Author Archive

To prevent a mass panic, England’s prime minister kept top secret a close encounter between a World War II pilot and an unexplained flying object, newly unclassified documents reveal. Former Prime Minister Winston Churchill said the unexplained incident should be kept secret for 50 years, fearing it would provoke a “mass panic.” The claim was discovered in files...
Read more »

n RCMP member investigates the scene of an accident involving a fan propelled parachute aircraft during during the 2010 Threshermen’s Reunion in Austin, Man. on Sunday afternoon. The pilot of the plane was taken to hospital with minor injuries. The crash of an ultralight parachute aircraft in Austin was caused by lost lift in a...
Read more »

THE online Ultralight Magazine. This site gets 13000 to 33000 page views a month, depending on the work you put into it. Over 124,000 page views in just 7 months. It is a top site for MANY keywords related to ultralight flying in all the search engines. It comes...
Read more »

The YouTube clips says:  “In this Lesson taken days ago my Instructor teach how to approach the Airstrip in 4 differents ways, enjoy it and comment if you want”.  Make any comments on the original post at YouTube. Here’s another pretty good video! “Flight from Santa Paula Airport to Ojai and Ventura on...
Read more »

A small float plane crashed into suburban Vancouver’s Pitt Lake on Monday, but the pilot walked away without a scratch. Pilot Jean-Claude Carrara of North Vancouver was the only person on board when his ultralight float plane lost power on approach to the lake. “Within 50 feet of the water, my engine just quit,” Carrara told...
Read more »

Matthieu de Quillacq told us Monday at Oshkosh that he is “a lucky man” and not because he survived his trip to Oshkosh from the south of France in his Italian-made Kompress CH-7 very light helicopter. Long before the weeklong trip that brought Quillacq to AirVenture Oshkosh 2010, Quillacq won a timed point-to-point navigation...
Read more »

Oshkosh, WI – The Experimental Aircraft Association is offering a $60,000 prize to the individual or corporation that can demonstrate the most promising level of achievement in E-Flight at AirVenture 2011. The prize has been made possible by equal contributions from AeroLEDs, Aircraft Spruce & Specialty, Dynon Avionics, and Wicks Aircraft Supply. “The four companies...
Read more »

Now you can get in the air, in a Belite ultralight under FAA Part 103 regulations, for $28,655. The aircraft weighs just 254 pounds, and is powered by a 50-hp Hirth engine. The Belite Superlite aircraft was named the 2010 Grand Champion Ultralight at Sun ‘n Fun earlier this year. The standard Superlite has upgraded features including...
Read more »

The Experimental Aircraft Association announced today that pilot and EAA member Rod Hightower will succeed Tom Poberezny as the organization’s president. Hightower was introduced by Poberezny, during his opening day remarks. Poberezny will remain as EAA chairman and chairman of the annual AirVenture convention. Hightower, a Missouri native, has a distinguished career in business leadership. His...
Read more »

The first flight of a homebuilt RV9a aircraft – built by Bill Letcher. He shares his reflections on the build.. and video of the flight.
Read more »

Experimental Plane Crash Claims Two in Western PATwo men from Western Pennsylvania are dead following the crash of their experimental aircraft on Saturday. According to Holly Baker, spokeswoman of the Federal Aviation Administration, the aircraft came down late Saturday morning around 11:20 am. The downed plane was found in the woods southeast of Franklin/Venango...
Read more »

MOUNT PLEASANT — A single-engine experimental aircraft appeared wobbly and unstable landing on the runway at Cooper Regional Airport and then headed nearly straight up into the air before flipping upside down and crashing July 19, according to a preliminary report released by the NTSB. The National Transportation and Safety Board report says Rabe was...
Read more »

Two adventurers are heading off across the state of Oregon, and perhaps beyond, in two lawn chairs and a bunch of balloons. It’s happening right now. Track them live! http://www.couchballoons.com/googlemap MachNoneFLying reporter Danlives in bend and caught this video of the launch in the early morning sun.
Read more »

