Do you have dreams of flying?, but you don’t have what it takes to become certified pilot,
today we are going to look at 8 airplanes you can legally fly without a license and
can be purchased brand new, less than the cost of a Toyota car, these aircraft are classified
under the US F.A.R PART 103 ultra-light category, meaning they can’t weigh more than 254lbs,
have a maximum fuel capacity of 5 US gallons, have a top speed of 63 mph, have a power off
stall speed of 27 mph or less, used only for recreational or sports flying.
And the pilot must be the sole occupant.
Welcome to this episode of Dwayne’s aviation.
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Number 1: Quicksilver MX 103: The quicksilver, was first introduced as a weight hang glider,
later evolved to a line of single-engine high wing ultralight aircraft and has been in production
since the late '70s.
The single-seat Quicksilver MX does not only comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight rules,
but was in fact, the aircraft around which the rules were developed.
The Quicksilver was the most popular ultralight aircraft design when the regulations were
first drafted in the early 1980s.
It was first introduced as a hang glider and was different from most hang gliders of that
time.
At that time, the majority of hang gliders were simple Rogallo wing-type hang gliders.
The earliest powered version, the Quicksilver C, was created as a self-launching hang glider,
designed to allow pilots who lived in the flatlands to be able to self-launch without
a hill.
Eipper later added a seat, wheels, and a small engine behind the wing of the hang glider,
and the Quicksilver ultralight was born.
This aircraft was controlled by pushing a bar forwards and backward, and side to side,
in the same way hang gliders are controlled.
This shifted the center of gravity of the aircraft and allowed the pilot to control
the plane.
Many pilots wanted an aircraft that was controlled with a stick and rudder, similar to the way
"typical" light airplanes are controlled, so Eipper added rudder and elevator control
surfaces to the Quicksilver ultralight, giving it two axes of control.
This aircraft was called the Quicksilver MX.
The high dihedral of the wings caused the plane to bank when the aircraft was turned
with the rudder, but there were no direct means of controlling the roll axis of the
airplane, the aircraft only rolled in response to the yaw axis.
Pilots still wanted a true three-axis control ultralight, so Eipper added spoilerons.
The spoilerons were only minimally effective, providing only a minimal amount of control
over the roll axis.
The next generation of MX had true ailerons which gave the aircraft full roll authority.
The design later evolved into an ultralight aircraft for powered cross-country flying.
You can comfortably cruise 50mph in this aircraft and fly over 100miles and climb over 800ft
per minute.
It cost $10000 to get one of these.
Even though a pilot license is not required, for your safety, training is highly recommended.
2.
Volocopter 2X: Introduced in 2013, The Volocopter 2X is a German multirotor electric helicopter.
The personal air vehicle was designed and produced by Volocopter, sold as complete and
ready-to-fly aircraft.
This helicopter is designed to be employed in air taxi service in urban areas, built
to ferry only one passenger at a time over the congestion, overcrowding, and road closures
below.
But instead of facilitating high-volume air travel between cities like an airport, Volocopter
wants to focus on local point-to-point travel.
The controls operate through a mesh polymer fiber optic network fly-by-light system, which
is one of the newest technologies in the aviation industry.
The best thing is that, the volocopter is extremely safe because it features multiple
redundancy systems, making it completely immune to a single point failure.
The redundant systems include rotors, avionics, and display, electric motors, batteries, GPS,
and navigation systems.
Worst comes to worst, there’s a ballistic parachute that will deploy, letting the air
taxi return to the ground with its passengers intact.
This helicopter cruises at 50mph, climbs at 590ft per minute as high as 6000ft with a
range of 17miles.
Even though a pilot license is not required, for your safety, training is highly recommended
to fly an ultralight.
Number 3.
Ison Airbike: The single-seat Airbike was introduced in 1994, I own this aircraft myself,
and this review is from my personal experience.
The Airbike was my first build and still one of my favorite little airplanes.
Standard features include an open cockpit, removable wings, steerable tail wheel, 4-point
safety harness, fuel tank, factory welded fuselage, and tail.
Options include various engines, folding wings brakes, wheel pants, wingtips bucket seat,
extra fuel, plus various quick build and assembly packages.
Ground handling is docile but with a pretty good turn radius.
Rudder pedals require moderate pressure and are positioned very well considering the lack
of structure around them.
Although the Airbike takes some time to accelerate you, it doesn't take much to get airborne,
in this aircraft, you can comfortably cruise at 50 mph, climb at 1000 ft /min, with a range
of 150 miles.
