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Thread: An Ultralight Beginner

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Jul 2012
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    Hubertus WI
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    Buzz on track with this topic where around the Milw area can you fly/store an ultralight? I live up by Holy Hill and see some flying time to time but can't locate where they are flying out of.

  2. #12

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    Nov 2011
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    Brian,
    You have struck on the #1 problem with flying ultralights near a major metropolitan area likeMilwaukee. The shortage of ultralight hangar space. In the early 1980s the local UL club addressed the problem by arranging to build a 10-12 hangar space complex for ultralights at a now closed grass airfield caller Aeropark near Brookfield. That airfield was really the center of UL activity for a longtime and was the club's home field. After the airfield was closed and put back into corn, the club dispersed to a number of different airfields. Some fly out of the Hartford airport, some have used a little airstrip and hangars in Oconomowoc. Hartford is probably the best site because it is the biggest airport in Holy Hill area that welcomes ultralights and there are a number on the field. The problem, however, is that open hangar space at Hartford is a rarity. There is a pretty good waiting list.
    One can fly ultralights at Capitol Drive in Brookfield but they will not rent a hangar to one. They took state money to upgrade the runway and are required to keep x number of N-Numbered aircraft on the field by the state. They don't want ultralights taking up the hangar spaces because they don't count towards the number required by the state.
    The advantage of ultralights is that they can use just about any airfield. If you go on-line and look at the State airport list, you might find some other grass airfields in the area listed. They may have hangar space.
    -Buzz

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Timm Bogenhagen View Post
    EAA Ultralight Chapter 1, The Microlite Flyers has many members from the Milwaukee area. You should consider attending their meetings and joining their chapter, you will learn alot from the members. Here is a link to their web site, http://www.eaaul1.org
    007: We'd be more than happy to have you drop in at the next meeting of the Microlite Flyers, scheduled for 10:00 am, Saturday, September 15 at the Hartford Airport Pilot's Lounge. Hope to see you there.

  4. #14

    Join Date
    Jan 2012
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    Study Material

    It will be a long winter in WI. There is plenty to read on the internet. I suggest you Goggle "See&nbsp;How It Flies" for starters. Do not spend $200 on books as most FBOs will tell you is necessary. All the FAA handbooks are available on line. <BR>If you go the MX route get a solo sign off from a CFI so that all your N numbered time will count towards a pilot certificate.

  5. #15
    New to the site and hoping for some insight.....I just began my ultralight lessons. I've been reading everything I can and am getting great, I mean great, instruction from a great instructor. He came highly recommended. I initially set out just to get ultralight time and I thought that that would suffice. Of course not. I have had so much fun and love it so much, I am thinking about going for my light sport instead. Question....Can my ultralight hours be used for my light sport license? Is it smart to do? Do I have to start over? I live in the northwoods and drive 1 hour and 15 min to get to my instructor and fly once a week. I am thinking of purchasing next spring/summer and figure I should decide now. I also thought of asking my instructor if he would change and start instructing my for light sport, but wanted to ask if I could up the time. I mean, go down to him and spend more time with him than just an hour flight a week. Any advice would be great, as I said, I'm in the beginning and the last thing I want to do is upset my instructor. info....I am training in a Quicksilver 2 place. 503 dual ignition.


    Thanks in advance.

  6. #16
    Dana's Avatar
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    Ultralight hours can't be used toward any pilot certificate, and you can't get instruction toward a certificate in an experimental (like the Quicksilver) unless you own it yourself. However, the flight experience is always worthwhile, and may reduce the number of logged hours you need to be proficient enough to get your SP certificate (since almost nobody does it in the minimum time)

    Only you can decide of going for a SP ticket is worth it, based on the kind of flying you want to do.

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malpal_mikey21 View Post
    New to the site and hoping for some insight.....I just began my ultralight lessons. I've been reading everything I can and am getting great, I mean great, instruction from a great instructor. He came highly recommended. I also thought of asking my instructor if he would change and start instructing my for light sport, but wanted to ask if I could up the time. I mean, go down to him and spend more time with him than just an hour flight a week. Any advice would be great, as I said, I'm in the beginning and the last thing I want to do is upset my instructor. info....I am training in a Quicksilver 2 place. 503 dual ignition. Thanks in advance.
    Hi-
    Because you are new to ultralights and the Sport license, you may find the way the laws have written regarding them to be confusing.

    First, as Dana has said, if you are getting training in a 2-place Quicksilver, your instructor can't give you training that you can log towards the Sport license. One can GET logable Sport Pilot instruction in an ELSA they own [Experimental LSA] but one can't GIVE logable instruction in an ELSA [unless it's the student's].

    Second, my recommendation is to keep working with him towards the goal of getting a single place ultralight. It will be the least expensive step into flying that you can make. Keep in mind that research has shown 80% of people who start towards an entry level license never get it. Like driving a car, the thrill of learning to fly that will have you driving 90 minutes for instruction will diminish. [Did you ever think the thrill of driving would diminish when you first got your driver's license? I didn't. It did.] The thrill of chasing a license does wear off enough for so many that the time and expense finally doesn't seem worth it to finish the license.

    However, you can have a TON of fun flying a single seat ultralight on a beer budget and with a small training commitment required than the Sport License. And you can log a lot of flying experience very inexpensively. You will also be in a better position to understand exactly what adding the Sport license contributes to the flying experience. You may find you decide never to move beyond a single place ultralight after all.

