountrypilot.org fly-in before I got tagged to deploy. He knows of some good logging roads and some out-of-commission but possibly still usable fields up north.

You guys need to have the fly-in , take some pictures, and send them to me. Those guys on the west coast have too much fun.

crazyivan wrote:... In deploying next month ...

Be safe.

crazyivan wrote:You guys need to have the fly-in , take some pictures, and send them to me. Those guys on the west coast have too much fun.

I agree - I will contact your friend and see what we can put together! Now if I could just finish my damn plane so I had something better and more fun than a 172 I would be set!

Michael in NH
(Building Zenith 601XL)

zane wrote:There's no question that flying ultralights is super fun.

I don't think I have ever had any more fun flying than the time I flew a Quicksilver MX w/ 377 Rotax.

Story...
My brother and I flew our 170A out to El Mirage dry lake one day for the express purpose of checking out the wind sailers and seeing if maybe we could sponge a ride because I was thinking about getting one at the time. We spotted a group of them and so we landed and taxied nearby. In this group was an ultralight also. As we were walking the 200 feet or so from where we parked to where the group of windsailers and lone ultralight were, I was looking at the ultralight and thinking to myself how much I'd like to fly one and wouldn't hesitate one second to do so if given the chance. As fate would have it, as we approached the group a fellow was on his way out to greet us and the first words out of his mouth were "Hey, you wanna fly my ultralight"?
Of course I TOTALLY CHOKED at this point and immediatly declined the offer. We spoke a bit and he explained that he and his friend had not owned it long and weren't yet qualified to solo but were taking lessons. It also hadn't flown in some time as they had bought it used and had done some repairs/ maintenance, they were eager to see it fly even if they didn't fly it. Well I told him that we were going to ride around the lake on our bikes (we carried folding bikes in the 170) and I'd think about flying it. So we rode around as we rode I figured that when we got back to the ultralight I would look it over REAL GOOD and hear it run and them maybe taxi it and then maybe high speed taxi and then maybe start to think about really flying it.
We got back, I looked it over good and it started and ran good. So I said OK I'll taxi it just to see what it's like and before you know it I was full throttle and 100 feet in the air bypassing all my good sense. The flight didn't last long. Just one circuit for those spoileron thingys didn't work at all and I could only turn in one direction because of limited rudder movement in one direction.
Back on the ground we adjusted for max spoiler deflection which it turns out doesn't really do much of anything anyway and more rudder deflection it the weak side whatever that was, right or left I don't remember. Some adjustment to the steering too as I recall. Anyway back in the air and having the time of my life. I flew that thing till I was ashamed and low on fuel and when I came back in the guys filled it up with gas again and said please just keep flying...and so I did. Take offs and landings oh boy what a hoot. Must have done 20 or 30? That thing was a whole bunch of fun but boy the handling sure was horrible. I was in fear pondering the potential effects of hitting a dust devil or evn a mild gust too close to the ground but at the same time I was having WAAAY too much fun to stop. I felt that if the plane were put in even a slightly unusual attitude in the landing, I reckened I'd be crashing. The spoilers were next to useless and the rudder was very weak. I knew though that I'd have to have an ultralight someday but that's another story.

Flyby,

Sounds like you were flying an old MX Sprint..or the original MX. Quicksilvers have a long history, with the first models being weight shift, having been adapted from hang gliders.

The MX Sprint has single surface wings and spoilers. It's a very docile and SUPER slow flying machine that relies heavy on rudder for turns.

Our Quicksilvers are the newer MXL and Sport models, with full ailerons and double surface wings. They still require quite a bit of rudder to turn, but the ailerons do have a decent roll rate. They both have 55 HP 503's on them.

If the first thing a guy said to me when I approached his ultralight was "hey you wanna fly this thing??" I would probably say no. The owner maintenance of part 103 ultralights and the natural frugality of the stereotype ultralight pilot has really made for some clapped-out beater death machines.

Damn, you really can't beat a summer evening after the wind has died down...flying along in t-shirt, shorts, and sandals, looking down between your feet at the fields and pastures From 500 ft.

zane wrote: looking down between your feet at the fields and pastures From 500 ft.

Zane,

500 feet! Man are you an astronaut or something? LOL

It was a single surface and just a notch over a weight shift model. I kept it around 45mph or so. I looked over the UL pretty good and it was fine. Wasn't ratty at all. These fellows had bought the thing from a really fat guy who had to locate the engine farther aft and above the wing or something to aquire decent CG? Don't remember exactly but these folks had put everything back original. The limited rudder travel in one direction I noticed but it appeared to be adaquate not knowing that one needed all you could give it and that wasn't really enough.
I have a TEAM Airbike now which is unfortunately down for repairs but UL flying is just about the ultimate flight experience. No one around here to fly with so my interest has waned. That and the use of a 2 stroke engine I have kind of lost interest. I would really like to repower with a 4 stroke but it's a money losing proposition.

flyby wrote:500 feet! Man are you an astronaut or something? LOL

That's the lowest cruising altitude I can admit to in a public forum.

I did go for a flight in an Air Creation trike once. It was really cool, like riding a motorcycle in the sky.

Probably a worn out subject by now, but I have a lot of time flying ultralights in the backcountry. I have flown to several strips in the Idaho backcountry. Currently I am hitting some of the strips down in the Utah backcountry around Moab.

On the trip I took to Chamblerlain (deep in the Idaho backcountry), fuel support was necessary (I just fueled up off my buddies cessna). However, a lot of airstrips are within range of a fuel stop. It comes down to very careful planning and ideal conditions.

My trip last weekend was one of the most incredible trips I've ever been on. I went down to the Moab area of Utah. I saw some beautiful red-rock country. It was great. I've never felt so alive. Being in that OPEN cockpit, you are so in touch with your surroundings. The speed and the visibility allow me to be quite safe when dropping into a canyon and landing down at the bottom by a river. There are some amazing airstrips with some wonderful camping - in the middle of nowhere.

Pretty cool.

I've just spent and hour trying to figure out how to make my pics more friendly (resize) and I give up. I'm new to digital photos. By the way, I followed Zane's advice on Gimp and all that. I didn't work. I need step by step when it's something new.

MarkDJ

Keep at it - I want to see some of those secret camping places!

Michael in NH (currently)

The Jan 06 isue of Sport Pilot magazine had an article entitled "the little airplane that could". It chronicles a guys trip in his Kolb Kobra (experimental, not ultralight) literally from coast-to-coast. Had some really nice pics, including one of a Kolb Fly-in at Monument Valley Utah. Other pic locations included Hells Canyon & Alvord Desert in Oregon, Devils Tower Monument in Wyoming, and Canyonlands & Arches Nat Parks in Utah. Awesome.

Eric

Michael,

I posted some small video clips of my trip to Moab on youtube. If your interested, check it out. Those clips are of two airstrips I visted and camped at: Mineral Canyon and Mexican Mountain.

Go to youtube and type "Lazair" in the search window.

Hope you enjoy.

Mark.

lazflyn wrote:Michael,

I posted some small video clips of my trip to Moab on youtube. If your interested, check it out. Those clips are of two airstrips I visted and camped at: Mineral Canyon and Mexican Mountain.

Go to youtube and type "Lazair" in the search window.

Hope you enjoy.

Mark.

Very nice - I'd love to find places like that to camp. Maybe someday when I get back west!

Michael in NH