Eiopler, the largest ultralight manufacturer in the nation, has only one dealer in Oregon — Larry Willis of Eugene — and has ultralight kits available that cost
less than a new car.
Daring young pilots in their flying machines
A quick pull starts the two-cylinder engine
and the wooden propeller blades begin to chop
the air. We strap ourselves into the open bucket
seats and begin to taxi down the grass runway.
At 20 yards and 40 mph we begin to pull
away from the earth, climbing 800 feet per minute.
At 1,500 feet the engine is shut off and we begin
a slow, seemingly effortless glide.
There is nothing around or beneath us except
space, and the only sound is that of the wind. Off
to the right are the green Coburg Hills and the
bank of a grey cloud slowly enveloping Eugene.
This is flying, ultralight style.
Ultralight airplanes are miniature flying
machines of aluminum tubing and Dacron
sailcloth so simple that some affectionately refer
to them as the “flying bicycle.”
Requiring as little as 50 feet to take off and
land, the low and slow flying aircraft have brought
the wonder of flight to the common person, and
as many as 20,000 are circling the earth.
The ultralight has a history almost as long as
the airplane.
Otto Lilienthal, a German aeronautical
pioneer whose work later influenced the Wright
brothers, designed the first “ultralight” of willow
and silk linen and recorded more than 2,000
flights.
In 1951 Francis Rogallo of NASA patented an
airfoil design shaped like a wide V. Originally
designed as a sort of flying parachute for space
capsules reentering the atmosphere, the new
wing was made from readily available materials in
cluding Dacron and tubing.
By the 1970s California ski slopes were busy
with the colorful gliders.
It was not too long before adventurists began
to crave for more than just a downhill glide. Some
began to mount chainsaw engines and propellers
to the glider’s frame while others strapped the
engines to their own bodies.
None of these experimental crafts worked
well until 1975, when John Moody started from
level ground on a frozen lake and had the first
successful flight of a powered hang glider.
Moody’s idea quickly took hold, and today
there are 50 ultralight manufacturers in the United
States. The top three companies currently do a
multimillion dollar business in a field that did not
exist seven years ago.
Eipper, probably the biggest manufacturer,
did $9 million worth of business in 1982 alone.
Larry Willis, Oregon’s first and currently only Eip
pler ultralight dealer, sells Eippler’s most popular
model — the Quicksilver — in Eugene.
Assembling an ultralight kit can be time consuming
— one kit has over 1,200 parts.
“The Quicksilver is sold as a kit for about
$5,500 and has 1,200 parts,” explains Willis. “It
takes about 40 hours to assemble. The manufac
turer does all the welding, cutting, drilling, and
sewing necessary for assembly by the do-it
yourselfer, or I’ll do it for $400.”
According to Willis, the Quicksilver uses
stick and throttle controls, climbs 800 feet per
minute, takes off and lands in 50 feet and stalls at
23 mph.
“The glide ratio is about six to one, that is,
for every foot the plane drops, it glides six,”
Willis says.
One of the big issues surrounding the in
creasing popularity of ultralights is safety.
Although accurate statistics are unavailabe
because ultralights don’t have to be registered,
there were 48 reported fatalities in 1981 among
the 1,200 to 1,500 planes flying. In the same year
there were 1,251 fatalities among 213,267 private
aircraft. When the ratios are compared, the acci
dent rates for ultralights are about a third less
than for private aircraft.
“The Quicksilver is very safe,” says Willis.
“When you consider that the pilot, passenger, and
ultralight weigh about 500 pounds and land at
about 25 mph, the likelihood of a fatal crash is
remote. These planes fly with much less weight
and speed than a conventional private aircraft like
a Cessna which weighs about 1,600 pounds and
lands at 55 mph.
“These planes are equipped with a chest-mount
parachute that lowers both pilot and plane to
the ground," says Willis. “But, they don't work
below 300 feet.”
Although operators do not currently need a
pilot’s license to fly an ultralight, the FAA will
make mandatory the registration of ultralights and
the licensing of pilots later this year.
Ultralights, like so many other devices made
by man, have the potential for both good and bad.
On March 7, 1981 two Palestinian in powered
gliders took off from Lebanon for Israel on a ter
rorist mission. Although both pilots were cap
tured, the ultralights served their purpose of get
ting the Palestinians into Lebanon.
Both Israel and Saudia Arabia have bought
large numbers of ultralights. So many, in fact, that
the CIA has asked leading manufacturers not to
sell to certain countries.
Ultralights have many other military applica
tions. Virtually invisible to radar, ultralights can
be easily adapted for remote control and fitted
with television cameras and machine guns.
Aside from these ominous uses, ultralights
have found themselves in many domestic applica
tions. Farmers have found the planes to be an
economically sound investment. Crop dusting ex
penses are reduced to a fraction as compared to
conventional aircraft, and ranchers too expound
the virtues of the inexpensive aircraft.
Many police departments across the country
are listing ultralights among their equipment. Last
year Marion county in Oregon borrowed an
ultralight from Willis’ company.
“They recovered $400,000 worth of drugs in
one month,” he says. "They considered it a good
investment.”
There is, of course, a great deal of fun to be
had with the “flying bicycle.” Currently available
are stunt, performance, and leisure models. For
each type, accessories of all kinds are available to
keep even the most avid enthusiast busy.
Included in the list of accessories are pon
toons with retractable wheels.
“It puts a whole new dimension on remote
lake fishing,” says Willis.
By Mike Duncan
Photos by Kirk Hirota