Thursday, March 17, 2011

White Paint sparkles on Belite Ultralight Aircraft

I needed to take some pics from the airplane today.  The weather cooperated as temperatures hit the high 70's while the strong morning winds quieted down to a comfortable crosswind by mid afternoon.

The reliable Hirth started on the second or third pull, and I was soon airborne, flying in our Superlite Dragon.


Gene had pulled Joe's new plane out of the hangar, and as I passed over the top, I just thought it was one of the nicest views of the top side of a Belite that I'd ever seen.  So I started snapping pics.


Here's a nice one, looking nearly straight down.


Belite Ultralight Aircraft
The pictured aircraft has painted Insignia White using Stewart Systems products.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Belite Makes Significant Investment in CNC and Shop Automation Equipment

We've recently received several new pieces of equipment which we are using to improve our product and enhance our ability to build state of the art ultralight aircraft, such as our FAR Part 103 Belite 254.

We recently installed our new Roland DGA MDA 540 4-axis prototype milling machine.  This incredible machine can take a chunk of just about anything that's solid and convert it into a part.  It loves lexan, plastic, wood, and aluminum.

I happen to be working on many new avionics designs (to be introduced at Sun N Fun) and, as part of that project, I needed to turn a new bezel concept from idea to reality in less than 24 hours.

The new machine performed wonderfully, turning a solid block of Lexan into a bezel.  Here's a photo of the machined Lexan block:


After cutting the part out and painting it, the new bezel design looks like this:


The conversation with the SolidWorks designer started at 9:00am, the new part was out of the machine by 7:00pm.  (The joys of being in a small, nimble company with good design tools and equipment available!)

We've also purchased a ShopBot CNC router for large flat pieces.  New computer equipment and software (EG SolidWorks) complete the company upgrades.  The ShopBot isn't running yet, but will be in the near future.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Comments on Ultralight Aircraft from a Kitplanes reader...

Here are some unfiltered comments on our ultalight aircraft that I received via email earlier today.  This person had read the recent cover article on "Kitplanes" on Belite:

"I hope you are getting some good results from the article. Way back when, I was also on of those guys that looked at ultralights with distain. 

... I still think the KitFox Light was a delightful plane to fly even when compared to many non ultralight planes. 

To say the BeLite is a nice flying for an ultralight does not do it justice. It simply handles like a good airplane should, regardless of the weight. 

The only problem with the BeLite is if someone gets hooked on ultralights because of it, and then tries to fly one of the “lawn chair” type machines, it will scare them to death."


Belite manufactures Part 103 compliant ultralight aircraft.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kit Getting Ready to Leave...


This Belite kit is getting ready to leave our workshop.  This is a tack welded fuselage, aluminum spars and ribs, flaperons, and all kinds of fittings, hardware, and goodies.  This one is scheduled to ship in a couple of weeks.  The next available kit shipment slot is in April.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

An Ultralight Does Wingovers? Four Belites in a row?

Welcome, Kitplanes readers!  I hope you've enjoyed reading the excellent article on Belite in April's cover article.

Tonight's a multimedia night on this blog...  pics and video.  The best pic is the very last one.

We had a day of great flying weather -- a little crosswind -- I compensated by ignoring the crosswind, then by landing diagonally across the runway.  You can see that in the video clip I've posted in this post.

First, a great photo taken by Gene Stratton:


The Belite Trike airplane in the pic is ready for customer delivery, with the customer arriving tomorrow to take it home.

Ultralight Aircraft For Sale!  Next up, a Belite 254 with 28HP CRE engine, with really wonderful fat tundra tires.  Ultralight legal at 250 pounds, as pictured, including the tires.  Includes a nice instrument panel and you can buy it now.!



And here's a plane which is going to our south coast dealer, Joe Chlup.  It's got really light wheels on it, as it is destined to be a sea plane very soon!


So let's line up four Belites in a row...


The closest plane is currently featured (April 2011) on the cover of Kitplanes magazine.