Sikorsky Aircraft Co. in Stratford says it will unveil Firefly — the company’s first prototype electric helicopter — on Monday at the AirVenture exhibition in Oshkosh, Wis. The Sikorsky Innovations team on Project Firefly removed the propulsion system from an S-300C helicopter and replaced it with a high-efficiency, electric motor and...
Read more »

Experimental Glider Flies Like a Plane, Lands Like a Bird // Though the wing-flapping contraptions of early human flight haven’t quite caught on, researchers think birds may still have something to teach us about navigating the air: how to land.  MIT researchers have made a system that can...
Read more »

The Saturday morning flight went smoothly until we “hit the wall” over Lake Tonle Sap and, as pilot Eddie “Moto Hawk” Smith said, “It all turned to shit”. Indeed it was a white knuckle moment, but in retrospect the turbulence and buffeting caused by a sudden change in air temperature wasn’t all that...
Read more »

A North Vancouver homeowner says he’s glad a paraglider who crash-landed on his roof only suffered a broken leg and sore back. “I was taking a nap, felt the house shaking and heard a bang,” homeowner Mike Glendenning told Metro Vancouver. “I thought it was an earthquake tremor at first. Then...
Read more »

Zephyr, QinetiQ’s solar-powered, high-altitude long-endurance (HALE), Unmanned Air System (UAS) is currently in the air and setting a landmark unmanned flight duration record by demonstrating what is essentially perpetual flight. The official world record for the longest unmanned flight is 30 hours 24 minutes set by Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4A Global Hawk in 2001. A...
Read more »

SHANGHAI — In 1909, the first recorded flight in China was made by a French pilot, René Vallon, in Shanghai. Now this city has come to the fore as an aviation center again, as host to two ventures at opposite ends of the aircraft industry spectrum. In 2008, the Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China, or...
Read more »

It’s half sitting on a cloud and half magic carpet ride. It’s 100 percent good time. For those who have never experienced riding in a powered parachute, it’s almost impossible to accurately describe the feeling of floating effortlessly through the air 1,000 feet above the ground. People around the nation have turned this experience into their hobby...
Read more »

Solar powered planes have been works in progress since the 1970’s. Since then, several prototypes and experimental planes have successfully flown using solar power. NASA has created several solar planes including Pathfinder, Centurion and Helios planes dating back to the early 1980’s.(1) As solar energy conversion technology improves, the capacity of this technology allows longer flights...
Read more »

Authorities have alleged that Colton Harris-Moore — the so-called “Barefoot Bandit” who was arrested Sunday and extradited back to the U.S. on Tuesday — is responsible not only for hundreds of burglaries, but also the theft of several airplanes. Harris-Moore is suspected in the theft of at least five airplanes in Washington state and elsewhere...
Read more »

FAIRBANKS — What’s the difference between being mentally unstable and just plain stupid? If you’re mentally unstable, you get strapped to a backboard and flown off Mount McKinley in an Army helicopter. The National Park Service might even hand you a bill for thousands of dollars for the rescue. You might even get a ticket for...
Read more »

EMC News – From the road, The Rideau Lakes Airfield is virtually invisible, tucked away behind a wall of trees and down a narrow laneway. In fact, if not for the periodic drone of small aircraft overhead, visitors to Westport may not even be aware of its existence. Created in the mid-1970’s by local aviation...
Read more »

Andre Borschberg, the pilot of an experimental aircraft which made history with the first round the clock solar-powered flight counted on a high-tech jacket, yoga and an uncomfortable seat to stop him nodding off. “Andre is not allowed to sleep at all,” Solar Impulse president Bertrand Piccard quipped as his 57 year-old pilot and chief executive...
Read more »

