Is Now the Time for Electric Ultralights?

 The biggest use of ultralight aircraft is to enjoy flight. To that end, is now the right time for an electric ultralight aircraft? I've been there and done that and want to share my history with you.

My History with Electric Ultralights

I've designed and flown electric aircraft. I threw a lot of money into this one, which featured a carbon fiber fuselage and wing. It is called "SkyDock". I developed it with a gas engine as well.

A couple of years before that, I adapted an electric motor to a classic Belite ultralight.

To help answer the question:

1. Ultralights are flown for fun; and electric flight is super fun!
2. Electric motors are available with incredible value and excellent power;
3. The best batteries ever are now available;
4. U.S. ultralight law allows individuals to do this experimentation easily;
5. Even a company or two (eg: Chip Erwin and Merlin) are publicly showing their work with electric ultralights.

Electric Installations:

Consider a single vs dual motor installation. The SkyDock was setup with two motors, while I flew the Belite with one motor. One of my customers used a very interesting single motor design for his converted UltraCub.

Want to see the electric motors on Skydock doing their thing?:

And even more details of how the Skydock Electric motor installation was designed:

Is Now the Time for Electric Ultralights?

Yes, it is.

• Electric flight in ultralights is proven by myself and others.
• Batteries can produce acceptable flight times for ultralight aviation.
• FAR 103 and Experimental rules allow it.
• Bonus: Electric motors are less expensive than gas motors. (Although offset by battery acquisition costs.)
• Electric flight has a unique sound signature, better and different than any gas motor.  It's just the prop and the airframe, no combustion sounds!

For further exploration:

I recommend you join this Facebook group, run by Bill Esker:

Ultra-electric: do it yourself electric ultralight conversion | Groups | Facebook

Something else from Belite takes off...

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Our Youtube videos have been viewed about 59,000 times in the last year, with over 100K minutes watched.  :-)

The reason why is great videos like these: (Click any to see them)

Flying the new Paradise City pattern at SnF 2013 (you got to see this, brand new video from last week)
Flint Hills flying in a Belite UltraCub with 4 stroke (2 hour walkabout in a Belite)
High Performance climbout in a Belite (STARTLING climbout)

there are many more.

Below is the the statistic chart from YouTube.

Thanks for watching.

Belite YouTube Video Views over the last year

Belite UltraCub Detail Photos (AKA Burgundy II)

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!


Flew the Burgundy UltraCub II for the first time ever, yesterday.

Amazing.

Hit the power, plane got light and started flying too quickly.

Flew it with and without the turtledeck.

Looks just like a little cub.

Weighed it the morning before the flight:  278.8 pounds.  The legal max weight is 278.0, but we can remove a little and make it go under.  It includes a parachute, so FAR 103 says:  254 + 24 = 278 max weight.  Besides, we weighed it on two bathroom scales and mail scale.  At least the mail scale is accurate.  :-)

This is with the beefy, rumbly, reliable, good sounding, 4 stroke engine.

I have a cruise prop on, which is ridiculous.

Here's the pics:

(There are many more pics from this photo shoot on our flickr account.)

Belite UltraCub looks pretty

Cabin detail on Belite Ultralight Airplane

Belite UltraCub flies over.  4 Stroke 1/2VW engine.

Inside sunroof attach detail.

Landing an ultracub.  Turtledeck not yet installed.

Panel view. 

Turtledeck on, Belite UltraCub

Sunroof attach detail overhead view

Rudder view

Takeoff!!

Belite Ultralight Airplane Climbing out

I love this plane.

More windshield detail

Belite Aluminum Ultralight Aircraft Cabin Construction, #4

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!


I hope you had an awesome Christmas!

Shortly before Christmas, I had an amazing two hour flight in the Burgundy UltraCub.  I flew out into the flint hills again, and made a video of most of the flight.  I took lots of photos of sights along the way, including wind turbines near Beaumont, KS, and a friend's house out in the flint hills as well.  I'll be posting an edited copy of that video soon; along with some of those photos.

When I returned to home base after that flight, the plane still had over a gallon of gas in the tank, and I've now accumulated 7.9 hours in the Burgundy UltraCub to date.  I thoroughly enjoy the look and sound of the 1/2VW engine.

We will install a brand new cabin in the Burgundy UltraCub over the next 8 weeks, so that when it goes to Florida for Sun N Fun, it will be absolutely up to date with our current design.  (The original cabin was hand built without the benefit of CNC placement of drill holes; lots of stuff didn't line up well; and some of the features in the final cabin design were missing; PLUS it had extra tubing and weight where some dimensions were screwed up...)  So stay tuned on that...

