Ultralight Airplane

Would you like to be free to fly like a bird?

Flying an ultralight airplane may not be as unrealistic as you may think. Ultralight Aircraft are a great deal cheaper to fly than their heavier counterparts.

I love the idea of flying one of these but found that most of the websites online seemed focused on selling ultralight airplanes rather than providing people with information on them.

This is what this site aims to do.

Ultralight aircrafts are usually considered as regular ones in countries which do not have a specific regulation in place. This may lead to additional licensing and certification requirements for the aircraft and the pilot. Ultralight aircrafts are given different names in different countries, like microlight aircraft in the UK or ULMs in the regions of Europe, mainly France and Italy.

Different Types in the Ultralight Aviation Category

The generation of Ultralight Aviation began with hang gliders which were attached small engines for the purpose of launching. The movement of such hang gliders was through the weight shifting of the pilot and the wings were braced by steel wires in these aircrafts. Here are some types in the Ultralight Aviation department

1. Weight-shift
These aircrafts are usually operated like a hang glider, with horizontal bar which determines the movement through the force applied to it. The climb rates are good for Trikes and they are used mainly in rough field operations but all the other fixed wing ultralight aviation types surpass them in speed.

2. Powered Parachutes
They are mainly like the parachutes used in skydiving with cart mounted engines or motor scooters with parafoil wing.

3. Powered Paragliding
Another name for paramotoring, it is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot is given a motor which has to be worn on the back and it is used for generating enough thrust to take off with a paraglider.

4.  Gyrocopter
A different type of helicopter, gyroplane has a rotary wing with a cart mounted engine and it differs in terms of the rotating wing, which is not powered in this case. The forward thrust provided by the engine and the airflow causes an autorotation which leads to a lift up.

5. Helicopters
Only some single seat and 2-seat helicopters qualify as microlight aircrafts in some countries like New Zealand.