You can build this aircraft yourself with as little as $9000. even though a pilot license
is not required, make sure you have sufficient training before attempting to fly any of these.
4.
Aerolite 103: The Aerolite 103 is one of the best ultralight aircraft in the market, a
professional built ready to fly aircraft, with a pusher configuration, high wind, you
can assembly it yourself in less than 50 hours.
This airplane has been in the market for over 20 years and production of the aircraft ended
in 2005 when the manufacturer went out of business.
it was sold as an assembly kit aircraft.
The kit includes fuselage, wings, control surfaces, jury struts, and struts.
The kit doesn't include power plant, propeller, or instruments.
Recently, the production rights of the Aerolite were purchased by U-fly-lt of Deland Florida,
where the aircraft is now built and sold as a ready to fly ultralight aircraft.
You don't get fancy avionics in this kind of plane, it's only equipped with a rotor
paddle, a control yoke, electric flaps, a steerable nose wheel, and a left-hand throttle
which is okay for you to navigate around under the visual flight rule.
The standard recommended engine is the Rotax 447, with the 46 hp Rotax 503 engine optional.
In this aircraft, you can cruise 55 mph, over 100miles, and climb over 800ft per minute.
As an ultralight vehicle, no license is required to fly it, but training is highly recommended.
The company estimated that the time to complete this aircraft is 60 to 80 hours.
The price for a completely assembled ready to fly aerolite 103 is $20,000, but you can
get a used model for less than $10,000.
Number 5.
The hummel ultracruiser: The ultracruiser is a cantilever low-wing
aircraft, a single-seat open, or optionally enclosed cockpit, with fixed conventional
landing gear also known as a taildragger, or optionally tricycle landing gear and a
single-engine in tractor configuration.
It was first introduced in 1998, and is designed for first-time kit builders, as well as first
time pilot.
The ultracruiser is easy to build and even easier to fly aircraft.
It comes in two models; the ultracruiser and the ultracruiser plus, and is the only old
metal ultralight aircraft.
The best thing about ultracruiser is the attention to detail design, it's very good looking and
impressive.
You can cruise for 60mph in this aircraft and it can only stall at 20mph meaning you
can extremely slow which makes it perfect for a sightseeing flight.
The ultracruiser features standard three-axis controls with the centrally mounted stick
in the left-hand throttle and rotor paddles.
The cabin width is 23.5inch wide and it's equipped with a windshield for wind and pilot
protection, and it can be fitted with an enclosure for colder weather flying.
The ultracruiser is powered by 38 hp VW four-stroke engine, with a good climb rate of 1000ft per
minute and cruise speed of 60mph.
The price of a new ultracruiser kit costs $14500, the Rotax engine costs $3400, and
extra runs well over $1500, so for $20,000 you can buy one already built.
Even though a piolt license is required to fly this airplane, training is highly recommended.
Number 6.
flynano nano; The FlyNano Nano is a Finnish single-seat amphibian ultralight electric
aircraft introduced in 2011.
This aircraft is half jetski and half-plane.
The fly nano combines marine and aviation technology to create a lightweight plane that
only weighs 70kg, though a pilot license is not required to fly the aircraft, however
it is not for beginners becuase flying experience is recommended before attempting to fly the
seaplane.
The aircraft is only supplied as a complete ready to fly aircraft meaning you don't get
the option to build your own.
The electric power engine makes it extremely quiet, cheap to run and maintain, it is made
from carbon fiber which makes it extremely light and strong.
The good thing about this airplane is that the aircraft wing can be removed for storage
or ground transportation, so if you live close to a lake and love flying around on your day
off, this airplane is for you.
It features a joined wing box wing, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, a hull
for water operations, a single electric engine in tractor configuration mounted above the
cockpit.
This aircraft can fly incredible fast compared to others in this category, as high as 9000ft,
the down side of this airplane is the cost, to get a brand new of this plane will cost
you $90,000, so if you love traveling fast and quiet in an ultralight aircraft, this
airplane is for you.
Number 7: Ultraflight Lazair: unlike other aircraft in the list, this one is a twin-engine.
The UltraFlight Lazair is a family-owned and designed in Canada and was sold in kit form
between 1979 and 1984, designed by Dale Kramer.
Dale Kramer saw the potential of the ultralight aircraft when he visited the Oshkosh EAA convention
in 1977.
As an ultralight aircraft, designed for low flying speeds, the fuselage comprises an open
frame of aluminum tube supporting the open cockpit, tricycle undercarriage, and inverted-V
tail.
