any Ultralight aircraft experts? Update ;) i've started ..

[jack404]

not totally off topic but anyway

a mate came over and we are discussing our next hunting trip , where i'm relocating too is very close distance wise to where i have been hunting but its either a 4 hour drive or a 3 hour walk/climb up a huge cliff ( 1220 foot) to the plateu

so my mate says why not build another ultralight

well the one i built years ago was fun but but not relaible for this

a frame a lawn mower engine and some wings and basic controls and a plastic seat stuck,,nailed, screwed, pop riveted and glued together

but was so tempermental and did not like any wind ( wind is why i dont have it no more, and a 3" scar on my butt)

i'd like to build one that i could drag out to the paddock clip in the flinters and off i go on a regular basis.. are there any cheap kits available in the US ??

i do not need instramented doo dads just wings and a reliable motor and better controls than i had, i am not a aero engineer, but pretty handy tool wise

yeah i know i'm a nut

but is there a louis beilot style kit ( basic ) out there that one can buy or am i gonna have to "wing it" from scratch again

cheers

jack

[petesusn]

Jack, try these.

http://www.quicksilveraircraft.com/ Very reliable company. Had friends build their kits with much success.

http://www.ultralightnews.com/plansbuyerguide/

http://www.excaliburaircraft.com/

http://www.loehle.com/ultralight_aircraft_kits.html

http://www.zenithair.com/stolch701/index1.html

[ysacres]

Jack I'm not much of an expert. I did own a pterodactyl, which is a fixed wing two axis control with a canard wing, I had it for a few years then cracked er up in a wind gust, I wanted to live to play another day, so I sold it to a burley ol geezer who had never been off the ground before. (hope he's still alive)
Now all the rage is powered parachutes, Definitely the safest ultralight because your always in parachute mode, when the engine fails its a much softer landing

Wiseacre

[jack404]

petesusn

that quicksilver link is great just dunno about the cost eh, they have a aussie agent and despite the AUD catching up with the USD the last year its still double the cost

but it looks like just what i'm after for sure, i may just end up doing a total home made again but plagerise the design from something a tad more modern than a old belgium bloke as i did before

Wiseacre this the one ??




and with the powered chutes ... can you get decent altitude with them? and how would you go with a roo carcass strapped on ? this is to be a hunting buggy , meaning i gotta bring home some meat and the hide

oh and before i built mine i had never had control of a aircraft before , rode in plenty but only as a passenger etc..


cheers

jack

[Maximilian II]

Dad has a neighbor with an ultralight, but I haven't found the field. I just see him flying on nice days.
Looks like fun, though.

[jack404]

Whooo Hoooo !!!!

i may have found just what i wanted



http://affordaplane.com

$7.95 USD for plans and a stall speed of 27 Mph

my first one was about 20 mph (if in trouble bring to ground getout and run!!! )

cheers

[Maximilian II]

Nice looking plane.

[jack404]

Max yeah
i'm thinking that too

good reveiws

good weight load ( me, 2 rifles, some basic camping stuff, fuel and enough for left 80- 100lb's of carcass or a smallish passenger )

good stall speed ( how i guage a plane , i know other stuff is important but a low stall speed means i can have a dead motor glide down and if needed bail out at a low speed and walk or limp away)

low build cost ( real important )

and the wings come off for storage so i can tow it to where i want if needed ( like the camel cull) and act as spotter or just be the hoon i am

to petesusn

thanks for the plans link when i looked here i got real type planes only

or ad pages that never show much

thanks for that a couple hours chasing those links and i think i have what i need

cheers eh

jack

[jack404]

Besides i dont really want to travel far

just to a bloody hard place to get too

for those with Google earth

my new place in NSW will be here

34 29'45.82"S

150 44'44.62"E

and i only need to get myself to here to hunt

34 27'50.22"S

150 43'26.10"E

but thers a bloody big ( 300 meters ) escarpment in the way so its a tough climb which i've done a few times now or a 4 hour drive around... or i'm thinking 10 mins by ultralight

cheers

jack

[petesusn]

