www.PSFmagazine.com | January/February 2021 | 21 20 | January/February 2021 | Powered Sport Flying Light Sport Aircraft To encourage all producers to tell me their delivery numbers, I will anonymize manufacturer data in reporting results and I will protect the data with my reputation. I will not share information provided in confidence but I will summarize results aiming to report a whole-industry production figure. I will report how many aircraft in each of the aircraft types noted in the draft list below. I will report how many are designed and built in the usa (see flags). If and when I am given permission, I may report on the more successful aircraft and how many the producer has delivered. This industry data will be quite different from our data on Light Sport Aircraft, Sport Pilot kit-built aircraft, and modern gyroplanes. You can find out everything about these segments on our Tableau Public page on ByDanJohnson.com. This data comes 100% from faa’s aircraft registration database. I believe it to be the most complete and most accurate information anyone has on these three segments. Because Part 103 ultralights are not required to be registered with faa, I will ask each producer to tell me how many aircraft they delivered in 2019 and 2020. I will exercise my own judgment and do my own due diligence to make this information as accurate as possible. I will use my intimate knowledge of this sector to determine if numbers seem unlikely and then I will investigate further. At least over time, I believe this can provide reliable information but even in the first year, it will be the best information anyone has. I suspect the Part 103 List will become as popular as our present slsa List. Along with PlaneFinder 2.0, the slsa List is one of our most-visited pages and I think the Part 103 List may come to rival those two because readers of this website like affordable aircraft… and Part 103 ultralights are aviation’s most affordable. fixed wing / three axis aircraft 1. U-Fly-It Aerolite 103 2. Kolb Firefly 3. Quicksilver Sprint, Sport 4. Better Half VW Legal Eagle 5. Aeromarine-LSA Merlin Lite 6. Aeromarine-LSA Zigolo 7. Badland Aircraft F-series (formerly Kitfox Lite) 8. Just Aircraft 103 Solo (in development) 9. Hummel Aviation UltraCruiser 10. TEAM MiniMax, multiple models 11. Fisher Flying Products, multiple models 12. Aero Adventure Aventura UL (formerly Buccaneer) 13. JH Aircraft Corsair 14. SD Planes SD-1 (qualification pending) 15. AVI/Modern Wings Swan 120 16. Quad City Ultralights Challenger 103 Ultralight 17. CGS Hawk 103, Ultra 18. Phantom Classic X-1 19. M-Squared Breeze SS 20. Ekolot Elf KR-01A 21. Earthstar Gull 2000, Soaring Gull 22. Carlson Sparrow (market reentry underway) 23. Sherwood Kub 24. Eurofly Minifox 25. Lazair Nouveau 26. Thunderbird SNS-8 Hiperlight 27. Airsport Song UL 28. Jordan Lake Aero Air-Bike 103 29. Mitchell Wing A-10D 30. Sector Aircraft Quantum 103 (in development) 31. Simplex Aero Zing, Cloudster 32. Cloudbase Aviation Skylite, Lil’ Bitts 33. Wings of Freedom Phoenix 103, Flitplane 34. Tri-State Kites Smithsilver 103 weight shift control (trikes) 35. Evolution Rev 36. North Wing ATF, Solairus, Maverick 37. Air Creation Pixel 38. AirBorne Australia T-Lite 39. Airtime Aircraft Explorer 103 (amphibious) 40. Grif Italia, multiple models 41. Aeros Ant 42. FlyLight PeaBee 43. Ace Aviation Spirit series 44. Eurofly Snake powered parachutes 45. Infinity Challenger 46. Six Chuter P3 Lite helicopters 47. Innovator Technologies Mosquito gyroplanes 48. Fusioncopter Nano 49. Star LSA Star Bee powered, wheeled paragliders 50. Blackhawk LowBoy iii, Quad 51. Sky Driving Skykart 52. Green Eagle, multiple models 53. Fresh Breeze, multiple models List of Ultralight Producers: The Part 103 “Draft” List This list is not in any particular order. Please attach no significance to the position in this draft list. Before the Part 103 List goes online, I will add web addresses and email addresses for all companies plus links to my articles about that aircraft or company. Here then, 53 producers strong, is the draft list that I fully expect to expand: Review by Vickie Betts As a kid, Dan Roach did not have a very auspicious beginning to his dream of flight – as a matter of fact, he threw up. But that didn’t stop the dream. Many years down the road, he was able to purchase a Cyclone AX3. Inside the Cyclone is part a history of the Cyclone, from its original incarnation as the Weedhopper, designed by John Chotia, and part Dan’s own story of getting back into the world of flight. His chosen aircraft (named Harriet after his grandmother) needed a bit of work to be flyable again. This included re-rigging her, something that sounded like some of the stories I’ve heard from those who built their first ultralight from kit instructions and inspired guesswork. And his first solo was delayed by the English weather, which, as far as I’ve ever been able to tell, involves a lot of rain. Some of the terms will be confusing for American readers who are possibly not as familiar with European flight rules and agencies. However, there is a great deal of humor in the writing – I found myself chuckling aloud on several occasions. And if you can’t figure out a term, there’s always the internet (it turns out that a hobnob is a cookie!). Dan has also included a glossary, for help in translating British into American. Dan conveys the excitement of buying his first plane and finally getting it off the ground, and his friend Anna, after her first flight, summed up nicely the sheer joy and appreciation for beauty that can be found while flying in recreational aircraft. Inside the Cyclone can be purchased on Amazon.com for $12.99, or a Kindle version for $5.41. At 172 pages (with B&W photos), this isn’t a lengthy tome, but will be an enjoyable read while you sit in your hanger or at your airfield and wait for your own chance to get into the sky! • Inside the Cyclone: A Story of Ups and Downs by Dan Roach
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