Ultralight Aircraft

The allure of an ultralight aircraft is undeniable. Flying a small, hand-built aircraft off into the Wild Blue Yonder is a dream that many hobbyists have realized. Join Scott, Ben and Kurt as they talk about the good, the bad and the unusual aspects of ultralight flight.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to car Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio's
How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome to car Stuff. I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin. I'm Ben Bullen, and we are
joined as always with our super producer Kurt Vitamin G. Garrett.
How's it going, Kurt? That's going great? How are you
guys doing, Vitamin G? I like it? You like it

(00:22):
because you wrote that. I like it, dude. I thought
that was great, like your own material. I guess we'll
see how it flies in the in the real world,
you know. But today, guys, we have something a little
bit different to talk about, if that's if that's all right.
We've got, uh, something that's a little bit a little
bit out of our wheelhouse, but it's something that we're
observers of and we think it is is interesting, right right, Yeah.

(00:44):
Car Stuff is a show about everything that floats, flies,
swims over drives. Yeah, these uh, these sometimes fly, uh
they drive around a little bit. I guess, um, Kurt,
this is what this is one of your ideas. It
came from. You know, we have these lists of ideas
that we can of you know, circulated between the three
of us of you know, thinks possible, shows, things that
we want to do. And uh, one of the things

(01:06):
that Kurt wanted to talk about was was ultralight aircraft
and I found it really fascinated. Was just you know,
simply a line item. You know, Kurt thought, well, I'll
throw this on the list and see if that see
if this idea flies. Yeah, okay, well that's terrible, but
um yeah, I mean I think it's fascinating as well.
There's there's gosh, I don't know if there's a long

(01:27):
history that we need to go into or anything, but
just kind of just I just really want to have
a discussion about the crafts themselves, and the people that
fly them, and and how they're made, and some of
the surprising regulations or lack of regulations that go into
um um, getting one of these things up in the air.
I think I think it's fascinating. So so before we begin, though, Kurt,
I just we we had an off air discussion briefly

(01:50):
about this, and you don't necessarily have any firsthand experience
with these, right, no other than see them in the air.
Yeah yeah, same here really, but I guess there's a
there's a bit of a family tie in we'll talk
about later that you know, we should discuss at some point.
But um, I find them fascinating as well. I mean
you said as a kid, you you've seen them around
and and we're kind of intrigued by them, right. Yeah.

(02:12):
There was one in particular that I used to see
all the time flying overhead and never dawned on me
exactly what was going on up there. It just looked
neat and that was an adult. As I think about it,
I realized how nuts it is sit up there and
one of these things and just screws around. Yeah. It's
a little bit terrifying to think about, isn't it. Yeah, Yeah,
it really is. I mean, so this was was it

(02:32):
a neighbor? Do you know who the person was? Um? No,
I did not. You sure it wasn't a remote control vehicle? No,
it was definitely an ultralight airplane because they sound a
lot similar, don't they when they're in the yeast buzz? Yeah,
they really do have like a just a high pitch buzz.
You're right, it sounds like a great big lawnmower fly right, Scott.
I want to get back to something that you mentioned. Uh,

(02:54):
this is gonna be good news for anybody in the
hold my beer and watch this crowd. Uh, And it's
the following. When we think of ultra lights, of course,
we also think of other kinds of aviation, right, everything
from military craft to little sesstenas and so on. To
fly one of those, you need a pilot's license, makes sense, right,

(03:19):
of course it does. You need to get probably a
physical of some sort to evaluate your physical, mental readiness,
your ability. You have to and to get the pilot's license,
you have to log a ton of flight hours. You
don't have to do that with an ultra light. This
is true. An ultra light does not require a license

(03:41):
or a medical certificate of any kind due to a
Federal Aviation regulation called Part one oh three. And Part
one oh three is just that piece of detail somewhere
in the great tone of the Federal Aviation Regulation that
defines what an ultralight actually is. And maybe that's where

(04:03):
we should should start, because it's kind of a you
know it when you see it thing. But we do
have some pretty solid quantitative constraints that define an ultra light.
Oh sure, yeah, and I've I've actually just this morning,
I looked up the f a R. Part one oh
three regulation. You know that is there the exemption for
ultra light And it's a lengthy piece of text and

(04:25):
there's no way we're going to read through it. But
it has been boiled down in many places just kind
of the the bare elements, and it's pretty simple really.
And these are just for the United States. There's there
are other regulations in different countries, and these standards are
just for the United States. And these are subject to change,
of course. I mean I think that they do change occasionally,
but for the most part, these have remained in place

(04:46):
for a long long time. The first one is who
you mentioned this already. They're not required to meet any
kind of aeronautical knowledge, age, or experience requirements. In order
to um, you know, have have this, uh the ability
to one of these things. I have to have an
airman or a medical certificate in order to be able
to do this. The vehicle itself should only have one seat.

(05:07):
Here in the United States. That's a little different. In
other countries. You can have a passenger, but only two
that's the maximum in an altar light craft in inns
country across the world. But but United States is not
alone in having just one one seat, uh, you know.
Rule by the way, there are other countries that say,
you know one only is the limit. It also can

(05:28):
be used only for recreational support or support flying. That's
I guess the idea would be that you know, you're
not going to run a crop duster operation out of this,
You're not going to transport people for money in this,
You're not going to use that as your mail delivery
vehicle unless unless you're in a very remote place and
that's really about the only way to get them there. Yeah,
it's your flying go card. It's kind of what it is.

(05:50):
And also there's some hard restrictions again as you said, Scott,
in the US on fuel capacity, on the weight, on
the speed. I think the maximum fuel capacity for an
ultra light craft here in the US is only five gallons. Yeah,
five gallons nineteen leaders is the is the maximum fuel

(06:10):
that you can have on board. And I think a
lot of this plays into the weight. There's a maximum
takeoff weight for these vehicles as well, now that I
guess of christ that includes the the occupant right and
the fuel and all that. However, if you just look
at the craft itself, the vehicle itself, if it's powered, um,
oh that's nothing. We have to talk about. There are
gliders also, and then there's powered and unpowered. Okay, so

(06:33):
the unpowered vehicles have to weigh less than one hundred
and fifty five pounds. That's the glider type of vehicle,
of course. I mean it's the one that just don't
you know, the ones that don't have any engine. You're
just up there on the wind and that's about it, right. Um.
The other ones are powered and they have to weigh
less than two hundred and fifty four pounds empty. Now
that also that excludes floats and safety devices things like that,

(06:57):
so you know, they know that you're gonna need that
type things, right right, that's just the craft and the
engine for the powered aircraft. Also interesting that they didn't
just round it up to two. Yeah, that's what I
found that strange to like what what an odd number
to two or four pounds. It probably has to do
something with like the when they were initially starting this

(07:18):
whole thing and character you know, um, I guess characterizing
that first ultralight aircraft that they were going to say,
here's the one that we're going to build our restrictions
based around. I don't know, man that choice to make
it instead of a hundred pounds heavier. That is a
very specific choice, and it feels like someone with uh

(07:39):
legislative or legal background was involved. It feels like legs.
It does, doesn't it. And you know they also have
top speeds that they're allowed to achieve, right yeah, So
top speed is is only fifty five knots, which is
about sixty three miles per hour. That is at full
power in level flights, so not particularly quick. So they're
easy to spot if they're in the air. They're not

(08:00):
gonna fly over and you know you're not going to
hear them and and kind of miss seeing them. You know,
it's like when you hear them, they're they're right there. Also,
they have a stall speed which is relatively low. I
mean twenty four knots again, twenty eight miles. They're just
gliding at that point. You have very very slow speed. Um.
But but some of the other things you know we
talked about, um you know, not requiring a license, but

