Wow Plane

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It's time for Sun N Fun.

We had very little fun preparing for Sun N Fun -- it was Rain N Pain in Wichita for four days, and our field was flooded.  The gang was working nearly non stop, working on preparing 3 planes.  One was a customer delivery, and it had highest priority.  Another was a show plane, which we did not finish in time.  The third was a technology demonstrator, which we call the Wow Plane and it also would be going to Sun N Fun.  Mike had been working hard on the Wow Plane for several months, and the rest of our gang was working on finishing it up.

The rain ended Thursday night, and a walk of the flight field on Friday morning showed a diagonal path across the runway which avoided puddles and headed into the wind.  We had to fly the Wow plane!

So we rolled out the Wow Plane.  Around 4 in the afternoon, it took to the air for the first time.

Wow.

Wow!

Phenomonal crisp climb with only 28HP.  Flight controls as if they were on ball bearing rails.  Lots more.

And you'll find out lots more, soon, in a news release from Belite Aircraft.

The Wow ultralight airplane from Belite aircraft

You can see more pictures of this cool plane immediately on Belite's flickr account.

How to attach an engine to an ultralight airplane

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!

NOTE:  This post describes the process for mounting a Hirth F33 (28HP) engine to a Belite Ultralight aircraft.  We support several different types of engines, all are similar in mounting techniques.  Call us (or the engine vendor) if you need installation information for any other type of engine.

The F33 is the exact engine that was used on the MythBusters Duct Tape Plane episode, which aired in October of 2011.  :-)

It provides awesome performance in our base aircraft.  This is due to the many aerodynamic improvements we've made to this airplane and our lightweight construction.  It is easily possible to fly a Belite with less than 210 pounds all up weight, including the engine!!

Let's get on with our engine installation...

Section A.  Firewall Assembly

Cut the firewall to the pattern supplied in our blueprint data.  We recommend using either 0.032 or 0.040 aluminum.   (If you don’t have the blueprint PDF for the Firewall – email us!  We will send it to you.) 

Fabricate the firewall from the aluminum sheet using the blueprint PDF template sheet. Cut the template sheet to size with scissors and then use spray adhesive on the template sheet to temporarily attach it to the aluminum sheet. Cut the aluminum with metal snips. Mark the templates' top contour on the sheet metal with a felt tip pen, but cut the top contour a little long (1/2" or so) in case your cowling does not fit up exactly as ours did. Any extra material will get trimmed away during the cowling fit-up sequences to come.

Using a brake, bend the bottom lip to fit under the fuselage, and drill holes at the engine mount locations.

Deburr all edges.

Section B. Engine Mount Assembly

Figure 1 -- Completed F33 Engine Installation in Belite ultralight airplane.

A retractable Pitot Tube on an ultralight aircraft

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One really cool feature we've been shipping on our ultralight aircraft is a retractable Pitot tube.  The old fixed pitot tube was a royal pain, and tended to get bent everytime we shipped an airplane in our trailer.

Solution:  a retractable pitot tube.  Credit for this idea:  Gene comes through again.

Here's photos as to how we do it:

First of all, this is what it looks like when it's extended.  We've placed the pitot tube through the leading edge of the wing, which is also our front spar.  Although this photo shows a carbon fiber spar, it works equally well with aluminum spars.  Also note that the location of the pitot tube is very close to the wingtip, so there is very little stress on the spar at this point.  (I have to have a very good reason to drill through a spar.)

Retractable Pitot Tube in Ultralight Aircraft

Funeral Arrangements for Sheryl Riney

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Received from Northridge this morning:

Dear Northridge Friends,

Here is the information as we have it for Sheryl Riney’s service:

There will be a viewing with the family on Wednesday evening at Broadway Mortuary, 1147 S. Broadway. The time has not yet been set, but we will inform you as soon as we know.

The Memorial Service will be Thursday morning at 10:30 at Eastminster Prestyberian Church, 1958 N. Webb Road. Participants will include Steve Dickey from Eastminster, Michelle Henderson, Earnest Alexander, Jim Smith from Friends University, and Ben Staley.

The Graveside Service will follow the Memorial Service at Kensington Gardens, 11500 E. 21^st Street. There will be a luncheon for the family here at Northridge following the graveside.

Please continue to lift Doug & Paul, Cecil & Verna, Kevin & Michelle and their children, as well as Cheryl’s family in your prayers during this difficult time and the times to come.