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ANNOUNCEMENTS

May 30, 2010

Ken Fackler passed a major milestone today. While flying to Frankenmuth his Hobbs meter rolled through 500 hrs. Now, that 500 hrs is on his most recent engine, a Rotax 503 with dual carbs, dual ignition, and oil injection. Since launching the bird in September of 2002, he has accumulated 635 hrs, an average of 80+ hrs per season.

May 20, 2010

The MULA fly-in at Chesaning on May 29 has been cancelled.

April 24, 2010

Today is Grey Lane's birthday!! Please wish him a happy day the next time you cross paths or click here to send him an email.

April 22, 2010

Roger Knight has purchased a Challenger from the Barnstormers website. Roger is taking lessons with Sutton Aviation at Pontiac Airport to get his fixed-wing endorsement. We don't have much more information at this time but we do know he is looking for a hangar to house it in at Ray Community Airport.

March 30, 2010

Mark Gray and Ken Fackler spent last weekend (Mar 27 - 28) braving the cold and wet to complete their annual inspections and flight readiness chores. Both Kolbs are once again ready for the skies and both men are looking forward to a long, productive flying season. Lake Michigan or bust!

March 18, 2010

Things are picking up! In the last few weeks we’ve had several people express interest in selecting aircraft and learning how to fly an ultralight or Light Sport Aircraft.

Gary Danielson contacted GTUF and wants to purchase a Back Yard Flyer and has arranged for Sport Pilot flying lessons. Gary’s Back Yard Flyer will not be constructed by the company until spring of 2011 due to a backlog of orders.

Rick Klein is a Sport Pilot CFI and owns a restored 1946 Ercoupe which he hangars just across the taxiway from Ron Catenac and Grey Lane at Ray Community Airport. Rick just had his plane recertified for the year and after spending part of a day closing up all the inspection points he for the best part of an hour.

A friend of Rick’s, Roger Knight, is talking to Doug McPetrie about purchasing a Kolb Mark II Twinstar owned by Doug’s son, an airplane nearly identical to the one owned by Ken Fackler. Roger is currently taking fixed-wing flying lessons from Bob Mahieu; he already has a Sport Pilot certificate for weight-shift.

All three pilots are interested in getting together at one of our GTUF breakfasts.

Grey Lane recently finished his spring tune-up activities for his Kitfox Lite and then flew it for an hour on a windless, 60 degree, sunny March day. Yeah!

February 28, 2010

Recently I’ve had several people ask me: Where can I learn how to fly an ultralight? Unfortunately the FAA (and the EAA went along with this ruling) have just removed the last of the exempt two-seat ultralight trainers from being able to legally teach aspiring ultralight pilots how to fly a true ultralight. It’s rumored that this was due to abuse of the Basic Flight Instructor (BFI) program -- there were too many students teaching students and causing accidents, so the FAA removed the exemption and came up with the Sport Pilot program.

Sport Pilot was intended to be a step down from the traditional Private Pilot rating. Learning to be a Sport Pilot is less expensive than becoming a Private Pilot, but currently there aren’t many Certified Flight Instructors (CFIs) willing to teach Sport Pilot. The cost of obtaining training as a Sport Pilot could be as much as $4000 considering both ground school and time in a Light Sport Aircraft.

The FAA rules for Light Sport Aircraft allow them to fly faster (up to 120 kts) and be considerably heavier (up to 1,320 lbs.) than any training ultralight ever was by a factor of two. As a result, Light Sport Aircraft cannot possibly qualify an ultralight pilot for training in type, meaning training in a ship with similar flying characteristics. Ultralights have big differences in flying characteristics and these differences are severe enough to get a transitioning pilot hurt or killed and his ultralight severely damaged unless he gets the proper transition training.

With the loss of two-place training ultralights, the would-be pilot is forced to first qualify as a Sport Pilot and then go to an individual ultralight pilot for an “informal checkout” to transition to his ultralight. As a friend has once said, “In the end it all boils down to what you are willing to do in order to secure your privilege to fly whatever kind of aircraft you want to fly.” And that includes ultralights.

Flying clubs can be one of the best ways to get to know people who can give you an informal checkout once you have become a Sport Pilot and purchased your ultralight.

-contributed by Grey Lane

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