So let's hop in that plane, attach a camera to the top of the wing, and take a video, OK?

I did exactly that.  Here's a video on Youtube showing startup to landing of the Belite Superlite.

It shows the fun I have in the airplane:  wingovers (sort of), tight turns, quick takeoffs, and spot landings.

I saved the best picture for last.  Here's the little yellow trike, entering the flare:


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Monday, February 21, 2011

Kitplanes publishes lengthy review and cover article on Belite

Finally, the Kitplanes article on Belite has been published!!!

They gave us the cover of the magazine!!!



Mark Cook wrote an editorial on us and on the rebirth of ultralights!!!

Ed Wischmeyer wrote an awesome article...  8 beautiful pages on our airplanes!!!

AOPA chief photographer Mike Fizer did all of the pictures, including ground and air to air!!!

Yeah, I'm kind of excited.

And I just sold a kit....   subscribers are receiving the new April issue right now.

You can buy the article by going here:

http://www.kitplanes.com/issues/28_4/flight_reports/Flight_Review_Belite_9497-1.phtml

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Bill of Materials for an Ultralight Aircraft carbon fiber wing kit

If you are looking to build a FAR Part 103 legal ultalight aircraft, such are Belite 254, you will want to know what comes in the kit.  This particular post covers the wing kit, which is the starting point for most projects.  A photo is at the bottom of this post.

Here's an itemized list of what you get:

a) 4 Carbon Fiber wing spars.  The load carrying part of the wing.

b) 10 Aluminum Ribs.  5 used on each wing.  They slip over the spars and are glued in place.  The glue acts as a corrosion barrier in the area of the glue joint. 

c) 4 Birch CNC cut wooden ribs (used as end cap ribs on wing).  These work better than aluminum for end caps, due to the ease of fabric attachment.  They should be epoxied or stained, so they will last a long time.

d) 0.75" x 0.035" 6061-T6 aluminum tubing, used as sail/anti-sail braces.  You cut them to length and crimp the ends of them in a vise (using blocks of wood).

e) 2 push-pull cables, low friction.  They go to the flaperons and thread out the wing, for routing to the aircraft controls.  (Flaperons are not included.)

f) 4 machined CNC 6061-T6 aluminum strut attachment fittings, for attachment to carbon fiber tubing.  They are connected to the carbon fiber spars using carbon fiber sleeves.  A corrosion barrier of flexible epoxy is used to bond the aluminum to the carbon fiber.  We do this for you!  (NOTE:  aluminum spars DO NOT use these strut attachment fittings, they use a different strut attachment methodology, not pictured)

g) 10 10" x 0.5" .025 6061-T6 aluminum straps, used for attaching ribs to front spar.  Two rivets attach to the bottom of the rib, the strap rolls around the front of the spar, then two rivets on the top of the rib.

h) 6 channel 6061-T6 right angle aluminum, for flaperon atachment.  These bolt to the ribs, and also accept the flaperons, when you install them later.

i) 36 false ribs, constructed of CNC cut plywood.  These slip through the 'false rib spar', which is 0.5" aluminum tubing.  They are then glued in place.

j) 4 root spar doublers (2.75" x 0.125 wall x 1.50" length).  These slip over the root of each tube, and are epoxied and riveted in place.

k) Plastic pitot tubing line, runs from pitot tube to your airspeed indicator.

l) Bent aluminum pitot tube  (straight pitot tube also available).

m) left and right machined CNC 6061-T6 flaperon dropper brackets.  They bolt to a rib.

n) 5 various aluminum trim pieces (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around flaperon cable exit points, etc.

o) 4 CNC cut 6061-T6 jury strut attachment fittings.

p) 6 0.75" square x 0.035 6061T6 hard point attachment tubes (for sail/anti-sail attachment).  These rivet to the aluminum ribs, and bolt to the sail / anti-sail tubes.

q) 6 trim pieces for flaperon right angle trim (0.016" 6061T6).  These go around the right angle pieces.

r) 24+ feet of prebent trailing edge aluminum.  These rivet to each rib.

s) 24 feet of 0.50" x 0.035" 6061T6 aluminum tubing, for false rib spars.  These slip through all the ribs and false ribs.

t) Blue print for wing.  Accurate measurements for the entire wing.

u) 5 bags of hardware, with all rivets, AN nuts, bolts & washers.