Originally Posted by jack404

Whooo Hoooo !!!!

i may have found just what i wanted



http://affordaplane.com

$7.95 USD for plans and a stall speed of 27 Mph

my first one was about 20 mph (if in trouble bring to ground getout and run!!! )

cheers

Very nice. Should do what you want it to do. Will need more than a lawn mower engine though. Also try these sites.

http://www.kitplanes.com/
http://www.ultralightnews.com/

[jack404]

Originally Posted by petesusn

Very nice. Should do what you want it to do. Will need more than a lawn mower engine though. Also try these sites.

http://www.kitplanes.com/
http://www.ultralightnews.com/

i'm thinking the motor from a Ural Moto motor cycle ( russian rip off of a BMW motorcycle

its air cooled seperates from the gearbox (dont need a gearbox) a tad better than the original BMW ( no shared oil links) and is a tad lighter but 74 HP instead of the 62 of the BMW and they are pretty much bullet proof and reliable and cheap and uses standard fuel and the pumped carb's will work at 90 deg to normal ( looked at these a long time ago but after the stack i did not need the idea) and is half the price of the rotax motor

either that or cut a VW motor in half and go that way .. we'll see

i have to build a workshop first, starting that in 2 weeks

cheers eh

jack

[artabr]

Jack, it sure don't seem like a long flight. If that Rusky motor will get you high enough you'll be able to glide to your spot should it quit.

Good luck on your build.

Art

[jack404]

Thanks Art,

just got back from the local coucil ( local government here) with permission to build a small "dwelling" as they classified it, i'm doing the paperwork for a commercial lease from him , 5 x 5 with options so i'll have a place here on the east coast while i'm here and so i can visit mates this side ( majority live in NSW or Queensland) and then build a bit bigger when i get home to South Australia

its not a long haul but if you slant the google earth thingy you'll see how steep it really is and in winter any small ammount of moisture and its a slippery and sticky trek at best , and bloody dangerous at worst


this way i should be able to fly up early in the morning and spend a full day hunting and come back before dark no worries, besides

flying by the seat of your pants is fun and i dont need no PC medical for these type craft here, just a $400 a year insurance policy to cover the cost of rescue folks if they have to drag my bod back

heres the little shack i'm building


its 4 meters by 10 meters of which 2 will be a wired in avery for my birds ( two pet cockatiels )

and i'll add a 4 meter wide awning to build the plane under ..

the work shop area is the most important as this is built to comply with the nazi style anti gun laws here ( 3/8th " steel plate lined) and the rest will be a little flat for myself and as they have a shower/bathroom set up already at the back of the main workshop ( my mate has a excavation/demolitions business so needs a shower /bathroom setup for his licence)

what more does a bloke need eh?

i should start construction in a couple of weeks , once i've bought all the materials and carted them out there and should only be a month til i am 100% operational

once thats done and i'm making flinters and falling blocks again and have a few in stock i'll start on the plane as my winter project ( just started autumn here)

cheers

jack

[jack404]

i just did the slant thingy with google earth to show you what the cliffs are like

its only 2.49 miles from the road to the landing zone i wish to use ( the power line clearway for the coal mines )

but google earth say the cliffs are vertical for the top 40 meters (129 feet) and about 60 degrees for another 80 meters and 392 meters tall in total

there is a path up thats not too hard but steep and slippery as hell if even a drop of moisture is about and as its facing the ocean winds its nearly always a little wet

i know its a long climb and in wet, a bit tough is a understatement

take a look..

[ysacres]

Yo Jack,
here is a pic of my old feathered fighter on the trailer = the canard wing.

[jack404]

Excellent!!

i've never been real sure about the control surfaces out front, more the traditional plane style person myself ( only cause they are easier for dummies to fly)

i've been reading about the canard wings

are they as stable as they say or do you think its bias by some who are generally way more skilled than dummies like me ?

my friend here wants to know why you called it a feathered fighter .. she wants to know how hard it would be to mount guns on the thing, aint sure what she has in mind maybe she's just mind reading again ...