(08:21):
certification for the craft itself is also pretty lax, right
oh yeah, very very lax. And it kind of makes
sense because one thing that might surprise a lot of
us in the audience today to learn about ultra light
is that ultra light is very much an umbrella term.
It's the constraints that we just presented apply to no

(08:44):
less than six distinct types of ultra light craft. And
I think there's I think some of us may have
had experience with one of these actually or more, because
believe it or not, a hot air balloon qualifies as well,
it qualifies as a lighter than air ultra light no kidding, Yeah,

(09:09):
these could be there, their backpack balloons there, that's what
they're called. Right, it's a great idea, right and curtain yeah, alright, uh.
And then you know the powered airships they're also the
I think the thing that most of us think about. Well,
I'll just I'll do the six types real quick, lighter

(09:30):
than air ultra lights. There the power fixed wings, which
I think most of us think of. You know, that's
the one where there's usually it's just uh it's one
wide wing and probably a tail fin and then maybe
three tiny wheels and a guy looking really smug, looks

(09:51):
like he's sitting in a lawnchair. It looks like he's
sitting in the launch in the sky, which is the dream. Right, Well,
we're here, I guess the fixed wing ones. They you know,
they sometimes they'll have a little body build to round
them as well. Um that's a lightweight type of wood,
very thin veneer type wood, but has you know, foam inside.
It's going to have all the rigidness that it requires.
But think about back leo'k go back to the right

(10:12):
brothers and their plane. I mean that was that was cloth,
you know, covered in cloth and was just a firehouse.
It's very lightweight wood frame, but it had cloth covering
and that's not all that uncommon and that that type
of design carried. I mean people use that type of
design in of course in war planes, even World War one,
world ward. I don't know about World War two, maybe

(10:32):
not at that point, but um, I think it depended
on the military. Yeah, uh, in the in the conflict.
It's actually a reasonable design. I mean, if you put
the right coatings on that and make sure that you
know that that that that gives you the the lightweight
flexibility that you need in order to build something that's
substantial in size yet light enough to have a smaller

(10:53):
engine to power it enough to get it up in
the air and also bring a human along. Because the
thing about all the ultra lights were naming is that
they do carry a human occupant. Just from an engineering standpoint,
it's pretty impressive to put this together right there. There's
another one that I think is really interesting. The third
type would be the powered parachutes or powered gliders. You

(11:15):
know what I'm talking about. I do, yes, Yeah. Do
you have any personal experience with these guys? No? Not
not a powered parachute, no, no, um, But man, those
are a weird design, aren't they. That's the one where
you strap what looks like a like a gigantic warehouse fan. Yeah,
it looks like you know the the you know the
airboats in Florida the swamps like a swamp boat. I

(11:36):
guess that we see. And those are ridiculously fast and
maneuverable and all that. But it's like you're putting one
of those on a backpack and just jumping off a
cliff with a parachute on. Really, I mean, it's it's
there's really not much more to that. I mean, you
take a running leap down and you run down a
hillside and jump into the air and and just hope
you go right. I mean, that's the idea. You've got

(11:56):
an engine that's strapped your back. That's it's heavy, that's
propelling you forward. But you gotta hope that everything works
out just right. And I think that's the case with
all of these designs. You know what, let me see
my rant. I guess to the end of this uh
this this show but and I don't even know if
it's a rant, but it's more just my disbelief that

(12:16):
somebody would put enough faith in Okay, okay, I'm getting already.
So yeah, what are the other types of design has been? Oh? Yeah,
there's the there's the rotorcraft, which can be divided into
two categories, helicopters and europlanes giro planes. Yeah, you're you're
pronouncing it like the uh you know, it's funny, Okay,

(12:37):
So in this case it would be giro, right, I
mean you say Giro. I believe when you're talking about
something like this, like this giro scoop a euro plane. Yeah, okay,
but in the food sense, when it's it's like a
pronounce a euro right, Yeah, it's funny. I never thought
of it that way. It's I think it's uh, it's
a weird rule in English is a ridiculous language and

(13:00):
also full disclosure. I haven't eaten anything today, So I'm
very into the idea of a euro plane. You don't
know how it works, but you're gonna find out later.
I'm gonna find out later. Man. We used to have
this great Mediterranean place across the street. It's gone. Do
you remember that? One has nothing to do with this show. No,
I don't know. Sorry, well, relate to the game, but

(13:22):
we'll get we'll get euros. Sometimes that the gyro planes,
and you are correct, Scott, that is the correct pronunciation.
The gyro planes are sometimes referred to as gyro copters
or auto gyros, and the difference here is that a
helicopter uses a powered rotor or more than one rotor,
powered rotor and rotary wings to fly and also maintain

(13:46):
that directional control, right to pitch the jaw and so on.
But giro plane uses a traditional engine and propeller for thrust,
and there's an unpowered rotor that helps with theft. What
we really Yeah, that's a strange idea. I can't I'm
gonna have to look at a diagram of this thing

(14:07):
to figure that out. That's really strange, all right, Well, anyways,
that's it. That's it's okay. So that's another type. Right,
that's another type. So there are people building their own helicopters.
We've talked about that. And then there's even more, right,
there's more types, two more types. There's the trikes or
the weight shift. Now they are available in single seat
ultra light versions. These to me looks so silly. Yeah,

(14:30):
and then when you get and you get to the
two seater version, now it's no longer an ultra light. Remember,
because an ultra light in the US has one passenger
in the U. S okay, so yeah, but elsewhere, I
guess two seater it could be an ultra light right
in another place, Yeah, sure it could be classified as that.
But man, okay again, I'm wanting to go into that,

(14:54):
not not ramp, but wanting to go into that questioning
the sanity of people that want to build these. Really
the it sounds like it sounds like a lot of fun,
don't get me wrong. But well, we'll talk about the
trike formation. One thing's interesting there. Um For for the
two seater versions, it's it's like an old school biplane.
And for as far as the seating, it's motorcycle seating.

(15:15):
You know what I mean. You your passenger is going
to be directly behind you, and then the last one.
Of course, all empowered ultra light fall into this single
category gliders or sail planes. We should probably do a
quick course correction for anybody who automatically thought of the
stereotypical glider. You know, when you hear glider, you think, okay,

(15:40):
there's someone who has decided to to live for the moment,
or they've made their peace with the great beyond, and
they say, the way I want to court death today
is to run off a cliff while I have this
this very light harness, this holding me to a frame,
uh that you know should catch the wind. You're talking

(16:03):
about hand gliders, hang gliders. We usually think of hang gliders,
but these unmpowered gliders and sail planes are a world
beyond that. We were talking some top notch material science
to totally encase the pilot. Can you say pilot if
it's a glider? Yeah, sure, okay, And these things do

(16:25):
often look like planes to the casual observer. They would
look like a small aircraft. But the thing is there's
no engine in there. Right. It's entirely based on leveraging
what we know about physics. Okay, now I'm a little
bit curious about this. Now, I don't think that anybody
here is going to know the answer to this, but
I do recall in the past hearing that you can
go up for glider rides. You can pay for a

(16:47):
glider ride where you know, another plane tows you into
the air, they disconnect, the guy wired and I like you,
you know, float back to Earth of course. You know,
you're you're soaring and it's supposedly a beautiful experience. You
know it at um sunset or sunrise or whatever, and
you know you land safely at the airport that you
took off from after you know whatever. It is maybe

(17:08):
a thirty minute flight, an empowered flight, you know, if
you've got a skilled person behind the the yok or
whatever the control is in a a lider. But I'm
curious now though, I didn't think that you're allowed to
have a second person. So maybe there's a second category
of these that is a different type of glider. Um
these are the ones with like enormous wingspans, though, the
ones that have you know, a fifty ft wingspan. It

