Ultralights. Opinions

A wing built like a kite...

Im with Joe. Ill stick to something with structure.

Me too, but I don't have the money nor space for one.

Interesting it's my dream for years to build myself a Benson gyrocopter. Perhaps not a ULV but close enough, no?



I'm not a pilot so I don't have prior experience which would keep me from having heaps of fun with such a slow moving and open construction.

Kris

I flew ultralight for seven years, before painfully deciding to sell my kite 2 years ago.

I don't think they are unsafe, if you use just a bit of common sense in maintenance and flying behavior.

The structure is less sturdy than a 'normal' airplane, but the speed and the forces involved are much lower: you cruise at 50-70 mph depending on the type and whatever you do is in that range of speed.
Besides, the safety factor of a decently designed ULM is fairly high.

All the accidents I saw were 'human error' : landing on water with the gear down (Bucaneer), taking off with bad weather, flying low and slow to play smartass etc.

The 90% of problems you may have in a ULM is engine cut-off, not a pleasant thing but if you follow the basic rule 'always keep an emergency landing option in gliding distance' you don't get hurt and in most cases you don't even damage the aircraft. You glide like a butterfly in this things...

Most dangerous things to do : climb too high (the wings can take you to as high as 4000 mt, but your carbs don't have heating and you'll surely have ice), fly in strong winds (you are a butterfly in every meaning), disregard basic maintenance and pre-flight checks, dive too fast to find 'how much can I push it'

On the good side, it is almost impossible to stall (I mean, you really have to work hard if you want to stall it...) and if it happens you recover almost immediately losing very little height (with some exception, like the Quicksilver 500 that is a bit nasty), if you get lost all you need is to find a village and read the road signs or worst case a grass strip with a house nearby: you land and ask for directions...

btw, my crate was a Canadian built Beaver Rx550 with 65Hp Rotax 582 engine. Here is a pic I took in the hangar of the new owner (he contacted me to balance the CG and ailerons after he modified a couple of things)

Don't know in the US, in Italy you cannot fly a ULM over a urban area. That makes a lot of sense, because if you fly within the height restrictions (1000ft from ground) and you have an emergency it is unlikely that you can glide to a safe landing option if you are above a city.
As always, the laws cannot contemplate all possible situations and define rules that may be too rough (see speed limits on motorways), but the driver is always 'common sense': nobody will fine you if you fly over a village, but if you fly over Milan or Rome without flight plan and no ATC rules to comply with (ULM are not required to do so) it is likely that you put in danger yourself and all the business air traffic above the city.

But commuting is not the spirit of ULM: the fun is to fly in total freedom at a leisure pace, land when you see an opportunity (i.e. near a pub or a restaurant for an apero or lunch, or a little island in the middle of a river), cross a hill and glide down in the valley following the torrent and so on...

A classic flight in my area was in the spring, for the Pavia-Venice boat race along the Po river: take off in the early afternoon and follow the faster boats along their race staying on the other shore of the TV helicopters.