Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Stearman Field & the $100 Hamburger (make that a $1.50 hamburger)

Today's post is short and sweet -- just a little lunch time flying over to Stearman Field.

I can fly from my home base (Wichita Gliderport, home of Belite Aircraft) over to Stearman Field in about 5 minutes.  As a result, it makes a great lunch destination, and I consume about a $1.50 of gas on the round trip in my ultralight aircraft.  Awesome.

Stearman Field used to be Benton Airport.  I paid it my first visit about 30 years ago, shortly after I got my private ticket and needed a plane to rent.  It had a small dingy office, fuel for sale, and a mechanic somewhere in the shed in the back.  The runway was lined with some homes.

That was then... today, Stearman Field is a busy place, with a new office/restaurant; an outdoor eating area, many new hangars, new homes, new runway extensions, instrument approach... the new owners have made a world of difference.

The restaurant is great -- providing a feel of flying nostalgia along with awesome greasy breakfasts and wonderful burgers for lunch.  I've slipped in there several times in the last month.  I managed to get over there before Oshkosh, and I had flown over in the yellow trike. 



Here's a photo of the lunch counter, along with all the airplane nostalgia:


Nice, right?

Folks couldn't help but stop and look at the Cub Yellow Trike, and I took their pic from my dining table:


The Belite Trike is a great vehicle for taking in the local airstrips.  It looks and flies like a real airplane, and it sure makes everyone stop and look at it.

You can read more about Stearman Field by clicking on this link.

You can read more about our Trike by clicking on this link.

Thank you, and enjoy your meal! 

Monday, August 23, 2010

An Afternoon Flight with two Ultralight Aircraft

I gave Terry a call.

"Hi Terry,

I have to do a fuel consumption check on the Yellow Trike.  If I fly over to your house, will you fly your Kitfox Lite and join me for some flying time?"


Terry answers:


"Yes, I have to check to see if the strip is mowed, but that should work fine."

I take off in my yellow Belite Trike and head over to Terry's strip, about a 20 minute flight to the east:




I'm soon over his strip, circling while he gets his plane ready for flight.  I circle for 10 minutes while Terry unfolds the wings and gets his engine started.  (He recently upgraded to the big 50HP Hirth).


I snap some pictures from my vantage point.





A couple of minutes later, Terry started his takeoff roll.  I had a perfect view from on top, and I snapped several pictures of the ultralight aircraft shooting through the field.  A wonderful view of Kansas aviation, a small plane rapidly accelerating through a hayfield:


And a moment later, Terry's Kitfox Lite was airborne.


And a moment later, the ultralight aircraft was over the end of the grass strip.


Terry climbed rapidly and joined formation with me.  We made some turns, and took lots of pictures of each other.  Although it was well over 90 degrees on the ground, the wind over my shoulders, and the coooler temperatures aloft, made for a very comfortable flight.  Here's a pic of Terry, flying off my left wing:

I like that pic.

Terry is holding around 55% power to slow down with me.  I'm holding about 90% power to keep up with him.  (Terry's flying with a 50HP Hirth twin cylinder engine, I'm flying with a 28HP single lung Hirth engine.) Even so, we flit up to about 1500 feet AGL.  The temperature is much nicer than on the ground; the air is reasonably calm, and it just feels good to be a pair of airplanes roaming around Kansas.

I don't know why, but Terry decides to fly his airplane through the struts of my airplane.  I capture the event in a photograph:


More time passes, and I land.  Terry greases a landing right after mine.  Here he is on short final, having cleared the bean field in the background:


After carefully measuring my fuel consumption, I've got to put my yellow Belite Trike away in the hangar.



Terry and I talk for a few minutes.  He takes off, and heads back home as well.



Wonderful flight.  Thanks Terry, for flying with me.

-- James

Monday, August 9, 2010

Ultralight Aircraft for sale: Belite Superlite Dragon


HI!

This post receives bazillions of hits for people looking to buy a Belite or other brand of ultralight aircraft.  This particular aircraft was sold a long time ago.  We're always making more... we've upgraded the design... we're now using four stroke engines... contact us to check current inventory or to discuss what exactly you want to buy.  Check out our "UltraCub", check out our four stroke engine options.  You can find our webpage at www.beliteaircraft.com

And you can always find my latest blog post at jameswiebe.blogspot.com

Here is the original post:

Ultralight Aircraft FOR SALE:  Belite Superlite Dragon

Winner – 2010 Sun N Fun Grand Champion Ultralight Aircraft

Featuring 50HP (derated to 38HP for FAR Part 103 compliance) engine, carbon fiber spars, chute, floats and much more…

Would be perfect aircraft for heavy pilot loads or high altitudes or float plane or anyone who wants the best ultralight.  It is offered on wheels or floats.