(17:29):
looks like fifty ft anyway, right, Yeah, to qualify for
ultra light status, still any of those six categories have
to in the US only have one person, but there
are things like sail planes that may have Essentially, it's this,
whenever you have more than one person, even if all

(17:50):
the other rules of the ultra light glider are are
checked off successfully, that thing automatically becomes an aircraft like
a small light air requiring different licensing, different license because
because someone else's life is in your hands. Now, yeah,
you're right, and you know what I mean. Just to

(18:10):
get back to this just a little bit, the certification
I mean, ultra light vehicles and and all of their
components equipment are not required to meet any kind of
airworthiness certification or standards that are specified for aircraft. So
that's the differentiation between what you were just talking about
the sailplanes with two seats or more. I guess just
to probably in a in a sailplane, you wouldn't really

(18:32):
have more than that, I don't think. I don't think
there any three head that have three capacity for three rather,
but the ultra lights themselves don't have to have any
kind of certificates for air worthiness or anything like that,
which is crazy to me. I mean, that sounds absurd
that you're going to be in an aircraft that doesn't
really require a certificate for air worthiness. I mean, it's
up to you to decide whether that thing is gonna
fly or not. You can have them inspected, of course,

(18:54):
and you probably should. I mean that's another part of
this is that you don't have to have any kind
of training to do it. You don't have to have
any kind of expertise in order to build one of
these yourself. But it's strongly suggested that you have them
checked out by somebody who knows what they're doing, Somebody
that is, you know, competent and capable of doing this,
Somebody that has some sort of of aeronautical knowledge, you know,

(19:17):
a basis in in the basics, you know that that
knows what you're going to require and what's right, what's
not right, that type of thing. Because for you to fly,
you know, you're as an operator yourself. You don't have
to have any kind of aircnatical knowledge. You don't have
to meet any kind of age requirement. Uh, there has
to there's no experience requirement necessary. You don't have to have,
you know, a certain number of hours as a passenger

(19:38):
in one of these vehicles. Obviously you can't really that
first time up for you in an ultralight technically should
be your first time up in the air in that craft. Ever,
you're not going to get like a ride along to
see how your craft operates under the control of you know,
somebody who's a master or somebody who's you know, a
certified a certified pilot. You're just gonna have to get
up there and go for it and hope that everything

(20:00):
works out right. I mean, and I know a lot
of pilots that do have licenses are the ones that
end up behind, you know, the controls of these things.
So it's not always just somebody that has no experience
and decides they're gonna build a plane in their garage.
It's sometimes it's somebody who does have a lot of
experience in flight and lots of hours of experience and
they and they do this, And I feel a little

(20:20):
bit better about those people. You know that they that
they are up there above us, you know, above crowded
areas or above you know crowds or whatever, um and
they've got a little bit of experience. But there's there's
no registration for these vehicles at all. They don't have
to have registration markings like other planes do as well,
Like even even I mean, jeez, even watercraft have to
be registered and have markings on them. These don't have to.

(20:42):
There there is just such a wild west world. Really,
when you think about the way ultra lights operate, it's strange.
I can imagine not having any training, especially these days
when there's all sorts of virtual experiences you can engage in,
it still doesn't seem to be any even vitual type
training to fly an ultralight aircraft. There might be wouldn't

(21:04):
that be cool? There should be, you know, I guess
maybe the closest you could come to this would be,
you know, and at home video game type thing. Yeah,
like a console game that you would play, But that
doesn't give you any kind of real sensation. I mean,
it's not like you're getting into, you know, a multimillion
dollar simulator like a lot of these airline companies provide

(21:25):
for pos to train into to refine their skill. Do
you want do you want to know something nuts? Uh,
my girlfriend's dad actually builds those for builds those simulators
that commercial pilots go on. Yeah, yeah, and you can
get into them, but they're really they're they're pretty pricey. Yeah.

(21:46):
I can see the appeal of an ultralight for someone
who's curious about aviation, simply because you don't have to
get private pilot license or the you know, the sport
pilot license, which is easier to get. You can, as
you said, Scott, literally build this thing in your backyard,

(22:06):
take it into the air. You don't have to have insurance,
even you should, but you'll have to you really should,
you know, Can I tell you how extreme this goes?
I mean, it's just so that people have a like
a clear understanding of how simple this is. You can
go to sites and you can you know, find kits
of course, and you can find plans. If you wanted
to do it that way, you could you know, build

(22:27):
your own kit, I guess, or you could order a kit.
But you can go to a site and I just
for example, here I went to one called ea dot
org and they have ultra light manufacturers and there are
links to a bunch of different companies that have you know,
fixed wing scrolling down here to look. They have powered parachutes,
they have trikes, they have a concept aviation craft. I

(22:48):
guess these are all concepts really and a lot of
them are helicopters, they have powered paragliders. They've got all
kinds of categories of ultra light that you can order
kids from or at least link to the manufacturers to
purchase the kids, and they're often they are several thousand
dollars in price. Right, there's another route he could go here,
and that is that you could just kind of go
at it yourself if you want. And there's a guy

(23:09):
that I've found this morning. I was watching just a
very short video. It's about five minutes long, and it's
real simple to find online. If you want to do
a keyword search, you can find this guy and you'll
probably have a good chuckle at how he how he
speaks and everything he's he's just kind of a kind
of a down home kind of guy. If if that
conveys that message. Um, but this guy has put together

(23:32):
a plane and ultra light plane entirely from parts that
he's sourced from home depot. Entirely every part is from
home depot. And I thought, okay, that's how's that possible?
But then you realize, okay, of course it's got a
very very small engine. It has a ten horsepower to
come see lawnmower engine that that's what powers this thing.

(23:52):
And that makes sense because that's approximately what all these
these guys are flying with. Anyway. Um, he's got plans
that you can purchase from him if you want to,
if you want to go to his website. It's like,
you know, I think it's like fifty dollars to buy
the plans for this this craft. But his name is
Jack Harper, and so if you look up Jack Harper
Home Depot ultra Light, you'll probably find this guy's video online.

(24:15):
And it's just it shows you kind of a quick
view of some build photographs, you know, along the way,
you know, him building the thing, and um, mostly it's
an interview that's done by another guy. That's that's kind
of I mean, honestly, the guy is kind of laughing
at him a little bit. But the guy is at
an ultra light show or an air show showing off
what he's done. And it flies, It really does. It operates, um.

(24:38):
But it's it's clever the way he designed it and
kept it lightweight enough to you know, meet the the
standards for the ultra light. Jack Harper, that's it, Jack Harper, Yeah,
Jack Harper and he's out of Jacksonville, Florida. And um
again real real, simple plans. But it's an all wood aircraft.
There's some foam in the wings, like I had mentioned, Uh,
this real light engine you can buy plans. I think

(24:59):
in the video he's lamenting the fact that you know,
home depot won't pay him to to to advertise this plant.
You know. He says, you know, you've got an airplane
here in your you know, in your store. It's in
your store. I can tell you how to bring all
these parts together and make one and it works. And
I think his his example is a bright yellow one.