***

Today I am posting Episode 4 of the ongoing saga of how to build a Belite cabin.   The actual construction of this ultralight aircraft cabin goes very rapidly, and everything lines up, and it's just thrilling to build a structure which is so very light and very strong and very aesthetic all at the same time... and that is a lot of ANDS.

For links to earlier Episodes, just search "construction" in the search window of this blog.  The search window is on the right side of the blog.

Some of the following construction jumps around a bit.  I have two reasons for this:

a)  It beats the boredom of just working on one area of the cabin.
b)  It gave me something to do while waiting on our ShopBot to cut more CNC parts.  You won't have this problem, as you'll have all the parts in front of you.

Let's cut two thin wall 1", 34 1/4" tubes.

You'll need two thin wall 34 1/4 inch square aluminum tubes.

And also a 23 7/8 inch tube of the same material:

And a 23 7/8 inch tube

The 23 7/8" tube clamps in place along the top of the rear gusset.  The longer tubes rest on each side side skin.  One side and the rear is visible in the following photo:

Rear tube and side tube

Rear tube clecos

Front Diagonal Supports

Front Diagonal Support clamped in place

Front Diagonal Support with rivet and clecos

Front Diagonal Support fully riveted

In a similar manner, cut and fit two Rear Diagonal Support, then clamp and cleco in place.

Rear Diagonal Supports.

Rear Diagonal Supports, riveted in place.

Now let's move to the front of the cabin and finish out most of the rivets in the Front Cross Box.

Front Cross Box rivets, looking from front of plane backwards.

Front Cross Box rivets, from other side.

Now, fit the Front Cabin Cross Tube Gussets.  Yours are probably pre-notched, but I had to notch mine.

Gussets for Front Cabin Cross Tube.  

Although the above photo only shows one gusset, the gusset is actually doubled (one on top of the other).  It's time to pull some rivets:

Gussets with rivets and clecos

Now our focus shifts to installing four Side T Gussets, two on each side of the airplane.

Side T Gussets clamped and clecoed.

Side T Gusset riveted in place.

Please make sure you've placed clecos in the rear tube, as shown below:

Clecos on rear tube

Gussets need to be added on each Rear Diagonal Support.  A bend is placed in each gusset prior to placement.

Rear Gusset for Rear Diagonal Supports.

Another view of gusset for Rear Diagonal Support, clearly showing bend

Rivets on the gusset

Ensure that rivets have been placed on the bottom of the rear fuselage.

Rivets on bottom of rear fuselage.

Wild Mustang Horses in Kansas Flint Hills

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!


Quickly stated:

The shop gang installed the removable fairing on the back of the UltraCub, which made it look like a baby cub.  I was eager to fly it.

I flew the UltraCub from home base out to the Flint Hills (which are east of Wichita), where I took high res pictures of Wild Mustang horses, then returned home.  It was a 90 minute flight; and I used 2.5 gallons gasoline.  I returned with 90+ minutes fuel reserve at home base (slightly more than half tank remaining).  Fuel consumption:  1.67 gallons per hour.  Estimated fuel economy:  about 34 mpg.

Gentle Readers, the horse pictures are eye-popping, and you have to go to our belite flickr account to see them all.

Here's the link to the Wild Mustang horse photos on Flickr.  I have a couple of selected photos from the flight below.  The remainder of the wild horse photos (and there awesome photos of the horses) are on flickr.

Flint Hills, photo taken from Belite UltraCub ultralight airplane.

Wild Mustang Horses, photo taken from Belite ultralight airplane

Also note that that the four stroke UltraCub is now flying with the removable tail fairing attached:

Belite UltraCub ultralight airplane with four stroke engine

Walking the UltraCub 4 stroke ultralight airplane back to the hangar.

I used to do this flight in my Flight Design CTLS; it is absolutely a gift from God to be able to do it in the Belite.  I'm back to cruising around.  I'm planning cross countries to Oshkosh and Idaho.

Total time in the Burgundy UltraCub to date:  5.4 hours.

Here's the map of this adventure:

Wild Mustang Flight to the flint hills and back.

Flight speeds outbound to the flint hills averaged 65mph; return flight averaged 45mph.  Average groundspeed:  about 55mph.  You can see the variance on the position spacing above.  Cruise RPM varied from 2500 to 2700 rpm.