Mike Jefferson did that with an AirBike journey that averaged a shade over 50 mph.Īs I write these words, he’s still probably making his way home. Every now and again, when the story is good, it’s fun to talk about somebody doing something interesting in aviation. Of course, people are behind every product but pilots seem to like the nuts and bolts of the story. The stories we media types tend to follow, well in my case at least, focus on airplanes and the hardware of flight. Red Bluff, California (well north of San Francisco) to Buckeye Arizona for Copperstate 2020 meant 900 miles by routes dictated by a small amount of fuel. What more could you need? Mike keeps his AirBike on the same airport as SLSA Dragonfly producer Ed Pittman of Pittman Air. Look at that cockpit view (a different angle shows in the video). Scott examined Mike’s AirBike as well as possible in the field and gave a thumbs up. Scott has developed AirBike back in the early 1990s while he was president of TEAM Aircraft.

I know he did well as I brought Scott Severen over to look at it. Needing some care, he took the project and went over the whole aircraft. Mike Jefferson - AirBike Pilot - In the last year, Mike discovered his AirBike. Many are in regular airborne tractor duty around the USA and the world. Mike got his powered aircraft training from Bobby Bailey, iconic designer of the Dragonfly tug that was specially created to tow hang gliders. So, Mike comes to flying AirBike via a different path than most (though, ironically, your author also flew hang gliders extensively some years before flying AirBike). Doing this thousands of times with excellent success speaks to using best practices. Coaching, driving up to the launch site, setting up the glider, launching into flight, and retrieving from landing consumes much more than an hour even if the flight itself may be short. Each of Mike’s tandem flights isn’t walking out on the airport ramp and hopping in a plane for an hour. You can do your own math on how long it takes to achieve that. In that context, 5,000 becomes a very big number. For comparison, imagine giving 5,000 Young Eagle flights. Check this figure - Over his years in business, Mike reports taking more than 5,000 tandem flights from hills around San Francisco. To achieve a perfect safety record, Mike has clearly set some proper techniques to work for him. Still, an instructor needs to know his or her student and preflight coaching is essential. FAA permits two place hang glider for instructional purposes, and believe me, every one going for a flight is going to learn plenty. Mike Jefferson - Hang Gliding Instructor - Taking someone with you in a hang glider demands some level of cooperation from the student. In hang gliding, two people must hang from a common point* so they are side-by-side or one atop the other or some variation the method was called “tandem” and the term stuck. Wing loading: 4.44 lb/sq ft (21.It doesn’t mean the same thing as tandem in a powered aircraft (one behind another).Specifications (Skylite) ĭata from Cliche and the Virtual Ultralight Museum īy 1998 the company reported that 300 kits and plans had been sold and 26 aircraft were completed and flying.

The design won Grand Champion Ultralight at AirVenture in 1991. Construction time is estimated as 750 hours. Today plans and kits are again available from Wings Of Freedom of Hubbard, Ohio as well as the newly resurrected Raceair Designs. ĭue to its plans-built construction and complex design, only a small number of aircraft were completed before the plans were initially taken off the market. The specified engine was the Rotax 277 of 28 hp (21 kW), but being plans-built other powerplants were also used. The pilot is accommodated in a semi-enclosed cockpit with a windshield.

The vertical stabilizer is highly swept back.

Its 29.1 ft (8.9 m) span wing is supported by 'V' lift struts and jury struts and features full-span ailerons. All surfaces are covered in 1.6 oz aircraft fabric finished with latex. The wing ribs are made from angled aluminum and have an 18 in (46 cm) spacing between them. The Skylite is constructed with a welded 4130 steel tube fuselage, with the wings built from riveted and gussetted aluminum tubing. The design is intended to resemble the high-wing air racers of the 1930s. It features a strut-braced high wing, a single-seat, open cockpit, conventional landing gear and a single engine in tractor configuration. The aircraft has a standard empty weight of 240 lb (109 kg). The aircraft was designed to comply with the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles rules, including the category's maximum empty weight of 254 lb (115 kg).

Zipster ultralight