[Maximilian II]

What kind of lathe and mill are you installing? I ask as a student machinist.

[jack404]

Two lathes, a rifling jig, and a mill

one lathe is a Grizzly mini lathe and the mill is a mini mill , both 400 watt moters but with a few extra's

the larger (yellow) Lathe is a 28" bed with extenders to make it 36"



and these are the mini mill and mini lathe as set up in my flat in Sydney
so i'll just relocate all this when i have the shed up



its enough to make decent rifles on including long barrel flinters

its not my workshop back in South Australia

but then it would be hard to recreate that

pic attached 9 the yellow lathe is in the background against the far wall

i could not bring the big stuff ( pratt and whitney vertical gun drill to the right of the yellow lathe and the barreling lathe in the left foreground) to sydney easily

all my jigs are on the back wall to the left

below that is a rifle i made from the smaller workshop

a .50 BMG thats good to hit 3 " targets at 500 meters every time

you dont need much to make decent rifles from scratch Max

the 50, i bought the barrel , but the rest is my work

cheers

jack

[Maximilian II]

I think I might've just did something beyond PG13 in my sweatpants.
There was a reply to one of my posts in Black Powder that involved a wheellock, you see...

Thanks, Jack! Again! Riflings we should discuss.

[jack404]

theres wheel lock plans in that disk i sent you ( if not let me know i have a 16th cent plan set upgraded for todays standards)

good luck with the pants eh

i have to build another rifling press ( button rifling ) i gave up doing cut rifling for accuracy , i can get sub MOA with buttons and a single pass is far better than 700-1200 passes with cut rifling

email me any time eh

but buy the buttons from danjon , they do great work

cheers

jack

[wpage]

Hey Jack,
You have your work cut out for you my friend...
Like your style. Friend of mine just was killed in one of those ultralites so. Build it well and fly low. We need good men here on the forum!

[jack404]

we have to stay below 500 meters AGL here with these or i need to get a airworthy certification, radio for air traffic control and a licence ( and i wont pass the med for the licence )

my veiw is if The Good Lord wants me , he'll grab me anywhere , in bed, flying , hunting , He makes that call , you go full stop

i just want to enjoy what time i have here , and enjoyment is sometimes pushing the envelope ya know ?? besides after almost 2 years in that hole in sydney i really look forward to just being free a bit

and thinking about making the 2 seat version

come on over i'll take ya for a spin when its done

cheers

jack

[ysacres]

He He, reminds me of the RED BARRON, Guns mounted on the wings of a Pterodactyl might be too much recoil (yaw). A 50 cal mounted on the canard would create a loop effect (stall) and a AR/AK,under the wheels would be a nose dive fer sure (crash) The reason I called it the feathered fighter is because it's so light, Any muzzle blast from a firearm 223 or larger would certainly make it fly upside down

A pic of my little flying buddy, in his Weedhopper

[jack404]

i dunno if you've heard of "the Buzzard"

a mate of mine here is a aviation guru and developing a few critters here for cheap air groud operations

you (US) already bought our spotter drones then took em to the next level

predator etc

try the Buzzard

mounts a mini gun and four external rockets



this is him doing the testing on the first one

we have 12 heading to afghanistan in a couple of weeks



not that i want a mini gun in my ultralight but a american 180 or 2 mounted would be awsome !!

pity i could not afford one of the above but it needs a runway and needs a 120 kph take off so outta my spec ,

i guess i'll make do with a version of the affordaplane

got the plans and they are so sweeet! i reckon i could have it built in 2-3 months part time

i guess i have better get building this shed eh

cheers

jack

[Maximilian II]

Is that Buzzard the same plane seen in a James Bond movie? Looks like it.
In a similar vein, I remember a fellow near here had a little gyrocopter when I was in my early teens, used to spot it in the nearby town on occasion. Another of JB's toys.

BTW: the britches came out all right Thanks to mods for thick skins on that one. Late nights I might have a shot or three.
I'll try to behave. Right to free speech does not give right to be offensive or impolite.