Showing posts with label john k moody. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john k moody. Show all posts

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Its Just Moody

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


A photo report on the Just Super STOL and John K Moody flying a vintage ultralight at Sun N Fun 2013.

When a Belite UltraCub grows up, it wants to be a Just Aircraft Super STOL.

And John K Moody is just awesome.  So are his ultralight aircraft.

Just Super STOL at Sun N Fun 2013

Just Super STOL at Sun N Fun 2013

Just Super STOL at Sun N Fun 2013

John K Moody, Father of Ultralights

John K Moody prepares his ultralight

Moody gets in

Moody takes the field

Moody airborne

Liftoff for John K Moody

Life is good, flying an ultralight

Over the trees at Sun N Fun

John K Moody flies away

Thursday, April 5, 2012

John K Moody: Father of Ultralights

Please note: James' blog has moved to a Wordpress site. To access it, please visit http://jameswiebe.wordpress.com/. All posts have been transferred to the new site, and all new posts will only be accessible via Wordpress. Thank you for your interest!


One of the most enjoyable experiences at Sun N Fun 2012 was sharing some time with John K Moody, "the Father of Ultralights".

We talked for a while about all kinds of things:  what day he made his first powered flight; how an article in Popular Science propelled him to fame; how he started to sell them; how he made money in ultralights; how the old 20/20 news piece destroyed (unfairly) the ultralight industry... Now he is pleased to attend Sun N Fun and exhibit a trio of old ultralights, including an "Easy Riser".  It weighs only 120 pounds and flies beautifully on a Hirth engine of around 13 horsepower.

The Easy Riser used weight shift for pitch (climb/descend) control, and had a 'rudder' on each wingtip, controlled by a twist handle for each wrist.  The throttle for this bird had a mouth (YES, mouth!) mounted kill switch.  So if you wanted to kill the engine, just bite down.  John says he got shocked by this arrangement.

I took a bunch of photos of this amazing early ultralight.  Later in the day, John came by our booth and looked at a Belite ultralight aircraft.  Here's photos of the ultralight aircraft 'Easy Riser', built by John K Moody:

Easy Riser Ultralight Aircraft

Easy Riser Ultralight Aircraft

Easy Riser Ultralight Aircraft

Easy Riser Ultralight Aircraft

Easy Riser Ultralight Airplane

Easy Riser Ultralight Airplane

John K Moody, Father of Ultralights, with James Wiebe

Easy Riser Ultralight Airplane