(25:19):
It looks it looks like a lot like um, some
other kids that I've seen, some other ultra like kids.
So it's not that different. It has things like, you know,
it looks like wheelbarrel wheels maybe as the three wheels
that you know, the landing gear. I suppose that's all
that are always out. Um of course there's you know,
wires and things like that that you sourced by the foot,
you know, on spools and the would of course, and

(25:41):
you have to cut all this to you know, they
write specifications and everything. But he'll he'll sell you the
plans for fifty bucks. Apparently, you know, this reminds me
of I don't know if you guys ever saw this
growing up, but this reminds me of all those ads
I would see in a boy scout magazines or an
old comic books where you have stuff like build your
own plane. It was right next to buy this whoopee

(26:04):
cushion and yeah, but you know what, I'd love I
I am the same way and Kurt, I don't know
if you have the same experience enough, but looking through
those old magazines when you're a kid, and all of
those ads were so intriguing, like you build a hovercraft
using vacuum engines. You know, come on, who doesn't want
to do that? But I never did it. I never
built it. But it was always like, Okay, well, the

(26:26):
plans are nine dollars or I think at the time,
they're probably a dollar ninety nine or something or less,
but still get your imagination going. For sure, they really do. Yeah,
if he didn't ever partake in the activity of making
whatever they were describing, still thought, hey, how many plans?
How many kids though paid five or ten bucks and

(26:50):
thought they were getting the actual aircraft in the mail? Yeah,
I'm sure you know there was there was a version
of this and this is just kind of a little
bit off topic, I guess, but same magazines. I don't
remember which ones they were, This Boy's Life or whatever,
but in the back there was always ads for um,
you know, you could this is one that would arrive
in the mail. You'd have to assemble it. But it

(27:10):
was like a twelve foot nuclear submarine and you know,
that would arrive and it was cardboard of course, and
you build it in your house and the submarine but
it claimed to have you know, missiles that would launch.
I mean, I'm torpedoes rather that would launch, and you know,
periscope design and all of sudden, I wonder what that
looked like if you actually ordered one. I never did,
but it was you know, they were always like ten

(27:31):
dollars for a twelve foot sub, but you never saw
the pictures of any of those things in the water.
Oh man, I could go for a twelve ft sub
right now, you torture me. I could also. You know,
it's been it's been a long time since I've been
to a party that had one of those giant party subs,
you know, like that you cut off you know, you think,

(27:52):
all right, there's you know, twenty people here, I'm gonna
need more than the six ft sub because you know,
you can eat you know, yeah, I could eat a
foot long sub but at lunch, right, that's not a problem.
But it doesn't work that way. You get, you know,
like two inches of the thing, and you're stuffed because
it's all bread. I that is a error in the
design of subs. The bread content is often just far

(28:15):
beyond what it needs to be. So you're thinking twenty
people at a at a party, you make the sub
like you would normally make a foot long sub, only
you make it like twenty ft long, and everybody gets
a foot of that sub. Yeah, I'm glad you're with
me on the mathew. I think that's a good, good idea.
Of course, getting at home is the problem. Oh yeah, yeah, No,
you want a third party venue for for any sub

(28:35):
get together a third party venue? Wait? Have you really?
I just I'm dying of curiosity. Have you been to
a party where there was a giant sub? Yeah? In fact,
I've had to order one, Yeah, for a party in
the past. In the past, you know, like having a
Super Bowl party or something like that. You know where
you know you're gonna have some people over and you

(28:55):
know you're gonna have um uh, it's kind of like
the main course. Really, I mean you're able to put
something out like that and then just get away with
you know, a few pips. And it's expensive. The sub
is expensive and you have to order them well ahead
of time and you have to decide kind of like, well,
I'm just gonna go with you know, the standard. You know,
here's an Italian party sub. You know you don't you
don't really get too fancy with screen for the meatball

(29:17):
parm No, you know, I don't even know if they
do something like that for a big sub like I
mean maybe somewhere would, but um, it's it's quite a uh,
I don't know. It's it's a showy type of food
to have at your party. What a power move, and
I think it is. Yeah, I am so impressed with
you right now. It's been a while, it's been a
long long time. Been No, I'm not joking, I sincerely

(29:37):
I'm impressed. I thought that only happened in movies. No, no, no,
I mean I've seen offices, you know, have have you know,
purchased things like that you know, for UM corporate events
or our office. It's a little bit bitter today. I
just think it's cool. But okay, maybe there maybe that
that conversation took a left hand turn. There didn't somewhere.

(29:59):
I'm not bitter. I just think I think that a
giant sub is such a cool move. It's fun, it's fun.
It's fun to get one. But the problem is then
you've invariably at the end of the party, got you know,
three ft or four ft of sub left over, and
it just takes you forever to get through that. You're
never gonna finish it. You're gonna happen to toss some
of it, you know, bring it into the office. I

(30:29):
do want to mention going back to E A A. Uh,
They're they're fantastic ultra light organization and I got a
lot of information from them in preparation for this episode.
They they will break down the legality of ultra lights.
They'll also get this. Folks offer you free introductory flights.

(30:54):
They do not come with a party sub, but they
do get you in the air. Uh. And they you know,
they teach, They teach young pilots, They teach pilots of
all ages. They have aviation scholarships, they have a sport
pilot academy. Um, they're out of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, right, Yeah,
that is a that's a that's a place where they

(31:15):
have an enormous um yearly air show where people fly
in and I know it's what it's one of the
most busy times of the year for them, of course,
but it's it's a huge, huge event. Hundreds of planes arrived,
if not thousands. I don't know. It's a as a
giant show. I wish I had more information about it
in front of you right now, but I remember Oshkosh
being a huge center for uh, you know, like a

(31:36):
big yearly aviation show that people just kind of go
crazy over. Lots of lots of things on display there
at that time of year. You know, whether it's experimental things,
it's you know, just um, you know, the the routine
flyovers that you see at most air shows. I love
air shows are supersede jets. You see military aircraft, you
see civilian aircraft, you see all kinds of things, you know,

(31:56):
ground displays, all kinds of stuff like that. It's it's
just a it's a neat place. I don't know why
it's escaping me. What what are those amazing jets called
Blue Angels, Yeah, the Blue Angels, and there's the Thunderbirds.
The Blue Angels, I think are the Navy and the
Thunderbirds of the Air Force. Right. I believe that's the
two big, um, you know factions here in the United
States that that we see at a lot of a

(32:16):
lot of air shows. I know that there are others
around the world, you know that travel as well. I
think the British Air Force has uh their own set
as well to travel and you know, perform um very
accomplished pilots of course, and and man they skilled. I
was thinking about this earlier in our previous episode on
Famous Stuntman and the famous events, uh like the jumping

(32:40):
of the of the school bus and stuff like that.
I did not know this, but the United Kingdom had
their own like Royal Motorcycle stunt team. Really yeah, I
didn't know that they would do these precision performances. Is interesting. Yeah, yeah,
that's cool. And I think they shut down the operation now,

(33:00):
but you can you can check it out. I think
they were called the Signals Royal something. So these are
like precision riders, right, These are not necessarily jumpers, but
they're the ones that do like the slow speed um
precision maneuvers where it's like a lot of like you know,
two lines that kind of weave themselves in and out
of each other, like hop on other people's bikes stuff

(33:21):
like that. Yeah, man for Queen and Country. You know,
that's really cool. And I picture them being on like
giant heavy bikes. Is that the way it was? Because
usually usually those are like the big wide But I
don't I don't know motorcycles well enough to know the
make and model and everything, but I would assume these
aren't like the super light small bikes. I can't remember,
you know, I was. I was lazy as soon as

(33:42):
I figured out that they weren't doing it anymore, yea,
And I said, okay, alright, let's let's prepare for the
show with something that actually is still happening. I just
feel like in the past have seen something similar, and
it's always like those big but like the big fat
bikes that have like saddle bags and they have like
a front fender with lots of them around it, and
they've got like a big wide saddle type seat you

(34:03):
know that you can stand on and of course, I
think that that plays into a lot of the tricks
and things that they can do. You can know where
they're they're standing and saluting as they're all writing or
you know whatever. You know what it was. You know
what those bikes were. Where are they gonna make so
much sense? Triumph? Oh? Of course of course they are.
Of course, the traft bikes. It's like it's like James
Bond driving in Aston Martin. It's a done deal. Of

