Flint Hills Reprise

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Shortly before Christmas, I flew a very nice cross country around the flint hills of Kansas.  Here is a 10 minute clip of Kansas scenery, on Belite's Youtube channel.

View the video here.

Eldorado Reservoir, KS.

Thoughts on an aunt by my mother

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!


My Aunt Frieda passed earlier this week.

Her husband, uncle Henry, gave me a glider ride when I was a young boy.

My mother has written eloquently of Frieda in her blog, Second Thoughts.

(My mother, Katie Funk Wiebe, has written professionally for about 50 years.  Many books...  many articles... many speaking engagements.   She now writes (at age 87) on her blog, and is still writing articles and books.)

Belite Aluminum Ultralight Aircraft Cabin Construction, #8

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!


This is series #8 in our Belite Aluminum Ultralight Aircraft Cabin Construction articles.

It's back to work on the aluminum cabin for a Belite ultralight airplane!  We're going to be working on the internal details now.

BTW, your cabin should now be covered.  You'll need to take care as the cabin is worked on, in order to not tear or scratch the dacron fabric.  This is critical because you'll be slitting the fabric and mounting the landing gear center brace through the fabric.

We've taken the liberty of additionally covering our cabin  with turquoise Oracal, which is our fantastic covering method.

Our two tasks today are closely related:  we'll mount the landing gear cross brace, and we'll build and mount the control stick mount box.

There are two landing gear cross brace plates.  They look like this:

Landing Gear Cross Brace Plate for Belite Ultralight Aircraft.

After bending each piece, and slitting the fabric on the bottom of the cabin, the pieces are inserted through the slits and riveted in place.

Landing Gear Cross Brace Plates inserted through slits in fabric

Landing Gear Cross Brace Plate riveted in place

Two short pieces (approximately 4 1/4") of 3/4" thin wall square tubing are cut in place and clamped, as shown in the photo below.

Landing Gear Cross Brace Plate with tubes clamped in place.

Rivets in place on Landing Gear Cross Brace Plate

another view of Landing Gear Cross Brace Plate

 Now collect the three pieces of metal which comprise the control stick support box.  

Control Stick Support Box sides

Control Stick Support Box top.

Side with tabs bent.   Use a brake, or a vise, or wide jaw pliers, or helpful friends.

Top with bend

Box with clecos.

Box with rivets.

Box clecoed to cross box.

 Note that in the following photo, the steel pivot arm has appeared.  You'll want to check fit with it very thoroughly before riveting, as the instructions for its mounting follow!  Also note that the attachment bolt is an AN4-7 with washers and a locknut.

Box riveted to cross box.

 So let's investigate what needs to be done to attach the steel pivot assembly.

Bearing for pivot assembly.

Bearing bolted in place with two AN3 bolts.  Do not overtorque!

Closeup of AN3-17 bolts used to attach bearing.

Test fit.  

 The control stick pivot should rotate with complete freedom.

Another view of assembly, complete.

Belite Aluminum Ultralight Aircraft Cabin Construction, #7

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!


In our continuing series of aircraft construction articles, it's time for a photo review of the cabin assembly prior to covering.

Front Diagonal Support / Star Gusset area

Front view of cabin assembly.

View of Floor Pans, front assembly near firewall, first cross box.

Another view of floor pans and first cross box.

View of internal cabin assembly.  Baggage compartments on left side of photo.  Pivot location has been drilled and nylon 3/8" bushing is clearly (but barely) visible.

Lucky focuses on food.  Windshield support.

Cabin assembly from side.

Top gussets.

Nose of cabin assembly.

Top of cabin assembly.

Chance checks the weight of entire cabin assembly:  22.4 pounds

It is now time to cover the cabin assembly with dacron fabric.  Construction of the interior details of the cabin continues after you've covered the cabin assembly.