When staff at the Island Market on Orcas Island gleefully announced over the loudspeaker Sunday morning that Colton Harris-Moore had been caught in the Bahamas, a cheer erupted across the grocery. Scott Lancaster, who owns a nearby Ace Hardware store, said he was among those whooping it up. Lancaster’s shop, as well as the grocery, was...
Read more »

A Sorrento man trying out his motorized paraglider was injured when he crashed near a DeBary ballpark Thursday night, according to a police report. Thomas Evers was injured when the paraglider crashed after he took off from Sullivan Park on Highbanks Road around 7:30PM. Evers crashed into the woods surrounding the park and injured his...
Read more »

And now for a twist on an outdoor adventure tale out of Alaska: A 25-year-old Pennsylvania man who planned to paraglide off Denali was taken off the mountain by authorities who worried the man was ill-prepared and suffering from altitude sickness. The man, who was not identified, was speaking incoherently at times and showed...
Read more »

From DIYDrones.com “Here is a project I’ve been working with for several days, and after 2 bluetooth modules and a Corona 2.4ghz exploded, I finally get the connection between my smartphone and a microchip pic plugged with a bluetooth module. As my Corona transmitter died I used my Spektrum DX6i as transmitter via the trainer port. The video...
Read more »

PARIS — Slender as a stick insect, a solar-powered experimental airplane with a huge wing span completed its first test flight of more than 24 hours on Thursday, powered overnight by energy collected from the sun during a day aloft over Switzerland. The organizers said the flight was the longest and highest by a piloted...
Read more »

HE MAY never paraglide again, but Peter Scott is relishing simple activities after being bedridden for two months. The Devonport resident has been recuperating in hospital after paragliding off North Head and crashing on Cheltenham Beach, breaking two vertebrae. “I left my house on February 28 at 10am to go and watch the tsunami come in...
Read more »

GENEVA — An experimental solar-powered plane took off from western Switzerland on Wednesday for a 24-hour test flight – a key step in a historic effort to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun. The plane with its 262.5-foot (80-meter) wingspan left Payerne airfield shortly before 7 a.m. after overcoming...
Read more »

Some beautiful music and footage of PPCs flying in the state of Oregon. It doesn’t get prettier than this. THIS is why we fly.
Read more »

Later this year, Felix Baumgartner will put on a pressurized space suit and helmet, climb into a capsule suspended beneath a balloon, ride 120,000 feet into the earth’s upper atmosphere, then jump out and – before deploying his parachute – try to break the speed of sound while in freefall. That’s the plan, at...
Read more »

Bend Oregon Lawn Chair Balloonist Kent Couch, documents one of this three trips across Oregon, in a lawn chair lifted by over 100 helium filled balloons. He’s now planning another trip for next month. “Why not one more, so I have to ask my wife, ‘Please honey, one more, maybe, please.’ She said, ‘All right this...
Read more »

We last checked in with Jetman Yves Rossy late last year when his attempt to complete the first intercontinental jetpack flight from Morocco to Spain unfortunately fell short. However, that setback hasn’t deterred Rossy, who has spent the time since developing and testing a fast extracting pyrotechnic parachute and a lighter and more powerful...
Read more »

The sleek, beautifully engineered RV-7 is the most popular kit plane in the world — and Ashland building contractor Robert Peyton wanted to make sure he assembled his meticulously. The $15,000 kit took eight years of work, and on Friday morning at the Medford airport, Peyton, a longtime aircraft mechanic, smiled as test-pilot instructor Robert...
Read more »

Solar Impulse aircraft first night flight attempt postponed Payerne, Switzerland – A new one will be foreseen as soon as possible (WAPA) – This morning at 06h45, the Solar Impulse Mission Team had to take the difficult decision to postpone the first night flight attempt for the airplane powered by solar energy. The problem...
Read more »

MOSUL, Iraq – The risk-averse will tell you that it takes a special sort of foolishness to jump from a mountain with just a paraglider strapped to your back. So what, then, does that make the members of the Falcon Club, an Iraqi group of daredevils who sail through the air above Mosul, which is...
Read more »