(34:23):
course they were, by the way, the Royal Signals motorcycle
display team, the Royal Signals. I look it up. So
one thing that we we do want to emphasize for
anybody considering building and flying your own ultra light. First off, yes,
absolutely do it. I vote you do it if you
have time space. I know, I know you and I

(34:46):
were going to disagree on this one. Scott and and Curt.
You're our tiebreaker and I want you to know I
respect you even if you make the wrong choice. But
did you like that? Do like I'm swaying, I gonna
still have decide with Scott on that. It's just I
can't I can't imagine the first time you ever go

(35:07):
up in one of these is basically it's your first experience.
It would be so strange. Someone had to be first.
The right brothers technically fluid ultra light. Yeah, the first,
the first time that man ever managed to fly. Hey man,
I'm I'm nervous the first time I take out, like
you know, like a lawnmower that I buy from the store.
You know that's the thing, Like you don't know, and

(35:28):
I'm on the I'm on the grass. You know, I'm
on the I'm on the lawn, you know, like worried
that something's not gonna work right. I mean, I can't
imagine being two dred feet in the air and worrying
that something's not gonna go right. You know that's the problem,
I think, yea, and yeah, it would just feel so
unnatural after you lift off, you know, you're you're like, okay,
I was supposed to happen. Yeah, and I'm but it's

(35:49):
just not right. I would go down, really, I would
go down really quickly. Definitely. The first few times. It
would be less of a flight, more of like an
extended like a job. Yeah, like how the incredible hole
it doesn't actually fly and just kind of jem. Yeah,
that's true. I guess you know, that's probably how a
lot of people approach this is that, you know, like
you kind of putting your your toe in the water,

(36:10):
you know, like you're just getting you know, seeing how
this thing operates a little bit. You don't just take
off and expect to soar, you know, five feet in
the air and uh and you don't have a great
day circle in the lake and then come home and
land perfectly. It's not like that. I think you probably
have to practice and practice and practice, you know, like
like you said, Ben, like maybe up in the air,
a little bit landed, see how it goes, maybe a
little bit higher next time, a little farther next time,

(36:32):
that type of thing, you know, might have to ease
into it. My thing would just be figuring out how
to stick that landing man. That's I think that's where
a lot of people mess up. Yeah, of course, yeah,
I mean probably. I mean just I've gut feeling it's
probably easy to get in the air in these things.
I mean, it's it's relatively simple. Landing is always the
hard part, right, even in commercial aircraft that you guys

(36:55):
know him on the road a lot and I have
become acquainted to the different landing styles that different pilots have,
and one of the of course, you notice it more
when you're towards the back of the aircraft. But I
was talking with someone who is a professional pilot and
he was telling me, uh, he was telling me that

(37:15):
our species ability to create autonomous vehicles, at least for
aircraft is pretty impressive. And you know, like take off
and maintenance of flight and altitude, a lot of that
can be handled by computer. The thing that people still
have to do all the time is land the plane,
and that's often the most rough part of the flight.

(37:38):
You know, if you fly a lot, you realize that
as a lot of those landings are are white knuckle
for everybody on board because it feels a little choppy,
doesn't it. Sometimes you feel like you dip down real
fast and and there's a lot of correction being made. Yeah. Yeah,
you've experienced some good ones, some bad ones. Yeah. Yeah,
and it's not it's it's probably one of my least

(38:01):
favorite parts of the of the flight. I always make
sure to to thank the pilot if there was especially smooth,
rawesome land I'm kidding, I think the pilot all the time.
I do too, Yeah, I think it's just the right
thing to do. Yeah, that's a good's good practice, just
to you know, hey, I appreciate it. You gotta safe
and that goes that goes far. People like to hear that.

(38:21):
One other thing to consider. If you are an ultra light,
the captain of your own fate in the sky here
in the United States, you need to know that you
can only fly at certain times of day, right, no
night flights. I don't know how they prosecute that. I
looked at the Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean

(38:42):
that's they say, no night flights. Right, Okay, we know
there's probably people that are flying at night there. There
probably are. Well, see, this is what it wasn't clear
on the way that they have the twilight periods is interesting.
So you can fly thirty minutes before were official sunrise
on a given day, and you can fly thirty minutes

(39:05):
after official sunset. And there's an exception for Alaska. Uh
oh oh, I know why, because the land of the
midnight sun. Um, they're gonna have really obtuse daylight hours
and evening hours at different times of the year. That's
why I would think. So they have a thing called

(39:27):
civil twilight in Alaska civil twilight, which is defined in
the Air Almanac. From what I can understand, it's kind
of like this is when we agree to behave as
though it is night. That seems a little silly, doesn't it.
But I guess I mean you did have to. I
mean you have to and it's important for for flight,

(39:47):
especially because you can see how a tiny vehicle like
this in the wrong place could be It could be
dangerous at night. Well I can. I can understand also,
like in a place like Alaska, a place that places
that are are remote, I would say in some cases
desolate that you know, a small plane like this would

(40:08):
be extremely handy. Tone you know that you're able to
get long distances quickly without much you know, worrying about
you know, road conditions, whether it's snow or whether it's
across the water. Some of these are able to land
on water even you know they have pontoons and UM
are not certified, but they they are allowed to land
on water and take off from water. Which is that

(40:28):
it seems like that would require more power and would
be more difficult I would think for an ultra light UM.
But anyways, there's there's a lot of instances I think
where it would be very very helpful to own something
like this, and probably a because they're not well I
know this, because they're not registered. They're not documented as
being an aircraft that is, you know, I guess in

(40:50):
in operation right here at this moment, you wouldn't know
the percentage of airplanes that are in the air versus
the percentage of airplanes that are registered in the air.
So there might be a higher percentage of of you know,
these unrestricted planes they're flying that then the government knows
than anybody knows really, because people just have them in
a garage they have been a shed somewhere. Yeah, so

(41:14):
you know, you might have many, many of these operating
and only a few registered planes operating, but you might
have a lot of air traffic in the area. Yeah.
Do you remember I want to put you on the
spot here, Scott, but do you remember the story told
me about the homemade helicopter guy? Yeah, oh yeah, sure,
And we talked about that in air too. I think
tough to forget. The other guy was like he was

(41:36):
he was breaking the law. Apparently I didn't know that
he was wasn't allowed to do this, right, right, So
that's where I'm going. Oh well, go ahead, go ahead,
I mean, i'll tell you just real quickly. Though. The
guy I saw him regularly at one summer, or maybe
over a couple of summers, I can't remember which now,
but um, this guy in a it was clearly a
homemade helicopter was flying around my area and it just

(41:58):
see him, you know, in a distance, over the trees
or whatever. But one day I'm at an intersection, a
busy four way intersection, and the guy is hovering and
circling over the intersection very very low, I mean really low,
and and then left, and I just wanted to get
the hell out of there. I didn't want to be
underneath this thing because it almost looked like he was
looking for a place to land or you know, he's

(42:19):
had a trouble, or he might just drop something. Yeah,
you don't know what's going on with it. And that's
I guess that's another danger that I didn't even think of.
You know, like you could have somebody up to no good,
you know, something with somebody with you know, some type
of nefarious thoughts or ideas, you know, it was incorporating. Yeah,
but but you know it's it's really, but but it
was it just seemed really dangerous that he was doing this. Yeah, yeah,

(42:43):
and you're right, Scott, is illegal. Ultra live vehicles in
the US cannot be flown over any congested area of
a city or town, and they cannot be flown over
an open air assembly of persons. So okay, for that
air show, I'm thinking with the ultra lights, they're probably

