UltraCub Flyover Video

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Short & sweet:  Quick video showing Belite UltraCub ultralight airplane flyover:  (Click Here)

This plane has already been deliverered.  Got some awesome video of this plane in flight, which will be posted very soon.

UltraCub.  Sharpest looking ultralight airplane.  From Belite Aircraft.

Velvet Dusk

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Dusk skies, velvet touches, calming winds, drought in Kansas.  Heat.  Cooler up higher.  Beautiful evening to get up and look around.

An evening to explore.  What is the earth saying tonight?

The field two miles to the east responded to the drought by having itself cut.

Farm in cornfield, a field being cut beyond.   Pictures taken from Belite ultralight aircraft.

Truck, combine, farming.  Responding to the drought by cutting the corn.

Under the wings of a Belite ultralight airplane.  Velvet dusk.

Sun setting.

Belite ultralight aircraft; position lights turned on.  This particular airplane also has strobes.

Drought and trees.  Picture taken from Belite ultralight airplane.

On the ground.  The sun sets.

Ultra Lightweight Instrument Panel

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I thought you might like to see the back of the instrument panel.  I also thought you might like to get some insight as to how the instrument panel is wired up, so let's do it.

The instrument panel in my aircraft is assembled from very lightweight Belite instruments.  My instruments provide information which is essential for flight in an inexpensive and easy to read manner.  As I was flying earlier tonight, I took another photo of the instruments inflight:

Belite Instrument Panel in flight

Kewl.  I like 'em.

The panel is designed to quickly be removed, so I can fly with minimal instrumentation when I want to.  (The blank hole on the left main panel is for an EGT/CHT, which will be added.  It's the only instrument I need when I pull the main panel.)

Earlier today, I took a picture of the back of the exact same instrument panel, and there definitely is some electronic magic going on in the wiring:

backside of Belite Instrument panel

Some notes:

1.  The top right module is a +12V regulator.  I use it to regulate the raw voltage from the main system/starter battery.   (I use an extremely lightweight lithium polymer 14.4v battery for the starter, which is a little hot to use with the instruments.  When fully charged, the lithium polymer battery reaches over 16.0 volts.)

2.  A potentiometer is used to control instrument dimming.  It's in the lower right corner, immediately below the power regulator.  One side is connected to +12V, the other to ground.  The wiper (middle) output of the potentiometer connects to all the instruments to provide dimming level input.  The dimmer worked really sweetly when I was flying in dusk conditions earlier tonight.  More on that in another post.

3.  Not shown is an inline fuse, 1A, which is connected to the power regulator input.

4.  YES, that is a steam gauge air speed indicator in the lower middle.  I don't have one in stock right now, so I used an old fashioned steam gauge.

5.  The shrink wrapped modules are either electronic altitude (pressure) sensors or VSI sensors.

6.  That's a voltmeter at the top.  It's only connected to show regulated voltage (around 12v) but I might add a switch to allow selection between unregulated and regulated voltage.  A hole is already drilled for the switch.

7.  All the instruments have their power wired from a common avionics power switch (lower right side of panel), along with a common ground.  Just switched power, ground, and dimming to each instrument.

I put it all on a scale, and the weight is 1 pound and a fraction of ounce.

Instrument panel, 1 pound 0.4 ounces, including wiring, switches, regulator, and panel. 

Drought, Spot Landing in Hayfield

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I'd had that off-field landing in an alfalfa field at Osh12; and the day after our return to Wichita, the plane was repaired, broken in with a new piston and cylinder, and ready to fly.  So I got back on the horse and rode it.

Setting off for Terry A.'s field, I was struck by the ravaged look of the land.  I took several pictures of the drought.

Oh yeah, temperatures were in the low 100's.  Things got comfortable about 600' above ground level in the open cockpit.  Climb rate wasn't awesome in the 4300'++ density altitude, but still pretty good, even with the very small engine (28HP max at sea level) and my overgross condition.

Kansas Drought from a Belite Ultralight Aircraft

Kansas drought, from a Belite ultralight aircraft

Kansas drought, from an ultralight airplane

More Kansas drought, from a Belite ultralight airplane

Wow.  It's not looking good for any crop.

I spotted Terry's airport:

Terry's airport, dead center of pic

Starting to turn final at Terry's airport

And then I landed.  Couldn't take pictures on final, too busy.

Landed at Terry's airport

I quickly took off.

Someone created artwork in a field?  Looks like a baseball slugger to me:

Interesting pattern in corn field, taken from Belite ultralight airplane.

Here's another illustration of the drought, showing a house surrounded by a sea of dried corn:

Home surrounded by drought corn

Approaching my home airport, I noted that this would be an excellent evening to practice off field landings in the hayfield next to the runway.  Why not?  I made a vertical mark in the photo below to show the proposed landing spot, stopping just to the left and short of the round hay bales.

Back at home field, hayfield landing strip marked in photoshop

So I landed, but a little long.  After stopping, I took a picture looking back at the hay bales:

Hay bales, after landing long

 I tried it several more times.  This time, I landed short of the hay bales and took this pic:  Success!

Hay bales, after landing short

I enjoyed that very much.  It was getting dark, so I put the plane away and called it a day.