The aim The aim of the Eco-marathon Ulm is to inspire young designers and engineers from around the world to develop new approaches of sustainable mobility in microlight aircraft activity. It is a major educational project, in which students work together to explore potential solutions to both current and future transport and energy challenges. It...
Read more »

An experimental aircraft, Solar Impulse, is set to take off from a Swiss airbase in the first attempt to fly around the clock fuelled by nothing but the energy of the sun. Solar Impulse is aiming for the aviator’s dream of “perpetual flight” and to prove a point by flying through the night, says the...
Read more »

BRAINERD, Minn. – A Brainerd man was sentenced Monday for flying and crashing an ultralight plane into Gull Lake last June while under the influence. 44-year-old Jonathan Kurilla crashed the plane into the lake on June 20th, 2009 and was sentenced Tuesday to one year in jail and a 3 thousand dollar fine. He was...
Read more »

Enderby RCMP responded to a plane crash in the Deep Creek area Saturday afternoon that resulted in the death of a West Kelowna man. Glenn Ashton, 47, had just taken off from a field near Mallory Road when his ultralight airplane appeared to stall before nose-diving into the ground. “He had gone up to demonstrate the...
Read more »

The Transition was designed as a “light sport” aircraft, the smallest kind of private aeroplane under FAA classification, with a maximum weight of 1,320lb. But the manufacturers found it impossible to fit the safety features – airbags, crumple zones and roll cage, for instance – that are required for road vehicles into that weight. Uniquely,...
Read more »

Jon Wenzel wanted a plane all his life, and he finally got one in 2003 — an ultralight aircraft that he flew as often as he could. On June 23, the craft crashed northeast of Fort Lupton, and Wenzel died. He was 86. “He loved to fly and flew every chance he got,” said his daughter,...
Read more »

An 80-year-old man was seriously injured Monday morning when the ultralight aircraft he was piloting crashed near the 4400 block of Middle Valley Road in Camp Verde. Yavapai County Sheriff’s deputies who responded to the call said Robert Worgull of Camp Verde piloted a “homebuilt” type, “Hornet” ultralight airplane. A witness told deputies he heard a...
Read more »

Tim Loehrke, USA TODAY A couple years ago, we told you the story of a Los Angeles man who quit his career to as a rocket engineer to pursue a dream: to create a flying motorcycle. As dreams go, this was no small order. He’s working pretty much alone in the garage of a surburban home...
Read more »

“Those magnificent men in their flying machines. They go up, tiddly, up, up. They go down, tiddly, down, down. They enchant all the ladies and steal all the scenes.” — Lyrics by Ron Goodwin The machine looks simple: a go-kart-type frame, propeller and engine on the back and a colorful parachute. The word “contraption” comes to mind....
Read more »

A Sunday night plane crash killed a Carmi man at Carmi Municipal Airport. Carmi Police Chief Randy Hamblin identified the man as Paul E. Drone, 62. Drone was a well-known Carmi businessman who operated Carmi Lumber with his brother, Don. A complete obituary appears on the back page of today’s issue. Hamblin said a 911 call came...
Read more »

CHASSAHOWITZKA — There’s been a baby boom in the whooping crane population as a record number of the re-established birds have hatched in the wild in Wisconsin this spring. Seven whooping crane chicks have hatched in the area of the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in recent weeks. That is more than the total number of...
Read more »

A 66-year-old Bennett Valley pilot and his passenger were killed Thursday in a plane crash near the Truckee Tahoe Airport. Raymond Rotge, a retired commercial pilot and member of a Sonoma County small-aircraft club, was at the controls of his two-seater when it went down. Mack Johnston, 71, of Chewelah, Wash., also died died when...
Read more »