(43:05):
then again we haven't been. I'd love for us to go,
but they're probably flying at a distance in the foreground,
you know, or or just simply on display or just
on display. Maybe maybe I mean I but I don't
think they're coming too close to the grandstands or anything
like that. Um. But yeah, that makes sense because you
wouldn't want somebody in an ultra light deciding, Hey, you know,

(43:27):
I didn't get tickets to that, you know, Georgia State
University ballgame. Maybe I'll just go a buzz the stadium
and see what's happening, you know, catch the catch the
halftime show from the air. I am so sure someone
tried to do that. That's probably like the only ultra
light crime that has been prosecuted is a terrible fight.
You know. Actually, you know what now that we were

(43:47):
talking about this, wasn't there a guy that parachuted in
to a prize fight that was an open It was
an open air prize fight. I think it was in
I want to say it was in Vegas. Um tried
to land in the ring. He had he had one
of those backpack giant uh you know, I forget what
we call it, the pair of power parachute maybe or
whatever you want to call that type of ultra late

(44:09):
he landed. It was a prize fight. It was a big,
big fight. And there you know, there's videos of of
this happening. You don't in the clip I saw anyway,
you only kind of see the edge of him entering
and you hear the crowd go crazy. They're on him,
and I mean they beat the crap out of this
guy when he landed. I mean, people were upset because
it's dangerous. I mean, it was really They called him

(44:30):
the fan Man during the Holy Field fight, that's the
one fan Man and fan Man made an appearance somewhere else.
I don't know what. I don't know where it was
or what happened, but Fan Man was around. I mean,
but he ended up getting just pummeled by the crowd
at this at this fight. You know he thought I
suppose he thought it was a great Um. I don't
know if his marketing or what it was, but I mean,

(44:51):
if he's trying to promote his own brand. I can't
remember the whole story behind it. But if you look
up the fan man and and this this fight, this
entrance into the fight where he lands in the ring, well,
the flight is happening, It's it's insane. The the the
commentators go a little crazy, and you know, there's there's
course documentation of you know that you could see him
being beaten up by the crowd, and you know they're

(45:12):
taking care of business. I guess there as a you know,
as they pull him into the audience. But man, what
a strange thing to happen. I have a question. This
is a little bit of a turn. Sure do you think, uh,
do you think ultralight vehicles could be successfully used for
illicit purposes like smuggling? Do I think? Um? You know

(45:37):
what's funny. I it seems like a good way to
do it, but that their inability to carry much weight
is probably what would hold them back from that. I
mean as small amounts, Sure, small amounts of whatever type
of drug or material they're trying to carry. Sure, that's fine,
but I think if you're going to try to carry
any kind of substantial load of drugs or you know, whatever,

(46:01):
whatever the material is, I think you'd have to have
a heavier, bigger aircraft. And and they typically do fly
those aircraft just lower right, so they're out of radar,
and um, they get caught anyway, they get tracked coming out. Yeah.
That's the thing that's getting me because the airspace is
pretty pretty heavily monitored on the border, and I was

(46:23):
looking into this. When I looked into it, I just
found examples of things that had crashed or things have
been caught. Because you know, it goes without saying these
guys are breaking all of those rules we just mentioned. Yeah,
they don't care about the rules. No, they're flying at night.
Yeah it's too heavy, Yeah right, yeah, you know what,
you're right, put a bigger put a bigger engine on

(46:44):
an ultra light, and you know who's to say that
you can't carry more weight. The weird thing is that
apparently Border Control has found fairly often, not even frequently,
they found like abandoned ultralight aircraft in some remote area
near the border. It seems like the ones that I
merely get caught are carrying marijuana, cocaine or methamphetamine. Now

(47:07):
that cartels are involved. You know, the cartels built submarines.
They were the guys reading Boys Life magazine and actually
buying the plans for these and they just found just
I mean, this is just happening in this week. A
couple of days ago, they found the longest underground tunnel
between Tijuana and and San Diego. I know, we're taking
another turn here in San Diego. Ye, I'm sorry, yeah, yes, yeah,

(47:30):
it's nearly a mile that's my mistaken. That's the nearest
town to San Diego. And umm, I think of the
right right town San Diego and Tijuana. That's the border
town's right on on the Mexican border. This my this, this, uh,
this tunnel is nearly a mile long. It's like feet
long and has a railway system and has pressure you know,

(47:52):
like forced air induction you know for fresh air as
um you know, uh, electric lines for for lights. It
had all kinds of things, I mean it and they
just found it shut it down, of course, I mean,
but that's the longest one to date that they found
an underground tunnel. But that's that's the opposite end of
the spectrum. I guess their underground instead of overrund. But
but I wonder if any of those ulter lights end

(48:14):
up in government auctions, I mean, as dangerous as that
might be, or if they just destroy them, you know,
just crush them, because I think a lot of them
are purpose built or heavily modified to carry those packages.
Oh that's right, so these are illegal ultra lights. Anyways,
they're not truly an alter light. They're probably just like
borderline regular aircraft that should be registered right right, or

(48:37):
but cheap enough to abandon. Yeah, that's the thing. It's
just the cost of doing business, I think. But but
I'm just noting that these these things are very useful.
So you're an isolated areas like Alaska, you're drug kingpin,
I guess, or you're or you're a kid who wants
to learn more about aviation and has some very trusting,

(48:57):
permissive parents, but you don't have the money to get
the pilot. So it's good for drug kingpins or children,
that's what you're saying. I met a lot of stuff
is you know, when you look at these categories that way. Okay,
that's okay, that's the opposite ends of the spectrum. And uh,
of course there's everything in between, of course, like delivering serum. Hey,
you don't have to have a dog sled. You can
just do it with the ultra lights. Right, perfect caravan

(49:19):
of ultra lights across Alaska. Now that sounds like just
about as dangerous as a dog sledge. Rep really, and
we do want to recommend the e A A uh.
It's it's a storied organization, dates back to nineteen fifty

(49:42):
three there, as you said, Scott and Oshkosh, Wisconsin. If
you are curious about ultra lights, learning more, building your
own than this is a great place to start. You know,
there are a few other things that I want to
mention before we before we wrap here, because I did
want to get eventually to you know why. I don't
think this is a fantastic idea. But one thing I'll

(50:04):
just get at this out of the way right now
is um, I had a great uncle that perished in
one of these at first flight. First flight. Yeah, I'm
holding my hands right here. The accident report from the
NTSP from his flight. It was in two thousand five,
so it's a long time ago, UM older gentleman, but
he was interested in aviation, and of course this is
this is terrible. He had my aunt there with him

(50:25):
on the air strip and like he took off and
they had done some high speed I've read the whole
report just the other day for the first time, and uh,
he had. I wasn't terribly close to him. I knew
who he was. But he's from this area. He's up
in the UM I think it's called Dickinson County, up
in uh Tennessee. It's right right near Chattanooga, so up

(50:45):
in that area again two thousand five, long time ago.
But he had built a craft, an ultar light craft himself,
and it was a COLB COLB k O LB Mark
three and it was an experimental aircraft. They're all, I
think at the times experimental. They still sell the model.
I looked on the website to to find that, and
it's got a little bit of a kind of a
little bit of body work to it. It looks almost

(51:07):
like a little Cessna or something like that. But it's
like the cheap, cheap version of that. UM he had built,
built this one on his own and first flight took
off and like just immediately hooks to the right, hits
a tree, goes into power line. There's like this big fiery,
burning crash, you know, and and his wife is standing
right there watching like this is the case with a

(51:28):
lot of these amateur aviation fans, folks that want to
do this. You know, it's a big deal. When you're
going out there for your first light. You want your
family to watch, right. That's but something bad like that
can happen. Cannon does happen. Um, not just um, not
just you know, the this own my own little semi
personal experience at the time. I mean, I knew when

