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

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.

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.

Kitfox Lite gets a Hirth engine -- New engine on an old lite

Terry Alley's Kitfox Lite ... now has a Hirth F23 installed!

From Terry Alley, published on SkyStarKitfoxLite forum and republished here ---


I just finished the installation of a Hirth F23 on my Lite. I bought Serial #001 [Kitfox Lite] from Earl Downs in Cushing, Ok a few years ago and began flying it with the old 2 SI.

A little over a year ago, I decided I wanted to try a 1/2 VW in the plane even though I was advised it would not have adequate climb performance. Well they were right. I loved it in the air with a cruise of about 62 to 65 mph indicated and a fuel burn of only 1 1/2 gal. per hour. What I hated was wondering if I was going to clear the trees ahead on a hot day. At best on a cool day I might get 200 to 250 FPM climb. So about a month ago I let James Wiebe of (www.beliteaircraft.com) talk me into flying his Superlite with the F23 engine installed. That is all it took.

I removed the VW and purchased a Hirth F23 from Belite Aircraft and had them make the motor mount for the Lite. Since they are building the Belite from the Kit Fox Lite tooling, the motor mount and engine went on like a plug and play accessory. My only real challenge was building the exhaust to keep the desired length of pipe and still hang it effectively under the engine.

Thursday evening, I finally completed everything and took the plane form my shop to Belite for final carb tuning. When all was satisfactory I decided to take it around the patch and see how it performed. I only had a gallon of fuel so it had to be short. WOW!!! This thing has never climbed like this even after a dive to build speed. After two touch n goes I landed and let James take it around to see if it felt like his new Superlite. He concluded that the feel is the same only his plane is much lighter.

Today, I had the chance to burn a tank of fuel through it and really test it out. Since I haven't been flying for the last month the pasture I fly from was not mowed. Even with morning dew and a foot tall grass the plane leaped from the earth like never before. I climbed and before I reached the end of the 1700' strip I was around 400' in the air. Once at 1000' I leveled off and at about 75% power my indicated was airspeed was close to 75. I am registared Expermential so the extra speed is OK. As I advance the throttle forward I watched the airspeed go to 80 and past. Since VNE is 80 I backed off at about 82 mph. My CHT held steady at 400 to 450 and EGT ran at 1050 to 1100 at cruise. (75% power) I flew south into the wind indicating about 75 mph and a GPS reading of 63 to 65. When I turn north, my ground speed jumped well over 80 and I was still at 75% or less on the power.

If any of you own a Lite and are considering a new engine, contact James Wiebe of Belite Aircraft. He can build the motor mount and set you up with a F23 which will make a whole new plane and do it without adding any more weight than the old 2 SI. The F23 with elect start weigh's under 80 including starter and exhaust. Remove the Starter and save even more. James Superlite is strictly ultralight and he has to put in a mechanical throttle stop to keep the speeds legal. Obviously, I did not.

Terry Alley
Augusta, Ks