A solar-powered plane is getting ready to hit the skies once again – this time, at night. It will be the first ever manned night flight on a plane propelled exclusively by solar energy. Solar Impulse will lift off from an airfield in Switzerland, on a sunny day sometime at the end of June. It will then...
Read more »

LINCOLN, CA – Two people were killed when their plane crashed into the ground at Lincoln Regional Airport just after 8 p.m. Monday, according to an FAA spokesman. A pilot and one passenger were aboard the ultralight, single-engine experimental Rans Coyotte aircraft when it lost control and crashed just east of the tarmac at...
Read more »

A Ballwin, Mo. man was killed Sunday morning after his paraglider struck a pickup truck traveling down a road near Columbia. Andrey Azarskova, 40, was attempting to take off from a field east of Ramsey Road in his power paraglider just before 11 a.m. Sunday when he lost control of the paraglider. The...
Read more »

A World War II-era biplane flying into Reagan National Airport to promote a film premiere flipped over Tuesday during its landing, temporarily closing the airport’s main runway. No one was injured. Check out this in cockpit video:
Read more »

COLLINSVILLE, OK — The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on a plane crash that killed a Broken Arrow man and his mother. Kevin Covell, 44, and his mother, 84-year-old Charlotte Covell, died on May 29th when their small, experimental aircraft went down in a field near the Airman Acres airstrip. 5/31/2010 Related story:  Obituaries Provide New...
Read more »

SONOYTA, Mexico – Several times a week, drug smugglers somewhere along Mexico’s border with the United States strap themselves into low-flying ultralight aircraft and take off with loads of marijuana. They usually fly at night with no lights and often, they’re guided only by the dim screen of a handheld satellite navigation tool, looking for...
Read more »

gas turbine turboprop ultralight part 103 flies about 10 minutes around river valley over golf course and lands. Turbine flight #53
Read more »

Nicolas Hulot; Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico; 2002 CNBC (english-dubbed) broadcast of syndicated French travel-adventure TV program, “Ushuaia” (1997); While he’s allegedly an aviation expert, Hulot demonstrates poor judgement, as he relentlessly tugs the helium-vent cord to lose altitude, then must subsequently drop fuel and weights to keep from smashing into a pyramid. Wait until you see the reason...
Read more »

Rookie flyer Roy Dixon has made a remarkable recovery after crashing the £300 paraglider he bought on eBay. Roy broke his back in two places after the doomed maiden voyage, which he attempted after watching video clips on the Youtube website. The 45-year-old admits he got “half way” through a book of instructions before taking to...
Read more »

Thompson High School graduate Frankie Fuller was celebrating his graduation in Panama City Beach, Fla., June 4, when three of his toes were severed in a freak accident with a paraglider. Joni Fuller, Frankie’s mother, said her son was on the beach with some friends at approximately 2:30 p.m. when a man with a gas-powered paraglider began to...
Read more »

EL CAJON — In the sky over El Cajon on Sunday, a C-53 Skytrooper that once dropped soldiers behind enemy lines on D-Day released a team of parachutists onto Gillespie Field, as re-enactors restaged a World War II battle between U.S. and German troops. The battles and parachute drops were all part of the two-day Wings...
Read more »

The Sacramento Mountains that skirt the eastern edge of Alamogordo’s city limits provide a perfect setting for people who want to escape life’s stressors. It’s a place where Tularosa Basin residents and visitors enjoy hiking, camping and sightseeing adventures. Don Davies prefers to take a running leap off those mountains. “This is the highest I’ve ever...
Read more »

Autogyro / Gyrocopter Emergency landing on video Engine Out, Emergency Landing of a gyroplane ( gyrocopter / autogyro ) in a cow pasture. This is the only known video footage of an engine out captured Air-to-Air. Greg Spicola captured what is believed to be the only existing Air-To-Air footage of a gyro engine out event. Greg...
Read more »