Equipment list:

Base Aircraft                    $24,995 (tons of basic features in the base aircraft)

OPTIONS:

Carbon Fiber Spars & Ribs                        2,200
Powdercoating                                              595
Machined Aluminum Disc Brakes                  400
Landing Gear Spring Gear Upgrade               350
Larger Flaperons                                           200
F23 50HP dual ignition engine upgrade       2,760
Upgrade to Belite Avionics instruments          100
Install fuel sender in fuel tank                          200
Recovery parachute, rated 550 pounds       2,300
Dragon paint scheme                                  4,000
Carbon Fiber Cockpit                                   400
Composite tail spring upgrade                        100
Vortex Generators                                         200
Float Kit Hardpoints                                     N/C

TOTAL ON WHEELS….                    $39,000

Floats                                                    $  3,995

TOTAL ON FLOATS …                    $42,995

This aircraft is superb in all respects.  It even comes on wheels or on floats, take your pick!  This plane has been seen flying by thousands of pilots.  It won the Sun N Fun Grand Champion Ultralight Aircraft award.

Call or email James if interested:  james@beliteaircraft.com or 316 393 5477.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Improving strength and beauty in the cabin wing root of an ultralight aircraft

Both of our demonstrator ultralight aircraft (Belite Trike and Belite Superlite) made it home from Oshkosh and are going through a small amount of improvement and upgrading.

I decided to improve the rib attachments from the fuselage to the Lexan upper cabin.  This is an area that is subject to abuse, because every time the wings are folded/unfolded, the cables drag through this root area.

We had been using some carbon fiber ribs for this interior cabin area, and as it turns out, they are not as ideal as I'd hoped.  The movement of the cable over the ribs was cracking these two interior ribs.

So, the first thing we did was remove these two ribs from the left and right side at the top of the cabin.  As a result, the upper lexan windshield lost its support:


In order to replace them, I started with two our our CNC cut baltic birch plywood ribs.  Here is what one of them looks like, before modifications:


It's a good looking piece of wood.  In order to fit in the upper cabin area, the tail of the rib needs to be cut off.  And each of the round spar attachment areas needs to be enlarged.  So we lopped off the tail and enlarged the spar holes.  And we glued on a reinforcement piece of plywood.  Now it looked like this (one rib shown next to original CNC rib, showing tail cut off and spar holes enlarged):


Another reinforement 'plug' also needs to go in each end of the rib, but that won't be visible until later.  Here's two modified ribs, showing left and right ribs:


There are two steel ferrules on each side of the upper cabin which line up with pins from these ribs.  We place the rib up to the ferrules, and mark the locaiton of the alignment pins before drilling out the holes.

Now it's time to mark the locations of the alignment pins.  Here's the front end of the rib, with the hole location marked.:


And here is the rib, test fitted with the two 1/4 inch pins inserted in the holes. You can see the rib fitting perfectly under the upper cabin lexan windshield.


Here's another shot of placement being tested:


After fit is verified, additional wood plugs to the rib.  They are fitted and glued in.   Then excess wood, pins, and glue is removed using a scroll saw and sander, providing a final rib:


Let's look at the ends from the other side as well.  The pin is super strong (although this is not a load bearing point) and the whole assembly is looking sharp:


After placement back in the wing, a carbon fiber strip is used as a load washer across the length.  Screws are drilled and used every 3 inches.  The lexan needs to be trimmed, but here's how it looks:


So let's remove it, sand it up and stain it, so the wood will last many, many years:


And let's install them back in the airplane upper cabin.  To do this, as I said, we used a #8 screw with flat head every 3 inches.  We also used a strip of carbon fiber 1 inch wide, acting as a load washer across the length.  The lexan was ground off (which I actually did on a test fit BEFORE I stained the wood) and the whole thing is looking very sharp, and very sturdy:


After wing reinstallation, here's a photo of the cables running from the wing, through our new improved cabin root rib:


All very sharp looking.