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Ultralights: one strange bird
By Harry Esteve
Of th* Em«f»kt
About a decade ago,
someone attached an engine
and a propeller to a hang glider
and gave birth to a new type
of flying machine — the
"ultralight.”
Since then the craft have
matured gracefully. They have
now been refined and
sophisticated to the point
where they no longer can be
referred to as motorized hang
gliders, says a Eugene man
who deals in them.
“They’re very distinct,” says
Larry Willis who sells
ultralights from his home on
Clear Lake Road It’s easy to
tell an ultralight from a hang
glider, he says.
The Quicksilver line of
ultralights, which he deals in,
have the same design as m*st
single-engine airplanes, Willis
explains. That includes a main
body, wings and a tail rudder.
Hang gliders, on the other
hand, are designed to resem
ble large kites from which the
flyer is suspended.
At 50 horsepower, some of
the ultralight engines have the
same amount of muscle as a
small Cessna, although most
operate on about 30
horsepower.
The main differences are
the materials the craft are
made of, primarily nylon and
aluminum.
The Federal Aviation Ad
ministration has drawn strict
guidelines to keep the two
kinds of flying machines
separate.
To begin with, ultralights
cannot weigh more than 254
pounds. Under FAA rules, they
also cannot seat more than
one passenger, fly over 10,000
feet, carry more than five
gallons of gas or fly faster
than 63 mph.
Ultralight pilots are pro
hibited from flying over cities,
over large groups of people or
within five miles of an airport.
But an ultralight pilot
doesn’t have to be licensed —
anyone who learns how can fly
one.
That appeals to Willis’s
sense of thrift, and to his
sense of adventure. The ad
vent of the ultralight has given
a large number of people a
chance to fulfill their dreams
of flying who otherwise may
not have been able to afford it,
he says.
“There are guys on fixed in
comes, you know,’’ Willis
says. They can’t afford the
costs of being a licensed pilot,
he says, nor can they afford to
pay for the amount of gas
most airplanes use.
Ultralights can go about 80
miles on six or seven gallons
of gas, says Willis, which puts
the cost at about $2.50 an
hour.
Even with the rules and the
limited gas tanks, ultralight
enthusiasts are able to get in
as much flying as they care to,
Willis says.
“We just get right with the
program and go places,” he
says.
“We’re doing the same
thing these other groups (of
airplane pilots) are doing —
we’re just not going as far.”
Instead of taking a quick trip
to Reno, Willis and his fellow
ultralight pilots make trips up
and down the Willamette
Valley, stopping for lunch and
gas in Corvallis and continu
ing on to Portland. This week
they’ve planned an 80-mile trip
to Roseburg.
A typical ultralight trip to
Portland will take about three
hours, Willis says. "But we
play around a little.”
A trip of that length requires
at least three stops for gas
Since so many people have
taken up ultralight flying,
special airports have been set
up and maps have been pro
duced so that finding a place
£S.ibrarv:
PROJECT ’8 3 C
1983
UO Senior Class Giving
At the core of education is the library of a
university. It makes available to all of us the
accumulated knowledge, understanding, and
wisdom of the best minds in the world
Thomas Carlyle once wrote, “The true
university of these days is a collection of
books. “ Perhaps Carlyle has overstated it
slightly, even for his time; but it is surely true
that without a strong library we could not be an
excellent University. I appreciate and endorse
the splendid efforts of students in the Class of
1983 to raise funds as a class gift for the
support of the University library.
Paul Olum, President
University of Oregon
to gas up is easy.
Willis says he became in
terested in ultralights several
years ago when he was train
ing race horses in Phoenix,
Arizona. His horse sprained an
ankle, so Willis had some
spare time on his hands.
He was walking around the
outskirts of Phoenix when he
heard a noise resembling an
overly loud lawnmower in the
sky. Looking up, he saw his
first ultralight.
“I always wanted to fly but it
was out of my price range,”
Willis says. With nothing else
to do, he stopped in at an
ultralight dealer’s store.
“Well, I bought one. I just
had to try that.”
Three years ago, he came to
Eugene and started his own
store, where he not only sells
the craft but also teaches peo
ple how to fly them.
His operation is part of tip
per Aircraft, which produces
the Quicksilver line of
ultralights. As a seller and a
trainer he goes through
several air safety training pro
grams, sponsored either by
Eipper or by the Air Safety
Foundation.
When asked about the safe
ty of ultralights, Willis is
candid.
“Anything mechanical that
moves and is misused is gon
na hurt you,” he says. “But I’ve
been flying for five years and
you don’t see any bandages on
me.”
There have been accidents
and deaths involving ultralight
craft, but those have been the
result of "improper instruction
or no instruction,” Willis says.
Most accidents have been
determined to be caused by
pilot error, he adds.
It doesn’t take long to learn
to fly an ultralight — only
about 10 hours. After six hours
of ground training, the student
is ready to solo, Willis says.
Four more hours of free flying
and the student is usually
proficient.
The craft Willis sells cost
around $5,500. He says he
"starved” during his first two
years in business, but this
year the hobby seems to have
caught fire.
He has already sold more
ultralights this year than he
did last year or the year before.
And he sees continued growth
for about another two years
when the sport reaches its
peak.
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