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 a recovery parachute and sells for $40,066. Belite aircraft models are all designed to provide recreational flyers with economically priced, easy to build and operate aircraft that make flying affordable and accessible.

In order to remain with FAR Part 103 parameters, the 50-hp engine is limited to approximately 38 hp to ensure that ultralight cruise speed limitation of 62 mph is not exceeded.

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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 career spans more than 25 years of business management for manufacturing and industrial companies. He has led both U.S. and international operations with as many as 2,300 employees and annual revenues of as much as $470 million, according to an EAA press release.

The organization said Hightower is also a vintage aircraft enthusiast, having restored his own Stearman biplane, which he flies out of Creve Coeur, Missouri. He is a director of the National Stearman Foundation and has helped organize the annual Stearman National Fly-in. His duties as EAA president will begin September 7 and include the day-to-day operations as well as direction of EAA programs and strategy. He is only the third president in EAA history and the first outside the Poberezny family.

As chairman, Poberezny will use his experience and background to foster EAA’s business relationships, philanthropy and the organization’s endowment, according to the EAA press release.

“This is a very exciting time for EAA and general aviation,” said Hightower, who is attending this week’s EAA AirVenture with his wife, Maura, and their five children. “I’m honored to be selected as the next leader of such a passionate group of aviation enthusiasts as EAA members. I’ve been a part of the organization for more than 20 years. There is much work ahead, but I am eager to start.”

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Created in the mid-1970’s by local aviation enthusiasts, Bill MacLean and Mendel McEwen, the airfield is host today to 25-30 members of the Rideau Lakes Flying Club and receives its fair share of traffic. The Airfield is also listed in the Canadian Flight Supplement (CFS), a thick book which contains listings for all the airports across Canada, while providing documentation so pilots can locate them.

Besides bi-weekly social evenings for club members, the club also hosts an annual fly-in breakfast the last Sunday in May, where pilots from other areas take advantage of the excuse to go flying and drop in for a bite to eat.

Ted Theelen, a veteran pilot of 22 years and president of the Rideau Lakes Flying Club, was pleased with this year’s turnout, which brought in 40 aircraft from around the region. “We had aircraft come in this year from all over, the furthest away were from Hawkesbury, Cornwall, Oshawa, London…quite a piece away,” Theelen said, “It’s just an excuse to go flying.”

By far, the biggest job for club members at the airfield is mowing the 3,000 foot long runway, which is a full day’s work. Theelen remembers when the mowing was a little easier.

“A number of years back, the Ministry of Natural Resources was doing gypsy moth spraying, and the ministry came in and did a bunch of work, put down gravel, and extended the airfield, and we benefited from that,” Theelen explained, “Now we’re trying to let it grow over to grass…we want grass so we don’t get stone chips in our props.”

The Rideau Lakes Airfield is predominantly used by cottagers who fly up, spend the weekend, and then fly home. Although flying has the benefits of reducing travel time and eliminating traffic, there is a price to pay since when you arrive at your destination you have no vehicle with which to get around. Visiting pilots to the Rideau Lakes Airfield can either walk to Westport for sightseeing, or call one of the flying club members to pick them up and take them into town.

For anyone contemplating buying a plane of their own, the main obstacle can be a lack of available aircraft. According to Theelen, the aircraft stored on the Rideau Lakes Airfield are part of a classification of “general aviation” – under that category there are production aircraft, such as a Cessna, and experimental or homebuilt aircraft.

“They’re not building any small airplanes anymore, so the only airplanes you can buy are old planes,” Theelen explained, “A lot of guys are going into experimental. You can rip apart an old one (airplane), or you can scratch build it or you can use a kit.”

Airplane building kits are available online, but... Read More

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 Croll took the craft for a break-in flight over the Agate Desert. Peyton will get 40 hours of instruction in the RV-7 before taking it up alone.

“I’m absolutely thrilled! It works! It’s officially a flying machine after eight years of sweat and toil!” shouted Peyton, standing by the runway with his wife, Candice.

“It’s a joy to fly, easy, no bad habits. It jumped into the air,” said Croll, after getting out of the cockpit following the maiden flight.

Building the craft was a lifelong dream of Peyton, who grew up around airplanes with his test-pilot dad, Larry Peyton, a World War II pilot and the first man to fly the Navy’s F4-D Skyray, with legendary Chuck Yeager as his wingman.

Peyton, 68, served in the Navy in electronics and was an A&P (airframe and power-plant) mechanic in Southern California before moving to the valley 20 years ago. He set his sights on building the RV-7 because “I absolutely love flying and the plane is fun, maneuverable and we can take it to fly-ins and places like Orcas Island.”

In the bright morning sun, the plane taxied down by the terminal and, into a northerly wind, rolled only a few hundred feet before jumping into the sky.

The plane has a range of 500 miles, with a top speed of 230 mph and a ceiling of 22,000 feet.

Peyton’s friend, Jim Haran, of Central Point, who is also building…

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Officials on the scene said the plane took off from Airman Acres, a private landing strip, then had engine problems. Witnesses said that they heard the plane’s engines quit.

“It appeared that the pilot banked around to the east as if to loop back around to land the plane,” said Lt. George Brown, Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

But Lt. Brown says the plane couldn’t make the turn and instead made straight for a field next to the airstrip.

“That’s when the plane went wing first into the field, striking the ground and flipping around. The cockpit did catch fire,” said Lt. Brown.

The names of the victims, a man and woman, have not been released pending notification of relatives, but… Read More

“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 the marina out back with fellow Tinicum firefighters Joe Watkins, Robert Repine and Rich Lynch.

Minutes earlier, a few patrons at Harrah’s Chester Racetrack and Casino watched through the building’s large glass-paneled windows as a small seaplane crash into the river, just above Chester Island.

Someone there dialed 911.

At the same time as Powley was roused, the Chester City Fire Department was alerted and the firefighters quickly pulled out of the firehouse and set up a command post on top of Harrah’s parking garage for the rescue.

Although officials did not have any biographical information about the two men in the plane, one did attest to the craft’s origin.

“The guy built it in his garage,” Senior Chief Bud Holden of the U.S. Coast Guard said. “It was an experimental plane that he built in his garage.”

Chester Battalion Chief Tony Capasso said the plane… Read More

Rutter's plane.

A Hollidaysburg man died Friday afternoon when his experimental plane crashed into a field short of a runway in southern Virginia.

Herbert G. Rutter, 80, of 1101 Hedge St. may have been flying his self-built Long-EZ to an airplane festival being held at nearby Suffolk Executive Airport this weekend.

Authorities don’t know the cause of the crash, which occurred in fair weather with little wind, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Cotten said.

Rutter circled the field twice, then crashed on his third approach, said Randy Johnson, manager of the Wakefield Municipal Airport in the Hampton Roads area.

The plane bounced, ejecting Rutter, then smashed into a runway barrier, Cotten said.

Rutter was dead by the time rescue workers reached him a few minutes later, Johnson said.

There was no fire, smoke or… Read more