(51:49):
it happened. Again, I wasn't very close with the guy
at all, so I didn't know him very well outside
of you know, a few family reunion contacts and that
kind of thing. Um. But there are other people that,
you know, other that all of us might know that
fly altar lights as well. Um, there are celebrities, a
lot of celebrity pilots out there, and we know that
you know a lot of them fly fixed wing aircraft
that are regular registered aircraft. Is you know a huge

(52:11):
long list of people. There's Harrison Ford, There's you know,
Bob Lutz, if you're an automotive fan, you know. He
flies all kinds of aircraft as well. I think the
Angelina Julie and Brad Pitt, they both were accomplished pilots
or are accomplished pilots. There's a lot of people, of course,
Bob Denver, he was one that flew unfortunately flew and
experimental aircraft, I believe, and that was his John John Denver, Yeah,

(52:35):
a long time ago, but that was I think they
might even have deemed that a possible suicide. Maybe I've
seen at least I've seen that UM that's kind of
up in the air. There was like some I was
reading about it yesterday, a little bit of conspiracy, I guess,
you know whether or not that was. There was also
like a question of how the aircraft was modified. He

(52:55):
had changed or the previous owner had changed the location
of a UM either a fuel tank switch or something
like that that we're supposed to be. Yeah, it was
supposed to be like down between the pilot's legs, like
between his knees when you're flying, and they had the
owner before that had moved it to above his left
shoulder I think, or something like that. So there's a

(53:16):
question about all that. But that was not an ultra light.
But people who do fly ultra lights. Um, Enrique Iglesias
flies an ultra light. In fact, that's how he learned
to fly. I thought you were going to say, in
the fact, that's why he's famous. No no, no, no, no.
Uh in great Enrique, I have a hard time with
that name. Enrique Iglesias. Uh. He actually flew in ultra

(53:38):
a two seater craft, which I okay, he had to
have been outside the US when this was going on, right,
I would, I would think. But this is the thing,
is that he learned to fly cruising between his home
in Miami and Key Largo, Florida. So he's flying all
the way across the state of Florida in this ultra
light that he had built himself or ever had purchased.
I guess that's where he learned to fly. Even John Travolta,

(54:01):
who was another one that flies a lot of big planes,
we think of him as like, you know, a jet pilot.
He flies, helicopters, he flies. You know. Of course he's
got his own uh seven oh seven of Boeing that
he he parks at his own house. We've all seen
the photos of that right with he lives in that
community where he has, you know, a mansion that you
can park your own jet in your own hangar right
there on the on the airstrip. Everybody got their own runway.

(54:25):
But he also owns two ulter lights, which I thought
was kind of interesting. So outside of outside of those,
I couldn't find any other celebrities they're flying in alter lights.
But um, one thing that I did want to mention
here is something that I'd kind of forgotten about. Back
in two thousand five, also same year that my uncle
Um had his accident. John Walton, who was the billionaire

(54:45):
son of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, he also
died in an altar light crash, which is strange. I mean,
he's a fifty eight years old at the time this is.
This happened in June of two thousand five, and he
was in a CGS Hawk air a ultra light when
he went down and he crashed I guess shortly after
taking off from Jackson Whole Airport. The same type of

(55:06):
thing happened. It was he was the only one in
the accident, of course, a single seater. But um tragedy
there of course, I mean he probably would be running
the walmart. You know, fortunate at this point you have
the empire at this point it had that not happened.
But yeah, it's I mean, it's it's kind of a
double edged sword, isn't it really? I mean it sounds
so appealing. It sounds like so much fun to be

(55:26):
able to build your own craft and to be able
to you know, do this all on your own and
be proud of it. And you know, it's kind of
that intrigue of you know, when you build like um,
I don't know, like a go cart or something like that,
or even even like that lawnmore than I'm talking about.
You build something yourself and you're proud of it. But man,
you've got to have a lot of faith in your
own work to take that up in the air, if

(55:47):
it's if it's unchecked by anybody that really knows what
they're doing, and you were relatively unskilled or even completely unskilled,
to have the faith in that thing to take you
up to a distance that you would not normally want
to jump from. You know, that's that's the thing. Like
you if you don't want to fall that far, don't
fly at that high. You know, that's that's I've heard

(56:07):
that from many people about ultra lights. Yeah, and uh,
be aware that you're going sixty miles an hour in
the sky. Yeah. There's also another good point. You know,
I don't even factor the speed and I just always
think of the height. But you're also going sixty miles
an hour at you know, your two feet in the air.
That's the other thing. And you know you're you're over
you know woods, you're over It doesn't matter what you're

(56:28):
over at that point. Really, I mean, you're over water.
You're in trouble. Right. But to to Kurt's point, Uh,
just because you you know, we were talking about that
first moment when you take off. Just because you are
not legally required to have a license doesn't mean you
shouldn't get some training. You can find tons of certified

(56:50):
ultra light flight instructors. Uh. You even if you were
already uh pilot in the world of general aviation, it's
worth your time, you know, get ten twenty hours of
instruction and you will be in a much safer, much
more enjoyable place. That's a very good piece of advice
because I mean, why not get yourself, you know, certified

(57:11):
in other types of aircrafts. You get the feel of
the general you know, idea of what flights all about.
You'll know you know what to watch for, what to
be worried about, what to not be worried about. Um.
And that's that's a I mean, that's a big part
of this whole thing, I guess is that once you
have that insider's knowledge about what's what's really a danger,
what's not really a danger, and what you should be

(57:32):
you know, have your your eyes open for and your
ears open for when you're in this type of craft.
That's that's that's a whole different ball of wax and
an altar lights. So yeah, I get some certification instruction
ahead of time if you want to do it right
and uh and and do have somebody check it out,
you know, if you're gonna build one of these, have
somebody that knows what they're doing look at it to
make sure that you know, you've got the right type

(57:53):
of fasteners on that thing, You've got the right type
of guy wires that are going from you know, the
yoke to all the control surfaces on the plane, and
that everything is operating in the correct way and that
you're using the right types of lubrication, and you're using
the right types of wheels for that landing here, because
that's critical as well. Oh my gosh, just there's there's
so much, you know, again, I just get I keep

(58:13):
coming back to this, but like I've had cars that
cars I'm on the ground that just conk out on
me at the most inopportune times, And the same thing
with you know, other small things like lawnmowers that just
suddenly stopped working. And that's terrifying to me that that
could happen to you when you're in the air, and
this leads to a fall. I mean, it really does
lead to a point where Kurt and I were discussing

(58:36):
this before, that you might have a low altitude parachute
that you can, you know, attempt to throw out. You
know that you can, you can bail on the plane,
but there's that a few you know, even a couple
of seconds cost you a lot of altitude, and you
don't have the opportunity then to make that decision. You know,
you don't even have the opportunity to throw out their parachute.

(58:57):
It doesn't work at that low of an altitude. So
you have to make these decisions quick and you have
to decide, Okay, where's that plane going to end up
when I you know, end on it. You know, that's
another factor, you know, do you stay with the crafty?
I mean, I think that's generally the the thought is
that you stay with the craft as long as you can,
and you make every attempt to make sure that it's
not going to end up somewhere that it shouldn't if

(59:18):
you do have to bail but then again you've lost out.
I mean, it's just this, there's so many thoughts that
have to go into the the bailout procedure that I
don't know if many people even get the opportunity to
do that before they go down. Yeah, it's it's terrifying.
A lot of this is terrifying to me, but it's
also sort of intriguing. I sort of want to do it.