Its longevity is a testimony to its design and workmanship.
It is powered by two 9 hp Rotax 185 engines, mounted on the wing in the tractor configuration
like a conventional twin-engine aircraft.
The aircraft optimize for low-speed handling and very gentle stall characteristics.
The high aspect ratio wing also made the Lazair a good glider, giving it a 12:1 glide ratio.
The first of the series was equipped with the control stick mount above the upper fuselage
structure through a control mixing assembly.
The control stick input coordinates your input into the rotor veins hence it has no rotor
pedals due to customers' demands, series 2 included rotor pedals, series 3 saw a change
to the landing gears, as they were widened for better ground handling and jury struts
was installed to increase the negative G loading.
The early series came with 5.5hp chainsaw engines, these were soon upgraded to Rotax
185 9.5hp engines, to accommodate better performance on flight.
This airplane cruise at 40mph over 100miles and climb 200ft per minute.
The best thing about this aircraft is the stall speed.
In this aircraft, you can only stall at 17mph, and fly high as 11000ft.
You can get one of the earliest models as low as $5000.
As much as a pilot license is not required, training is highly recommended.
Number 8 Kolb Firefly: developed several years ago as a true-blue entry to the PART 103 ultralights
category.
This is the only model that comes standard with the ballistic recovery system parachute,
making it marginally safer than others in the list.
It features an open cockpit, single-seat, high wing, pusher configuration, and conventional
landing gear, produced in kit form by New Kolb Aircraft and intended for amateur construction.
Since its introduction in 1995, the ultralight is powered by the heavily 40 hp Rotax 447
engine.
The 28 hp Rotax 277 engine was also an option when the aircraft was first offered.
The factory kit options include a complete cockpit enclosure, brakes, Ballistic Recovery
Systems parachute, and steel tube powder coating.
The best thing about this aircraft is the wings can easily be folded so you can store
it in your garage at home.
You can comfortably cruise at 60mph in this aircraft and climb at 1000ft per minute.
The price of a brand new kolb firefly is $9000.
Training is highly recommended to take the firefly into the air, even though a pilot
license is not required.
9.
Innovator Mosquito Air: Introduced by innovator technologies of Canada, and supplied as a
kit for amateur construction.
The Mosquito Air was specifically designed to be simple, but intelligent and reliable,
and also comply with the U.S F.A.R.
PART 103 Ultra-light category rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254
lbs.
The mosquito air is powered by a 2-cycle 64hp air-cooled piston engine, featuring a single
main rotor and tail rotor, a single-seat open cockpit without a windshield, skid landing
gear.
The best thing is that, the Mosquito offers an advantageous power-to-weight ratio, a compact
size and is easy maneuverability, allowing the user to fly as close to home as possible.
It cruises at 60mph, climbs at 790ft per minute, with a range of 70miles, making it perfect
for sightseeing flights around your community.
This is a true helicopter in every sense of the word, despite its very basic design.
The open design means that the pilot is in maximum contact with the air, which is often
reported to be a great experience.
The entire kit for the Mosquito can be purchased for US$20,000.
Building the kits will take you about 200 to 300 hours or you can have the plane built
for you for a flat US$4000.
Getting airborne for under US$20,000 in your own new helicopter is quite a feat – we’re
not aware of any other helicopter in this price category and on top of that, it offers
very low maintenance and operating costs.
Number 10: Phantom x1: the phantom X1 was introduced in 1982 as a
single-engined, tractor configuration, single-seat, high wing tricycle gear-equipped ultralight
aircraft that is produced by Phantom Aeronautics of Three Rivers, Michigan, and available in
kit form.
The X1 was originally designed as an aerobatic aircraft and was tested to +9/-6.6 g before
failure and carries operational limits of +6.6/-4.4 g.
The full-span ailerons also give the X1 a fast roll-rate.
Factory options included brakes and a complete airframe parachute along with a variety of
Rotax engines from 40 to 64 hp and you can assemble the aircraft yourself in barely 40
hours.
The best part is that phantom aircraft company can sell you this aircraft for under $10,000.
This modest amount of money will actually buy all the bits and pieces you need to get
airborne engine and prop included.
Naturally, if you want extra features like fuel enclosure or other choices from a long
list of options, you will end up paying a little more.
This aircraft uses a 40hp Rotax 477 engine, which helps it to cruise at 55mph and climb
at 800ft per minute range of over 100miles, even though a pilot license is not required,
make sure you have sufficient training before attempting to fly any of these.
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