This is EVERYTHING you need to build two wings, with the exception of glue, fabric and tools.

WING KIT with aluminum spars --- $1430.
WING KIT with Carbon Fiber spars --- $3630.

Crating on a wing kit is $150.

Truck delivery to your location is by quotation.  Let us know where you are and we'll get a quote to you right away!

Here's another photo of that wing kit:

Monday, February 14, 2011

Carbon Fiber Ultralight Airplane Wing Kit

I've often wished we had a good photo illustration of what is contained in our wing kits.  Today, we finally took the picture.

Shown below is a wing kit complete with carbon fiber spars.  The kit with aluminum spars is identical in almost all respects. 

The wing kit has everything except glue, fabric and paint.  In a future post, I'll run through the list of contents in this kit.

With aluminum spars, this kit costs $1430.

With carbon fiber spars (as pictured), this kit costs $3630.

A complete description, with many, many pictures, of how to build a wing from this kit is included in this link.

And here is the photo of the wing kit:

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Hirth F23 twin has a redundant cylinder

After reading this, some of you will shoot me down.  It's OK -- I'm vowing to share what I know, no matter how embarrassing.

On this two cylinder engine, one cylinder is optional.

It seems like months ago -- but in fact, it was only two weeks ago:  we had two days of glorious weather.

Our airport was alive with activity.  72 degree high temperatures (in January) brought out one helicopter, some gliders, along with their towplane, our ultralight, and a buzzing crowd of powered paragliders.

My crew was working hard on getting another plane ready for delivery; we'd just swapped a brand new F23 Hirth twin boxer into one of our Belites.  (This particular plane is headed down to Texas and Florida to be a dealer demonstrator on floats... stuff for another post...)  The F23 had already been running for a couple of hours, as we slowly cranked up the power and prepared the engine for first flight.

(Another person was performing the extended runup).

I did a careful preflight, ensuring that everything was OK.  The airframe had already flown, (briefly), but it would be a first flight for this particular brand new engine.

The electric start on the engine kicked it to life very easily.  A check on the 4 point safety harness, and I taxiied out to the active.

A quick runup, and I was accelerating down the runway -- albeit slowly.  I shut it down and taxied back to the hangar.  Realizing that power was low, I quickly (and incorrectly) concluded that the propeller had the wrong pitch.  I had Gene fetch another with a better bite from our inventory of props, and a few minutes later it was torqued down and ready to go.

I taxied out again.  I applied full throttle, and the engine powered up smoothly.   Something was still wrong; RPM was quite low (at 800 RPM below full power); but the bird still wanted to fly, and I did to.  So I let it take off.

I made a couple of circuits of the field, enjoying the perfect weather, and also enjoying harassing the powered paragliders that were hanging around the east end of the pattern.  I sure wasn't happy with the power, though - it just didn't have nearly the snap I'd come to expect from our F33 installations in our Superlite models.

I landed the bird and taxied in.  As the bird rolled to a stop, I told Gene I still thought we had a real problem with the engine.

He pulled the top off each carburetor in turn, inspecting the linkage.

Well, it turns out one of the ball swages on the twin carburetor cables had failed (they'd passed a pull test in the vise!) and one of the two carbs wasn't advancing past idle.

So I'd been flying with one cylinder.  With a F23 Hirth, the second cylinder is not necessary for a good flight.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Wiring an ultralight instrument panel into an Ultralight Aircraft

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Let's wire up an instrument panel, using Belite' featherweight avionics.  Our completed panel will weigh about 12 ounces (0.35KG), and it will look like this:


That's a lot of functionality.

Anyway, let's build it.  We're starting with our precision machined aluminum panel,