[graham_mitchell]

Interesting things happening in the ultralight aircraft space these days, especially in Europe where the regulations are less restrictive than the US.

This is the "Risen" which is all carbon fiber. Whole plane weighs only 300kg/660 lb (dry weight). Cruise speed (75% engine power) is 325 kph/202 mph at 9,000 feet. Stall speed is only 55 kph/34 mph, making for very short take off and landing distance (170m/558 ft).

At most economical speed (190 kph/118 mph), it has fuel consumption of 9 l/h (2.4 gallons/hr) and a range of 1,678 km (1,043 miles).

Includes ballistic parachute for extra safety.

[993Maineiac]

Nice looking plane. I hope the V tail is sorted out.

[Boeing Driver]

1000 miles with no luggage.

[ny991]

At 1000 miles you better like the person next to you. I like the concept though!

[Streck-Fu]

9 L/hr?!

Seriously? That's amazing.

The chief limitation is that I don't have an 8 hour bladder.

[graham_mitchell]

1000 miles with no luggage.

I agree that it's an unlikely mission but for people who want to cross the Atlantic, it's doable (and I believe the builders of this plane did exactly that).

I would prefer more luggage, less gas on board, and a toilet stop every 3 hours.

[E55AMG]

Me no like flying - terrified in a 747 LOL don't think i'd do well in that.

[Airkuhl]

A good friend of mine has been flying a PPG for years, trying to get me into it. Tempting...

ppg_over_clouds.jpg

[graham_mitchell]

A good friend of mine has been flying a PPG for years, trying to get me into it. Tempting...

I can imagine that would be a thrill to try but flying around in circles would be boring to me after a while.

Everyone has a different reason to get into flying. For me, the allure is freedom to travel, on my own schedule, avoiding the major airports and headaches which go along with them, using small grass airfields to get off the beaten path, getting places in 1-2 hours which would take 4-8 hours to drive, etc.

[Airkuhl]

A good friend of mine has been flying a PPG for years, trying to get me into it. Tempting...

I can imagine that would be a thrill to try but flying around in circles would be boring to me after a while.

Everyone has a different reason to get into flying. For me, the allure is freedom to travel, on my own schedule, avoiding the major airports and headaches which go along with them, using small grass airfields to get off the beaten path, getting places in 1-2 hours which would take 4-8 hours to drive, etc.

That's definitely intriguing. I can see how going city to city that could work.

I have a hard time visualizing how that would work in more remote areas though. Drive to the airport and park. Get your plane out of a hanger, load up and do a pre-flight check. Fly 2 hours, land, park, secure plane. Walk with your stuff...I dunno, somewhere....and get some crap rental car. At that point, wouldn't it be almost as quick and more convenient to just drive there in whatever amazing car your heart desires (still probably cheaper than the plane?) Also more freedom for side trips, etc.

Honest questions. I have never flown in a small plane other than sight seeing tours so I have no idea how it works. I do understand the appeal of getting up in there air jsut to be there thus the PPG.

I also understand the appeal of flying to places you simply can't drive, like this:

[bbvideo]

[/bbvideo]

[graham_mitchell]

That's definitely intriguing. I can see how going city to city that could work.

Interesting, I see it the other way around. With city-to-city routes, you have a cheap option in commercial aviation, with easy connections to and from airports. Commercial jets are 2-3x faster than anything I could afford. So flying that route yourself is more expensive and slower and you need to deal with busy/expensive airports (aircraft parking fees, landings fees, etc).

I have a hard time visualizing how that would work in more remote areas though. Drive to the airport and park. Get your plane out of a hanger, load up and do a pre-flight check. Fly 2 hours, land, park, secure plane. Walk with your stuff...I dunno, somewhere....and get some crap rental car. At that point, wouldn't it be almost as quick and more convenient to just drive there in whatever amazing car your heart desires (still probably cheaper than the plane?) Also more freedom for side trips, etc.

Well, the best outcome is if you live in a rural or semi-rural area and you can have your own 1,000 foot grass/dirt strip for flying your own plane (and many people do this). That means that after 10 minutes of pre-flight checks you can be on your way at 200mph towards the destination.

Your point about luggage and connections is valid. Clearly the aircraft in my first post isn't an option for people with lots of luggage (but you can get a 4-seater with room for luggage if that's a priority). Some tiny airports in the US have loaner cars which pilots use to get around for a few hours. Or you can arrange for a taxi to pick you up. Or bring folding bicycles. If you are landing off-airfield then the destination may well be wherever you land, as your video demonstrates.

Yes, you can drive but you can't even compare the difference in choice and range. If you live in Junction, Utah, and have two hours to drive you can get to Virgin, Utah. Or you could fly anywhere in the pink circle in the same time, even in a small plane like the one in the first post of the thread.

[Voith]

2 awesomeF100 Super Sabre birds for sale! If I had some cash laying arround id buy one :D

2 days left..

https://www.proxibid.com/F100-Super-Sab ... n/55962622

https://www.proxibid.com/F100-Super-Sab ... n/55962641

[Streck-Fu]

It's even a two seater so you can die with a friend.

[graham_mitchell]

This is a good example of the kind of flying adventure I'd like to get into. A luxury retreat in the Scottish highlands with its own 650m (2,132 ft) runway. Fly in, use it as your accommodation base for daily adventures visiting small airfields or off-runway landings in the north of Scotland.

[graham_mitchell]

Super interesting design. Single piston engine aircraft. Cruise speed of 460 mph, range of 5,200 miles.

https://www.ottoaviation.com/technology

[Erik N]

Touted as the next wave in commercial aviation. The "Flying V"

[animal8526]

Anyone "in" to aviation, check out FS2020 if you haven't. Not perfect, but amazing.