(59:39):
I sort of want, you know, the thrill, the feel
of it. I'd love to be in a craft that
I built and and feel that moment when it takes
off from the ground. That's got to be so satisfying.
As far as training goes, it looks like they do
have two seater ultra lights style planes trainers. I think
so so. I guess they wouldn't be classified as an
ultra light since it's a passenger. But it's the same

(01:00:02):
type of plane. It's just like a side by side
to its teaching a kid to drive. Probably it's like,
all right, so you can get that sensation of lifting
off and landing and so you control it. I guess
it must be a registered craft. Probably, yeah, and they
probably have different insurance requirements and things like that. Pilot
is registered and rated properly. Well, I feel a little

(01:00:24):
better about that then. I don't know, man, in the
course of this, especially when we took the turn and
we're talking about the different dangers, they're largely unregulated, and
I get it. I like that there's not a ton
of regulations, but it does lead to these dangerous situations.
I don't know. You guys are kind of persuading me.
Maybe I'll just maybe I'll just continue trying to get

(01:00:44):
on the Goodyear blimp. Because airships indirigibals, that's where it's at.
You know, they're high enough that you don't have to
worry about a lot of things ultra lights have to
worry about. What about your wings suit? The wingsuit is
still in place. It's still very much in play. I
just have to work out some details, mainly budgeting and

(01:01:04):
trying to convince our boss to spring for a wingsuit.
Would they work from the top of this building or
would you have to go higher? I think you would
have to go higher. Okay, our building now I'm not
an expert, but our building here is about ten stories.
But you just give it a shot. I just go
for it. Right. Well, you probably need a little space

(01:01:26):
to at least run out a landing, you know, you
want an open field or something. I don't. There's not
a good landing zone around here. This feels like it
might be my last episode trying to I don't. I
love the idea of a wingsuit, but I haven't. I
haven't tried. You know, years and years ago, and I
think you know this story, Scott. I don't know if

(01:01:46):
you do, Kurt. But years and years ago, Uh, we
had this conversation with Red Bull and they were like, hey,
let's work together somehow. And we said, okay, what kind
of stuff do you want to do? And the people
were talking into We're like, we'll check this out. This
is sort of the kind of stuff we do. And
it's the cliff diving wingsuit thing, which is incredibly dangerous,

(01:02:09):
sane amount of skill. But I love the videos from
this point of the amazing point of view videos where
they're just soaring through the woods like an opening but
right down the face of a mountain, and it's fantastic. Yes,
so maybe we could do ten stories. But I don't.
I don't know, man, I don't know. I think maybe
I'm I'm an airship Okay, but what are you gonna do.

(01:02:30):
You're gonna jump off the building. You're gonna glide over
to home depot, you know, and just walk there. I mean,
I'm no, I'm gonna like it. I'm like that prize
fight guy. You know, it's about the entrance. Maybe I'll
just get a key made. Seriously, you gotta you gotta
look up fan. Man. That is such it's man, It's
it's just so bizarre. It's such a strange occurrence. You know,

(01:02:53):
it's one of those live television moments. I think too
that you know, or just you can't capture that any
other way than just he had to have been watching
at the time because of the of when it happened.
I don't think it was really I don't I don't
think we were in the on demand era of television,
is what I mean. You know, he had to have
seen it or just catch the clip elsewhere. But now,
of course we can watch it on YouTube or wherever

(01:03:14):
you know, and and go back and see it and
relive it. But um, it's one of the things that
if you missed it, the night had happened. I think
he just missed it. Yes, But hopefully everybody who is
flying and ultra light craft are interested in building one,
will have a safe and fun adventure. We would love
to see photographs of your ultra light would love to
hear your ultra lights stories, would love to hear any

(01:03:36):
tips and tricks you might have for your fellow listeners,
especially if they're getting into ultra lights. I will keep
everybody in the loop regarding this wingsuit situation. I do also,
by the way, speaking of these different kind of endeavors.
Uh I do understand that NASA A does not have
a quote unquote spare space suit laying around and be

(01:03:58):
they do not sell them to civilian no matter how
many times you call, no matter who you call, how
how many letters you said, uh so. But but it
is possible to get into the good Year Blimp theoretically,
you know, I think are too for our weird aviation adventure.
I think are too strongest things are either building an

(01:04:20):
ultra light and drawing straws to see who has to
fly it, or trying to get into the Good Year Blimp.
Does it have to be the good Year Blimp? Because
I recently saw the MetLife blimp here in town. I
don't know what it's here for, but it was after
we had recorded one Day a couple of weeks ago.
You know that's great. Yeah, any blimp, any blimp, any blimp,
any blimp? Okay, well, Curt, do you in for the
blimp ride? Yeah? Yes, not for drawing straws ultra light proposals.

(01:04:44):
I don't think we'd have to draw straws. I think
you would be the one I would probably, I think,
are you out? I'm out? Yeah, I will, I'll watch. Yeah,
I I don't think it would be me. You'll clap
at the crash? Yeah, that would not clap at the crash? Terrible,
what a terrible thing to say. No, I would, I would.
I would mourn your passing. But I've been like, I'm

(01:05:07):
going to draw off a little bit and they go
back on the ground. I'm sorry, I just pictured a
different outcome from this whole thing. Sorry, Now, we really
shouldn't joke about this stuff. I mean, seriously, it's it's
a serious game, but you know, it also could be
It could be a lot of fun. It really could.
And I don't want to discourage anybody from building one.
If you want to try it, try it. I mean,

(01:05:28):
if if you're into that kind of thing, do it.
It looks like a blast, It's it's one of those
things that looks like so much fun. But I just
don't know if I could do it myself right now,
maybe twenty years ago, I would try it. Just the
last thing, I'm going to save it for today's episode.
First off, also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So
on the last thing I'm going to say is Scott Kurt,

(01:05:51):
there is an ultra light manufacturer in Marietta, Georgia, right
up the way from us. That's that's a short drive
from here, the Vintage Ultra Light and Light Plane Association
of Marietta, George I had no idea. Let's check that out.
I wonder, you know, I wonder if we've seen any
other aircraft overhead I mean, it seems like they would

(01:06:12):
be doing test flights near this area you would think
as possible vintage aircraft too. That's interesting. I wonder if
they're I wonder if that's a separate category. I wonder
if they, you know, also do biplanes and things like that,
because I have seen biplanes in the area. I know
that you can, you know, purchase rides in a biplane
if you want to, you know, for an evening again,

(01:06:33):
like a sunset trip. And I've also seen them telling
advertising around, so you know, they they definitely our attention grabbers.
They were, uh, they specifically focused on what's called the
Vintage Ultra Light SR one hornet, and it's it's one
of those places where they send you the plans to
construct it. Okay, so maybe I'll build a Maybe I'll

(01:06:55):
build a hornet. That'd be called build it here in
the office. I think we could get a they're kind
of small enough, and I don't know if they're modular,
you know, if you could do that and then you know,
cart the whole thing out. The plans are thirty five bucks,
which is super affordable. That's really not bad at all.
Want to get the plan, I gotta get out of here.
Well that you have to get your groh erro. I'm sorry,

(01:07:18):
hero oh man. There so many things. Six foot party
sub dared a dream right yeah, flighted on an ultra
light because you have to carry it this this way.
You couldn't carry it long way. You'd have to cry
it in the air. Dannamic feel like you don't want
that thing to catch win. That is funny. That's say
you gotta carry it like a torpedom Yeah, maybe they

(01:07:40):
make a special box. It's a funny idea. Yeah, yeah,
that's not your aero dynamic. If you have a small car,
you have to put it on the roof or something.
I guess you would, wouldn't you. Yeah, you have to
probably make a container. I'm sure they do red flag
in the back because no one runs into it. Right. Well,
this is a plan, all right. That's what we do here.
We make plans. Yeah, where I d you, guys. Car

(01:08:04):
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