A grandfather-of-two was left trapped on a tiny cliff ledge for 14 hours with a broken shoulder, elbow and foot after his tandem paraglider pilot crashed into the side of a mountain. Roger Parker, 70, was in agony and petrified that he would die as he lay on a ledge over a 300ft drop surrounded...
Read more »

Ultralight Powered Parachute cross country flight. Take off from farm field landing in a small parking lot for a quick lunch break before flying home. Beautiful skies, fields, mountains and aerial video of parachutes in flight. We had our quarterly “barf” gathering, at Port Mansfield, Texas. And here it show the nice things that...
Read more »

A man who crashed his ultralight plane into a Sherburne County lake was arrested on suspicion of flying while intoxicated. Neither the pilot nor his passenger was injured after crashing Monday into Elk Lake. The pilot and his adult passenger were pulled from the water by a boater on the lake, said Sheriff Joel Brott. As...
Read more »

The Transportation Safety Board has conducted a cursory investigation of Sunday night’s ultralight aircraft crash and will not visit the crash site. Don Enns, regional manager of the board’s Ontario office, said an investigator gathered information from the pilot by phone. “Essentially there isn’t going to be anything more in-depth,” now that the pilot has been...
Read more »

Ultralight Aircraft Fly Inn at OAK.. Bergen, Norway. A few Sport Pilot planes, a slick autogyro, STOL, and a nice homey feel.
Read more »

RAPIDAN — Witnesses said a well-known Mankato businessman was able to get up and walk away from his powered parachute after it crashed near the Dam Store Cafe at about 11 a.m. Monday. Curt Fisher, 61, owner of Coldwell Banker Comercial Fisher Group, was taken to Immanuel St. Joseph’s Hospital by ambulance after the crash....
Read more »

TULSA COUNTY — The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has confirmed that there are two fatalities in a small, private plane crash near Collinsville. The plane came down near the 12600 block of North 75th East Avenue at about 10 a.m. Saturday. Officials on the scene said the plane took off from Airman Acres, a private landing strip, then had...
Read more »

CHESTER — At 11:03 a.m. Saturday, eight-year volunteer firefighter Josh Powley was asleep in his Tinicum home when a call came over his radio. “Aircraft down and rescue with two victims in the water,” it said. He jumped up and raced down to the Tinicum Township Fire Co. station. He then boarded a boat docked at...
Read more »

BAE Systems has partnered with luxury transport design consultancy firm Design Q to develop an “Air Deck” viewing platform concept for BAE’s Avro Business Jet (ABJ). Aimed at jet setters that like heading off the beaten flight path, the Air Deck transforms the rear of the aircraft into an extended living space by way...
Read more »

Stephan Boutenko, Alternair President and founder, seeks a Light Sport Aircraft alternative, an airplane looking like an LSA, but loaded with features that will allow it to keep pace with the rapidly changing options coming to electric flight. Inspired by Yuneec’s E-430 but disappointed by its slow cruising speed, Boutenko was determined to create something more in...
Read more »

A novice pilot – who had no training – broke his back in a terrifying crash after tethering his paraglider to a car and taking to the skies. Roy Dixon had no experience of the dangerous pastime when he bought the paraglider for £300 from the auction website eBay. The 45-year-old thrill-seeker admits he was only...
Read more »

Adrenaline junkie Martin Cairns is lucky to be alive after plummeting 400ft in a paragliding accident. The 33-year-old said he feared the worst as he spiralled towards the ground. He struggled to regain control of the glider, crash landing in Herrington Country Park. Martin, of Downhill, said: “I was about 400ft up and it was quite windy...
Read more »

Two-and-a-half years ago when I was in Iraq, I remember — among the sound of mortars, crackling gunfire, thundering helicopters, roaring jets, and the occasional (thankfully distant) IED explosions — the somewhat-comforting sound of the remotely piloted little reconnaissance airplanes we’ve come to know as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). Comforting, I say, because I knew...
Read more »