    My personal experience is I was so enamored with flying that I got my Private license when I was a junior in high school. I have often said that if ultralights had been around back then, I probably would not have a Private today. I would have put the cost of that into buying an ultralight. Owning and flying one of the single place Quicksilvers has been the most fun I've ever had flying. The people I've met, the places I've landed with it, etc. [I so prefer ultralights over heavier stuff that I owned a small twin engine airplane for business and never even bothered getting checked out in it.]

    It's my experience that ultralights are the best return you can have in aviation for the time and money invested. Start there and then decide later if a Sport license is worth the additional time and expense of chasing the license.

    One last story. I once laid off 12 years from flying Cessnas. Flew nothing but a 254lb Quicksilver during those years. When I went back to get current again in a 4-place Cessna I found I could make landings many times better than I have ever been able to do so when I was doing a lot of Cessna flying. [The landings were so good that the instructor said there's no way he would have believed I hadn't flown any General Aviation airplane in 12 years.]

    I believe someone thinking about a Sport license should seriously consider first being taught to fly an ultralight, then getting one and building flying experience with it. It may actually prove to be the most direct and least expensive path to the Sport license. I do know it will be a very fun one.

    My experiences and thoughts.

    -Buzz
    Last edited by Buzz; 09-14-2012 at 02:26 AM.

  8. #18

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Oklahoma City, OK
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    I've had my PPL since 1977. I've always been interested in U/Ls. After reading all this info Buzz puts here, I'm really starting to want an ultralight. I live in a private airpark community, own a C150 and am building a Rans S19, my brohter keeps his RV9A in my hangar also. But I still think an ultralight would be soooooooo fun.

    BTW, Buzz, I really enjoy reading your posts. They're so positive, realistic, and informative.
    Last edited by malexander; 09-14-2012 at 03:41 AM.

  9. #19

    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    Thanks Malexander.

    I've been fortunate to be around people that have shared their experiences with me. I've also had some real fun experiences in aviation. I'll post a picture of one my most fun ones..

    The back of the head in the photo is Chuck Yeager. This was taken from the backseat of his P-51 at EAA in '96. In the back of the other Mustang is Rusty Wallace [the NASCAR driver]. They are flying formation with my Cessna Skymaster being flown by a friend of mine [as I mentioned in a previous post, I owned the 337 for business but never checked out in it]. You can see there is a ball on the side of the Skymaster. That's a $400K TV camera I had mounted on it. We were shooting a segment for ESPN. Yeager formed up under our tail right after this shot. We were looking down in his canopy and one could watch him move the stick and watch him actually flying the airplane.

    Watching him fly through the TV monitor in our plane was a treat. It was like his P-51 was on a rail off the bottom of the Skymaster. You could see the unbelievable touch he had. There were 3 other P-51s in trail below us at the time all trying to hold position on him and the others were bouncing all over the place in comparison.

    I really got a chance to talk with him a lot that year and heard some of his stories. [Miller sponsored the plane and we did a TON of aerial coverage for the 5 networks on NASCAR, Indycar, MLB, NFL, etc. We were talking to Chuck for several months after EAA about flying the plane during coverage of a World Series game and then putting a lipstick camera on the dash and have him chat with the guys doing the game coverage. The network doing the Series that year had already committed the aerial coverage duties to someone else, so it never materialized.]

    I love ultralight flying. It's still the best form of aviation out there for the pure experience in my opinion.


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    Last edited by Buzz; 09-14-2012 at 09:31 AM.

  10. #20

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    Nov 2011
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    Quote Originally Posted by Malpal_mikey21 View Post
    I live in the northwoods and drive 1 hour and 15 min to get to my instructor and fly once a week. I am thinking of purchasing next spring/summer and figure I should decide now. I also thought of asking my instructor if he would change and start instructing my for light sport, but wanted to ask if I could up the time. I mean, go down to him and spend more time with him than just an hour flight a week. Any advice would be great, as I said, I'm in the beginning and the last thing I want to do is upset my instructor. info....I am training in a Quicksilver 2 place. 503 dual ignition. Thanks in advance.
    One other idea for you. Buy a 2-place "N" numbered Quicksilver and hangar it at or near where he is. Have him give you instruction in that. All that instruction would be Sport Pilot instruction [meaning it counts towards the license requirements].

    I don't know all the details of the rules, but once you solo, you can fly your airplane alone with his endorsement. I've heard of people in GA that were "permanent" student pilots. They loved flying, wanted to do some for recreation, were ok doing it alone and just never kept the instruction process going to finish the license.

    Once you have a solo endorsement, you can fly your 2-place alone and really have some fun with it. There will be restrictions you'll have with it flying it with the Sport Pilot - Student Pilot endorsement that you would not have with a single seat ultralight I believe. [Like distance and maybe what kind of airport you can operate in and out of. I think you need an instructor endorsement for some class of airports whereas an ultralight only needs to get on the radio and ask for permission to enter the airspace. But I may be wrong about that.]

    But if you are planning on buying something in the future anyway and he's already instructing you in a 2-place QS, maybe buy one if you like that kind of flight experience ["open" cockpit , etc.]

    Also, look into the Sport Pilot Repairman Certificate. If you are in WI, the EAA provides courses to get it. Lets you do all your own maintenance on your ELSA. I did the course a couple years ago and really learned a lot even though I was going to be maintaining the same 2-place QS I'd been maintaining as a UL instructor under the old exemption.

    BTW, can I ask what city your instructor is in? If "north woods" means Wisconsin, I know a lot of them there that used QSs and may know your instructor.

    -Buzz

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