I spent most of my time at AirVenture 2010 hanging out in the ultralight area. I headed down there first to learn about weight shift trikes, after talking to the folks from Evolution Trikes while on a fuel stop in Juneau, WI. I had been impressed with the versatility of these craft. With completely open cockpits, they are perfect for low ‘n’ slow flight on warm summer evenings while still being capable of cross country journeys. The Evolution people were flying a trio of trikes from Florida to Wisconsin for AirVenture. At one point, they had been as high as 9000 feet. They were kind enough to give me a quick ride in a REVO trike, up and around the circuit and back to a landing. It was a most excellent experience in a very fine airplane but it was not quite what I was looking for.
Since I have a Piper Arrow for flights where I want to “get there,” I am just looking for a fun, economical ride-in-the-sky. My obvious next choice was a much more bare-bones trike, perhaps even a single seater. (Click any photo for a larger version.)
These look like every bit as much fun as the two seat trike that I had been up in but, ultimately, I gave up on these for a couple of reasons. First, and this is the biggest, I know that I want to share these flights with people who are not pilots (like my wife and the kids next door). Second, though it is possible to fold the wing of a trike, it is a time consuming process. Since I want to stow this craft in the T-hangar with my Arrow, it needs to fold up pretty small while still being quick to assemble for flight and disassemble for storage.
Before I gave up on the idea of single seat planes, I seriously considered several single seat ultralight airplanes with traditional wings. Some of these can be folded for storage (some more easily than others) and many of them are so diminutive they are downright cute. Check out this CGS Hawk; it looks like a giant kite that escaped its string. Though this one has a fully enclosed cabin, the doors can be unzipped and removed for that open air feeling.
There are bunches of planes of this ilk, one or two seats, fabric covered, designed for some friendly buzzing about the sky. Many can be folded for storage in trailers or shared hangars. I was hooked and ready to take one home until I stumbled across Skyview Powered Parachutes’ display. Morris Yoder spent endless hours explaining all the joys of PPC flight to me, answering way more questions than any sane man should be expected to tolerate, and eventually flying me around for about 40 minutes on a picture perfect evening.
Unfortunately, I did not take my camera on this flight but I did take several pictures while on the ground. Click any of the photos in this article to get to my AirVenture 2010 album.
This was exactly the kind of flying that I had been looking for. We puttered along at 30 mph about 300 feet in the air. Once in level flight (adjusted with the throttle) all steering was done with the feet so hands were free for photos or whatever. I waved at people below and enjoyed the sight of other PPC’s near us and the Goodyear blimp in the distance.
There is just one problem: keeping your speed up on final 🙂
For those of you who are not familiar with the runway configuration at Oshkosh; fear not! Those airplanes are not really about to mow down the PPC. The ultralight runway is near, and diagonal to, the approach end of runway 36. It was a tremendous kick, though, to fly a base leg in a PPC that was parallel to the final approach for “real” airplanes landing on runway 36 just a hundred yards or so away.
I reluctantly wandered north from the ultralight field after my flight and after everyone was done flying and after it was obvious that Morris and his friends were more than ready to stow their planes and head for dinner. We have more than enough sultry, still evenings in St. Louis to provide plenty of good opportunities to fly a PPC, if only I can figure out a way to get one into my hangar. Even more tantalizing, a PPC could easily tuck into the corner of my hangar and be out and ready to fly in about 15 minutes.
