November 30th, 2005
Reasons Not to Fly an Ultralight Plane
By Alice Hill
RealTechNews
Most longtime readers now that I long to fly and own some sort of cool ultralight plane. I’ve covered personal helicopters and flying cars and everything in between, but today I found a video of an ultralight crash that definitely made me stop and think. The weird thing is how there is no warning, the guy is happily flying and then BOOM. Result: broken back, broken pelvis, punctured lung, and so on.
View The Video Here via Furl
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
Reasons Not To Fly An Ultralight Plane
Most longtime readers know that I long to fly and own some sort of cool ultralight plane. I’ve covered personal helicopters and flying cars and everything in between, but today I found a video of an ultralight crash that definitely made me stop and th…
November 30th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
David Mueller says:
As a longtime pilot, looks like some pilot error involved along with equipment failure. Cannot quite be sure but looks like he stalled the glider after the engine quit. I’m not a fan of ultra’s so if you want to fly, especially a newbie, I’d stick with standard fair.
November 30th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
Perros says:
I though ultralightes were designed to glide if the engine cuts, but if your pretty close to the treetops it doesn’t leave that much room for error i guess.
-Perros-
December 1st, 2005 at 3:20 am
Georgef says:
If your car breaks down you better be able to walk.
If your boat breaks down you better be able to swim.
If your airplane car breaks down you better be able to fly.
-old American saying
Does this device work?
http://www.brsparachutes.com/
December 1st, 2005 at 6:42 am
Parry says:
Man has dreamed about the ablility to walk up a mountain and fly off with lightweight wings for thousands of years. We are incredibly fortunate that modern technology has finally allowed us to realize that dream.
Hang gliding or other lightweight flight does come with it’s disadvantages though, risk of death being the most critical.
If you know in your heart that you want to take to the sky and fly, you can do it today. If the risk to reward analysis in your life allows for it, I highly recommend hang gliding or paragliding.
We have flown paragliders and hang gliders to over 20,000 feet, more than 300 miles in a single flights lasting 10+ hours; all using only the air currents generated by nature.
Life is not measured in the number of breaths you take, but rather by the number of moments that take your breath away.
What is important to you?
December 1st, 2005 at 11:14 am
Dave says:
Let this be a lesson to all that fly, It is essential to have a landing spot picked out at every instant of your flight incase an engine out occurs. If you have to fly over an area were no landing sites are present youd better be damn sure you have more alttitude than that poor chap had. If he had another 200 to 300 feet of agl he would have likly avoided a trip to the hospital. I admit flying low is quite a thrill but in my opinion the risk far outways the reward. My best wishes to the pilot, may we all learn from his error
December 28th, 2005 at 7:50 pm
Steve says:
This case and point why these things should NEVER be compared to real aircraft nor the morons that strap themselves to them pilots. They banned 3 wheelers due to an inherently dangerous design. But let’s stick an engine on a collapsible wing and buzz over populated areas, good call.If these guys are that desperate to fly go to an airport and take lessons.
January 17th, 2006 at 3:14 pm
Marty Lunsford says:
That’s me in the video. The original video with a description of the accident can be found at www.fly-ul.com/crash/lunsford/
And yeah… there was definitely some pilot error involved.
January 23rd, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Alex says:
He make left turn and
speed go dawn,
go dawn and dawn.
Finally stall.
This trees saved his life.
May 5th, 2007 at 9:13 am
Alexander S R Galley says:
Pillock! The trees saved his life? So if there were no trees there-just flat ground he would have died?
It’s a simple case of “Whoops I made several catastrophic f**k ups and they added up to this”
Sounds like a decent guy, admits his mistakes. I’ve read several reports where planes have been crashed soon after generating less revs at full power than they should do. If the engine is working ok, it will generate full, smooth power.
Learn. Never fly unless all safety aspects add up. It’s your life and that of other people you carry or may hit. It’s better to shake your head and go home come back tomorrow after some tuning/repairs rather than come back 3 months later when your bones have finally grown back together!
Thanks Marty, I’m sure your openness about being a plonker will save a life somewhere!
July 2nd, 2007 at 9:55 am
Dan Grunloh says:
And that’s my little ultralight in the picture at the top of this article. It was an EAA photo from Oshkosh. I have flown it in 4 countries, 2 nationals, and 2 world championships. It’s called an Air Creation Racer, made in France.
December 21st, 2007 at 9:39 am
keyvan says:
hello
May 9th, 2008 at 2:17 pm