[graham_mitchell]

Anyone "in" to aviation, check out FS2020 if you haven't. Not perfect, but amazing.

Yes, looks great, though my laptop can't run it an more than a couple of frames per second :)

[fpena944]

2 awesomeF100 Super Sabre birds for sale! If I had some cash laying arround id buy one :D

2 days left..

https://www.proxibid.com/F100-Super-Sab ... n/55962622

https://www.proxibid.com/F100-Super-Sab ... n/55962641

These two look worse than what is in our boneyard in Arizona right now.

How could they sell for $31mm and $64mm respectively?!? And how much would it cost to restore them as they're basically both trashed!

[graham_mitchell]

How could they sell for $31mm and $64mm respectively?!? And how much would it cost to restore them as they're basically both trashed!

I believe that was $31K and $64K not $31m and $64m ;)

[fpena944]

Anyone "in" to aviation, check out FS2020 if you haven't. Not perfect, but amazing.

This is sort of sad but funny but the rendering of downtown Charlotte, NC is circa 1990 within Flight Simulator. So almost all of the buildings in the skyline are missing!

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opini ... 07865.html

Text Snippet

Remember when Charlotte was a confident up-and-comer, a peacock among mid-sized cities, flashing our banking headquarters and our gaudy growth and not caring what anyone thought of us? Yeah, we don’t either.

Underneath Charlotte’s intense civic pride has always been an equally intense worry that we’re not appreciated for all that we are. That insecurity is not an altogether bad thing, but it’s sometimes a less-than-endearing thing. So it is with that in mind that we’d like to calmly ask today:

WTH, Microsoft?

This week, the new Microsoft Flight Simulator was released to some fanfare in the gaming and flying communities. The latest iteration of the popular software allows users to travel the world - including 37,000 airports and 2 million cities - “in amazing detail,” Microsoft says. One of those cities is Charlotte, and the detail the simulator offers of North Carolina’s largest metropolitan area is in fact amazing, but not in the way you might think.

When MFS users fly over the Queen City, they see a Charlotte that appears to be at least a quarter-century old. Among the photos in a Reddit post titled “The New Microsoft Flight Simulator really did Charlotte dirty”:

What happened? According to PC gaming publication “Rock, Paper, Shotgun,” Charlotte was not among the 341 cities that Microsoft Flight Simulator recreated using photogrammetric data from Bing Maps. Included in those 341 cities - which the publication said are “a cut above the rest in terms of photorealistic detail”- are Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Durham. Also, Summerville, SC.

That means when MFS users look down upon our uptown, they see an odd hybrid building/football field instead of the stadium that hosts Charlotte’s National Football League team. They don’t see the corporate headquarters of Bank of America, the second largest bank in the country, or the arena that welcomed the world in 2012 to the Democratic National Conven-

OK, deep breath everyone. No need to let old insecurities bubble up. After all, Charlotte is among the 20 largest cities in the U.S. now. It’s pretty rare these days that we get confused with Charlottesville, Va., and we don’t get lumped in very often with the Richmonds and Knoxvilles, which are very nice smaller cities, from what we hear.

Sure, we didn’t make the first cut for Amazon’s second North American headquarters a couple years back. And it’s true that the Associated Press still puts an “N.C.” after Charlotte on datelines, as if people don’t already know. But that’s OK. We know who we are, and we don’t unironically use the phrase “world-class city” nearly as much anymore. That’s what happens when you’re in the top 20. Two-zero.
Surely, the Flight Simulator rendering of Charlotte, circa 1990, is an honest oversight. We asked Microsoft on Wednesday what happened.

“Microsoft Flight Simulator is a live service and we will continue to update the world over time,” a spokesperson replied.

There you go. A fix is on the way. At some point. No rush. We’re busy hosting another national convention this week, anyway, right? We’ll be here, next in line for our “photorealistic detail.” City No. 342. Or something.

We hear you snickering over there, Raleigh.

[fpena944]

How could they sell for $31mm and $64mm respectively?!? And how much would it cost to restore them as they're basically both trashed!

I believe that was $31K and $64K not $31m and $64m ;)

Oh wow big oops on my part! I saw comma instead of decimal.

Ok in that case then I see the value. I would pay that even to use as yard art!

[Voith]

I wonder how much would it cost to make it airworthy again and actually fly it.

It'd look awesome in this color scheme

[MikeMarkota]

Aviation thread?

Here's a pic of my kitfox :)

[lupo.sk]

[odurandina]

Flying Ace Chuck Yeager is dead at 97.
A great hero of aviation, the young Air Force, and the county.
A record-setting test pilot. In 1947, he became the first pilot in history confirmed to
have broken the sound barrier.

[Johnny Five]

I had the opportunity to fly a Shorts Tucano from the backseat (retired mil pilot in the front) for 30 minutes in 2015. Executed my first snap rolls, pulled 8.5G’s, no problems, finest machine I’ve ever had the pleasure of operating.

Stock photos:

[Johnny Five]

Joe Rogan on flying in a FA18

LOL:

[Johnny Five]

Jungle landing Brazil:

“Is this safe?”

“Well it ain’t getting any safer.”


https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=uX12v_1608574296

[Fox_]

I hate how restrictive ultralights are here in the USA.

Guberment's monopolization of the airways is very draconian.

>You need a license to operate a RC plane.

[ny991]

This is really cool 1/3 scale B-17 that flies!

[graham_mitchell]

Very cool but for that amount of money and effort I would just build a real plane, e.g. a Kitfox or a Sling.